THE ANALYST. FEBRUARY, 1899. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS. AN extraordinary general meeting was held on Wednesday, January 4, 1899, in the Rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, for the purpose of amending the constitution and rules of the Society. The President (Dr. Dyer), who occupied the chair, explained the amendments sug- gested by the council, which, in addition to minor alterations, included a re-modelling of the conditions under which candidates might apply for admission to the membership of the Society. The chief amendment in the rule bearing upon this point was in the omission of the hitherto existing provision that candidates for membership should be analysts in actual practice, a qualification which it had always been difficult to define, and one which it had been frequently necessary to interpret with some degree of elastioity.Notwithstanding this, the rule had formed a technical barrier to the inclusion within the ranks of the Society of a number of qualified analysts who other- wise would have been glad to join the ranks of the Society. The council believed that the new and wider definition would, by removing this difficulty, be advan- tageous to the Society, as well as to the profession from the ranks of which its members were drawn. The adoption of this new definition of qualification would render the existence of the class of associates, viz., assistants to analysts in actual pmctice, no longer necessary, and it was therefore proposed that the Society should not in future include associates.The present associates who had attained the age of twenty-one would at once be eligible for admission to full membership by election in the usual way, while the remainder, whose number, he believed, was but very small, would become eligible on reaching that age. After a, discussion, in which Messrs. A. E. Ekins, E. W. Voelcker, S. Rideai, E. J. Bevan, H. Droop Richmond, C. H. Cribb, and Leo Taylor took part, the new constitution and rules were unanimously adopted, on the motion of the President, seconded by Mr. A. E. Ekins. - _ _ _ _ The monthly ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday, January 4, 1899, after the extraordinary meeting, the President (Dr. Dyer) being in the chair. The minutes of the previous ordinary meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. F. C. J. Bird, analyst to Messrs. C. W Harker, S t a g and Morgan, London,30 THE ANALYST. and Mr. J. H. Heywood, Heywood (Lanes.), were proposed for election as members. On the proposition of Dr. Rideal, seconded by Mr. A. C. Chapman, Mr. B. Kitto and Mr. C. H. Cribb were appointed auditors of the Society’s accounts for the past year. The following papers were read : ‘( The Occurrence of Barium Compounds in an Artesian Well Water,” by John “ A New Test for Formaldehyde,’j by Norman Leonard, B.Sc., and Harry M. “ On Caper Tea,” by Charles Estcourt ; and “The Adulteration of Sweet Spirit of Nitre with Potassium Nitrate,” by W. Messrs. Lester Reed, F.I.C., Harry Broadbent, F.I.C., W. T. Burgess, F.I.C., and White ; Smith ; F. Lowe, A.R.S.M. T. S. Goodwin were elected members of the Society.