THE ANALYST. APRIL, 1902. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS. THE monthly meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday evening, March 5, in the Chemical Society’s Rooms, Burlington House. The President (Dr. .J. Aug;ortns Voelcker, M. A., B. Sc.) occupied the chair. The minutes of the previous monthly meeting were read and confirmed. .\ certificate of proposal for election to membership in favour of Dr. J. J. L van Rijn was read for the second time ; and certificates in favour of Messrs. Wdter Henry Jollyman, A.I.C., analytical chemist, Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, 62, Queen Anne Street, London, W. ; John T. Xorman, analytical and consulting chemist, 23, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C. ; John Golding, F.I.C., University College, Nottingham, assistant to Professor M.J. R. Dunstan at the Midland Dairy Institute; and William Bowen, chemist a t the Erdington Works of the Niokel Company of Paris, 45, Woodend Road, Erdington, were read for the first time. Dr. L. T. Thorne was elected a member of the Society. The following papers were read : ‘‘ The Detection of Artificial Colouring Uatbers in Fresh and Sour Milk,” by M. Wynter Blyth, B.A., B.Sc. ; “ Oxidized Oile,” by J. Lewkowitsch, hl.A., Ph.D. ; ‘‘ The Indirect Estimation of Alkalies in Water,” by W. W. Fisher, M.A.; and a “Note on a Simple Apparatus for Approximataly Estimating the Colour of Waters,” by W. T. Burgess. The PRESIDEST, referring to the interim report recently issued by the Depart- mental Committee of the Board of Agriculture on Butter Regulations, s d d thsl, so far as the Society was concerned, the report was partly satisfactory and partly unsatisfactory.I t was satisfactory that the recommendation of the Council of the Society to the effect that 16 per cent. was a very fair limit for water in butter had been adopted by the Departmental Committee; but the further suggestion which the report contained, that butter might he allowed to pass which contained more than 16 per cent. of water, provided that the approximate percentage of water WBI declared beforehand, was, the Council considered, decidedly unsatisfactory, and rendered the recommendations of the Departmental Committee on that point very weak. The Council felt that a clear statement should be issued as to the un- desirability of the sale, under the name of butter, of such mixtures as that known wi 1 d milk-blended butter,” which really were not of the nature, substance, and quality of true butter, but consisted of butter churned with milk or some other material, in114 THE AN-ALYST imitation of butter. The Council had had theee matters under consideration, and had drafted a resolution embodying its views for subtniesion to the President of the Board of -4griculture, in the hope that before any definite decision was come to he would take the whole matter into consideration and would frame such regulations a8 would insure that materials of the nature of ‘‘ milk-blended butter ” should not in the future be described and sold under that name.