NOVEMBER. 1958 THE ANALYST Vol. 83, No. 992 EDITORIAL The First Ten Volumes “THE reprinting of the first ten volumes of The Analyst warrants an Editorial,” said the Publication Committee; and nothing seemed easier. Our publishers, W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., of Cambridge, have rendered a real service to the Society and to analysts in general by taking full financial and organisational responsibility ; publication in America is through the Johnson Reprint Corporation, of New York. The photolithographic reproduction has been excellently carried out by Lowe & Brydone (Printers) Ltd., and the binding matches the original. The technical problems were not inconsiderable; most of the volumes contain inserted folders, one of which is folded no less than six times (compare our September issue, where the folder has only two folds-and yet is the largest in living memory).Our publishers had given much thought over a number of years to the need for reprinting the earlier volumes of the journal; the first ten volumes were eventually chosen, not only because they hold the greatest historical interest, but also because they were to a large extent out of print within the decade in which they appeared. Indeed, so scarce are these volumes (the Society’s file copies being for technical reasons not available for this purpose) that the Society is deeply indebted to Mr. Thomas McLachlan, D.C.M., A.C.G.F.C., F.R.I.C., for his kindness in lending to the publishers his set of original volumes for reproduction. And here the difficulties began. To start with, we were only briefly acquainted with these volumes; and so we found our interest caught by the “serial story” quality of the analytical and legal reports, the corre- spondence and the editorials-to such an extent that several days’ work was neglected while we dipped and read at intervals.Then, when we began to write, it seemed as if a book would be needed to do justice to the contents of the volumes. So finally, ruthlessly, we had to prune. Since our Society had been in existence for only eighteen months when the story told by these ten volumes opens, most of the tale is of the workings of “The Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875,” which governed the actions of the Public Analysts. The trials and tribula- tions described in the first three volumes, as defences to charges of adulteration became more and more technical, come to a (triumphant) climax (Vol.IV) when the Queen’s Bench Division decided that Inspectors under the Act were prejudiced when served (for the purpose of analysis) with an adulterated article-and a legal quibble that had threatened to make this Act even less useful than its predecessors of 1860 and 1872 was finally overcome. Perhaps, after this decision, the joke reprinted from Funny Folks on the last page of Volume 111 lost some of its poignancy. But, although the first volume starts with DuprC on whisky, and the bulk of the scientific material deals with food and drink-mainly milk and butter-it also contains papers on the determination of sulphur in coal and on the analysis of plating and gilding solutions; and (p. 37) a report of an Extraordinary General Meeting a t which a resolution to omit the word “Public” from the Society’s title was referred back to Council.Even then, the Society’s membership did not “consist exclusively of analysts holding public appoint- ments. . . .” It is a matter for reflection that a proposal made by Council when the Society was no more than twenty-one months old, intended to recognise the true situation, was eventually given effect when the Society was nearly eighty years old. It is, of course, quite impossible to do more than hint a t the contents of the other volumes. The paper used by the contemporary daily press was examined (IV, p. 161): 697 “Mention the historic contents,” said the Committee.598 PROCEEDINGS [Vol.83 A. H. Allen found the Morning Post the weightiest (literally), Times running it close, the rest much lighter in quality. An abstract (p. 204) “proved” the non-existence of nascent hydrogen, and (p. 223) arsenic “more than enough to kill a hundred children” was found on the green backs of playing cards. In Volume V, G. W. Wigner (joint Editor with John Muter for much of the period) contributes a “Note on an Old Tin of Preserved Meat”-over thirty years old. Even in 1880 tinplate was not what it used to be, however: the 1840 plate was much thicker and the tin was apparently lead-free. One would like to quote from each volume in turn, but the last line of Volume X: must suffice, with its intriguing promise of good things to come. It is an Editorial Notice to Correspondents, and reads simply: “A.P.S. (Rugby). Crowded out-next month.’’ We commend these reprinted volumes to any reader who would gain a background to the times-times when Editorials were pungent to the point of bias, and Presidents, Vice-presidents and Treasurers (or, at any rate, one of each) resigned “on principle” from the Society (all save one soon rejoined)-times when our new Society bitterly opposed the foundation of a rival which appeared to be about to trespass on its preserves, welcomed another (I, p. 94) and, apparently, ignored a third, except for a brief mention of its new Journal under “Books, etc., Received” (VII, I?. 107)---and times when the foundations of analytical chemistry were being well and truly laid. As Winter Blyth wrote (IX, p. 163) “. . . he is a poor student of science, who takes no heed of the road hewn out by his pre- decessor. ”