THE ANALYST. 67 DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BUTTER REGULATIONS. THE final Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture to inquire and report upon the desirability of regulations under Section 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, has recently been issued The Committee consisted of the following gentlemen: The €tight Hon. H. C. Plunkett (Chairman); Sir Charles A. Cameron, C.B., M.D., Medical Officer of Health and Public Analyst for Dublin; Professor T. E. Thorpe, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Principal Chemist of the Government Laboratories; Major P. G. Craigie, an Assistant-Secretary of the Board of Agriculture; Mr. R. A. Anderson, Secretary of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society ; Mr. Christopher Dunn, J.P., Chairman of the Trustees of the Cork Butter Market; Mr.George Gibbons; Mr. John Gilchrist ; Mr. Hudson E. Kearley, M.P. ; Professor J. Millar Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Institute of Chemistry; and Mr. Patrick Hickey ; with Mr. A. E. Balleine, of the Board of Agriculture, as Secretary. The queetion of water in butter having been dealt with in a former Report, the present Beport deals with the results of the inquiries of the Committee as to what regulations, if any, might with advantage be made for determining what deficiency in any of the normal constituents of butter, or what addition of extraneous matter, other than water, should raise a presumption, until the contrary is proved, that the butter is not genuine. Twenty-six witnesses were examined, including eleven representatives of various butter-producing countries (Holland, Norway, Denmark, United States of America, Germany, Sweden, Russia, and France), twelve analysts, two magistrates, and one inspector of the Board of Agriculture.After discussing the evidence (which at the time of going to press is not yet published), the Report ends with the following recommendations : 1. That the figure 24 arrived at by the Reichert-Wollny method should be the limit below which a presumption should be raised that butter is not genuine. 2. That the use of 10 per cent. of sesame oil in the manufacture of margarine should be made compulsory. 3. That steps should be taken to obtain international co-operation. Mr. Dunn and Mr. Gilchrist agree with the main report, except that they recommend a limit of 23 for the Reichert-Wollny figure.Major Craigie, however, appends a note, in which, in view of the evidence, he expresses his inability to regard the moment opportune, or the information even yet sufficient, to warrant the immediate issue of official regulations in this matter, as suggested in the Committee's Report, although, should it hereafter become necessary to prescribe the particular proportion of volatile acids which should raise a legal presumption that the butter is not genuine by reason of the addition of foreign fat, he is disposed to concur in the recommendation that the figure of 24 arrived at by the analytical method referred to is open to less objection than either a higher or a lower number. In view of the fact that the Report urges the recewal on a more extensive scale of the special inquiry into the relative influence of the numerous factors other than the addition of68 THE ANALYST. foreign fat which affect the normal proportions of volatile acids in genuine butter made within the United Kingdom, Major Craigie desires to urge the wisdom of obtaining the results of this new inquiry before imposing a statutory limit which would raise, irrespective of the origin or history of a particular sample, a legal presumption that the article is not genuine. Mr. Hickey does not sign the Report of the Committee, but makes a dissentient minority report expressing the conclusion that the evidence does not afford solid grounds for fixing a limit for the proportion of volatile acids. The Report may be obtained from Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, of London ; Messrg. Oliver and Boyd, of Edinburgh ; or Mr. E. Ponsonby, of Dublin, and is issued at the price of 3d.