98 THE ANALYST. INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. ANNUAL MEETING. THE twenty-eighth Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland was held at 30, Bloomsbury Square, on Thursday, March 1, Mr. David Howard, the retiring President, in the chair. The accounts for 1905 having been submitted by the HON. TEEASURER (Mr. A. Gordon Salamon), and duly received, Dr. JOHN A. VOELCKER moved the adoption of the Annual Report. He congratulated the Council on their work during the past year, and he specially alluded to the steps they had taken to protect the interests of professional chemists. Mr. ARTHUR E. EKINS seconded, and the Report was formally received and adopted. Scrutineers having been appointed to count the votes sent in for the election of the officers and members of Council, and ballot having been taken for the election of censors, the meeting proceeded to select the honorary auditors, and Messrs.Robert E. Alison, W. T. Burgess, and P. A. E. Richards were appointed. The PRESIDENT then delivered his address. After referring to the progress made by the Institute during his term of office as President, he dealt more particularly with the history of the third and last year. While the roll of Fellows and Associates has steadily increased, he noted with regret the death of some of the original Fellows, and he mentioned especially John Lloyd Bullock, largely to whose incentive was due the foundation of the Royal College of Chemistry and the invitation to Hofmann to come to London. How much that meant to not a few, including several past Presidents of the Institute, it would take long to tell.THE ANALYST.99 The Institute was examining over one hundred candidates yearly, and arrange- ments would be made from time to time for examinations in the colonies. Mr. HOWARD alluded to the improvement in the financial position of the Institute, and to the steady growth of the library. He paid a high tribute to the services of Professor Adrian J. Brown, who had held the appointment of Examiner to the Institute in Biological Chemistry since 1901, and stated that, as his term of ofhe had expired, the Counoil had selected Dr. Arthur Harden, of the Lister Institute, as his successor. He also referred to the new examinations in technical chemistry, the first of which will be held in October next.In this connection he expressed the hope that the Institute would in future have for its Presidents industrial chemists, as well a8 those eminent for educational and strictly professional work. The chief function of the Institute was to register competent consulting, analytical and technical chemists, and the Institute might safely claim to represent the profession. The Council regarded it as their duty to advance the interests of the profession, and, as far as they were able, to maintain it on a sound and satisfactory basis. They had lately been obliged to make representations to authorities whose actions appeared to be detrimental to the profession. With reference to the gratuitous performance of analyses at agricultural colleges, he mentioned that the Board of Agriculture had endeavoured to show that the performance of cheap milk tests had been arranged for educational purposes.At the same time the Board had stated that these tests were not seriously to be compared with the analyses made by public analysts and district aualysts. The Council had to complain of more than the milk tests : the colleges were undertaking all kinds of analyses at nominal fees-of soils, for instance, at half a crown. This was undoubtedly injurious to the profession ; but the Board, in its journal, stated that ( 6 the demand on the part of landowners for expert advice from the lecturera had been considerably in excess of what might reasonably have been anticipated.” In this matter the Council had not received a satisfactory response.He referred to the great advances in chemistry that had been due to the work of private practitioners, giving his opinion that any action which tends to interfere with the individual practitioners would be fatal to progress. It was with reluctance that the Council had to take up an attitude which might seem in any way antagonistic to the National Physical Laboratory, but they had been obliged to direct the attention of the Executive Committee to the fact that their test pamphlet indicated that they might undertake work which they were forbidden to undertake under the Treasury Report on which the laboratory was founded. The Executive Committee has recently given their assurance of their desire to avoid any cause for complaint.He was sure that the Council would be glad to see the laboratory placed on such a sound footing financially that its authorities would have no temptation to extend the work of the laboratory beyond its proper sphere. Mr. HOWARD thought the profession had reached a somewhat critical stage in its history. With greater facilities for training and, consequently, a larger supply of chemists, it was evident that only the most efficient could hope to be successful.100 THE ANALYST. He believed the demand for chemists was increasing, but authorities and manufac- turers were learning that they must have efficiency. After dealing briefly with the present position of the industrial chemist and the official professional chemist, he referred to the professors and teachers of chemistry.He objected to the practice, which had grown of late, of blaming the Universities for the loss of certain industries. He maintained that, while chemists were improving SO greatly in efficiency, it was absurd to blame the professors. Every decade does not bring a Hofmann, but there were many teachers at the present day under whom the bulk of Fellows and Associates were proud to say they had been trained. The Institute afforded a great benefit to the public by aiding its discrimination in the selection of competent chemists of acknowledged ability and professional integrity ; they could rely on each Fellow and Associate to further the reputation of the Institute by his character and conduct, the soundness of his work, and by the cultivation of professional feeling.Mr. HOWARD then referred to the new President, Professor Percy F. Frankland, who had long been associated with the Institute, and whose father, Sir Edward Frankland, was the founder and first President. He concluded by saying how much he had appreciated his position as President of the Institute, and he spoke in warm terms of the co-operation of the Councils with whom he had worked A vote of thanks for the address was moved by Mr. THOMAS TYRER, seconded by Professor J. MILLAR THOMSON, supported by Mr. R. J. FRISWELL, and carried unanimously. On the report of the scrutineers the result of the balloting for the selection of censors was submitted, and Mr. David Howard ; Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; Thomas Stevenson, M.D. ; and Professor J.Millar Thomson, F.R.S., were declared elected. The officers and members of Council for the ensuing year were then declared elected, as follows : President : Percy Faraday Frankland, LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents : Edward John Bevan ; Edward Divers, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. ; David Howard ; Edmund Albert Letts, D.Sc. ; Edmund James Mills, D.Sc., F.R.S. ; Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R. S. Hon. Treasurer : Alfred Gordon Salamon, A.R.S.M. Members of Council : Adrian John Brown, KSc. ; Lieut.-Colonel Charles Edward Cassal ; Arthur Crozier Claudet, A.R.S.M. ; John Norman Collie, Ph.D., F.R.S. ; James Kear Colwell ; Cecil Howard Cribb, B. SC. ; Henry John Horstman Fenton, M.A., F.R.S. ; Martin Onslow Forster, D.Sc., F.R.S. ; Richard John Friswell ; William Gowland, A.R.S.M. ; Arthur George Green ; Henry George Greenish ; Oscar Guttmann ; James Hendrick, B.Sc. ; Egbert Grant Hooper ; Herbert Jackson ; Arthur Robert Ling ; Henry de Mosenthal ; Henry Droop Richmond ; Alfred Smetham ; Arthur Smithells, B.Sc., F.R.S. ; John Edward Stead, F.R.S. ; David Alexander Sutherland ; Francis Napier Sutton ; Edward William Voelcker, A.R.S.M. ; William Palmer Wynne, D.Sc., F.R.S.; Sydney Young, D.Sc., F.R.S. On the motion of Lieut.-Colonel CHARLES E. CASSAL, seconded by Mr. P. GERALD SANFORD, a vote of thanks was accorded to the retiring officers and members of Council. The PRESIDENT having replied, the meeting terminated.