162 INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY. THE Thirty-fourth Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Chemistry was held on March 1 at 30, Bloomsbury Square, Dr. George Beilby, F.R.S., the President, occupying the chair. After the routine business had been transacted, the RETIRING PRESIDENT delivered his address. He showed that, during his period of office (1909-1912), the Institute had increased by 102 members and 86 students, while the number of candidates for examination during the same period had increased by about twenty. The scheme for raising a fund for new buildings for the Institute had made substantial progress, and had reached the sum of over 38,500 of the 615,000 considered necessary for the erection of a simple but dignified building suitable for carrying on the work of the Institute.Speaking of the prospects of the profession of chemistry, he believed that there was plenty of room for men of the right stamp, both in educational and industrial work. The Institute had been able to secure appointments for many young members of the profession, and, indeed, lately it had been difficult to find candidates for appointments offering quite good commencing salaries and fair prospects. Touching on the difficulties which confront public analysts and private practitioners, he referred to the attempts made on the part of certain local authorities to lower the status of the professional chemist by offering appointments at ridiculous remuneration. The Institute had decided to take a newINSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY 163 and somewhat drastic step by issuing a notice (ANALYST, 1912, 119) to Yellows and Associates, advising them not to apply for appointments advertised by the Metro- politan boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth, both of which at the present time seek to appoint a public analyst who will be required to provide a laboratory, duly equipped, and a deputy, and to examine possibly as many as 2,000 samples, for E500 per annum; while the County of Antrim seek to appoint a public analyst to examine an indefinite number of samples-almost certainly over 800 a year-at a salary of &150.The more enlightened municipal bodies realise that the proper administration of important Statutes, such as the Sale of Food and Drugs Act., cannot be expected unless they succeed in attracting to their appointments men of competence and integrity, and, moreover, men who can hold their own as responsible representative officers of their authorities.The Act is as much a Statute against fraud as in the interests of public health, and it must be clearly understood that the public analyst is in no way subject to the control of the Medical Officer of Health. It was a false notion that medical men were capable of controlling chemical laboratories. Very few of them possessed anything approaching a competent know- ledge of chemistry in any one of its branches, and it was astonishing to find Government authorities in some of our overseas dominions requiring doctors of medicine to supervise qualified professional chemists engaged in laboratories mainly devoted to the analysis of metals and ores.DR. BEILBY referred to important changes which were being made in educational appointments, particularly the Chairs of Chemistry at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, Oxford University, and University College, London, indicating how men who had achieved great things were making way for the younger generation ol chemists, to whom we look to maintain the honour of the British school of chemistry, to which their predecessors had contributed so much. During the past year the Council had inaugurated a new scheme of lectures, mainly intended to help registered students and the younger members, such lectures being given by acknowledged experts in various branches, and illustrating the actual work of practice as distinct from purely academic training.A ballot having been taken, Ur. George Beilby, F.R.S., Professor Percy F. Frankland, F.R.S., Mr. David Howard, and Sir William Tilden, F.R.S., were declared elected as censors. The following were elected ofhers and Council : Presided-Raphael Meldola, D. Sc., LL.D., F.R. S. ‘Vice-P1.esideizts.-George Thomas Beilby, LL.D., F.R.S. ; Frank Clowes, D. Sc. ; George McGowan, Ph.D. ; Sir Alexander Fedler, C.I.E., F.R.S. ; John Millar Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S. ; Sir William Augustus Tilden, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S. Bon. Treasurer.-Alfred Gordon Salamon, A.R.S.M. Members of Cou.rzciZ.-Francis William Frederick Arnaud ; Edward John Bevan ; Bertram Blount ; Arthur George Bloxam ; James Connah, B.Sc. ; William Salvador Curphey ; Cyril Dickinson, B.Sc. ; James Johnston Dobbie, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. ;164 INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY William Porter Dreaper ; Martin Onslow Forster, D.Sc., F.R.S. ; John Alfred Foster ; Sir Richard Garton ; Frank William Rarbord, A.R.S.M. ; Otto Hehner ; Gordon Wickham Monier- Williams, B.A., Ph.D. ; William Henry Perkin, LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Thomas Slater Price, D.Sc., Ph.D. ; Charles Proctor ; Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart., D.Sc. ; Henry Droop Richmond ; Clarence Arthur Seyler, B.Sc. ; Alfred Smetham ; Thomas Stenhouse, jun., B.Sc., A.R.S.M. ; Oliver Trigger ; Edward William Voelcker, A.R.S.M. ; John White ; Sydney Young, D.Sc., F.R.S.