THE ANALYST. MAY, 1904. OBITUARY NOTICE. THE LATE DR. A. P. AITKEN. IT is with much regret that we record the death, on April 19, of Dr. Andrew Peebles Aitken, an old and honoured member of the Society of Public Analysts. Dr. Aitken was, perhaps, best known as consulting chemist for the last twenty-seven years to the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, to whose Journal he was a constant contributor of valuable papers connected with agricultural chemistry. He was also a contributor of occasional papers to the proceedings of the Society of Public Analysts published in this journal.' Dr. Aitken was a native of Edinburgh, and was educated at its University, where he took the degrees of M.A. in 1867, B.Sc. in 1871, and D.Sc. in 1873. On leaving the University of Edinburgh he studied at Heidelburg, and on hia return to this country was appointed assistant to Professor Crum Brown and Demonstrator of Practical Chemistry in Edinburgh University.He was afterwards appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, which post he held up to the time of his death. Under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act he was Public Analyst for the counties of Berwick, Hadding- ton, Peebles, Nairn, Ross, and Cromarty, and for sundry boroughs therein. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS. THE monthly meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday evening, April 13, in the Chemical Society’s Rooms, Burlington House. The President, Mr. Thomas Fairley, occupied the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. A certificate of proposal for election to membership in favour of Mr. J. H. Ball, B.Sc., was read for the second time ; and certificates in favour of Mr. Lewis Gordon Paul, Ph.D, (Tubingen), F.I.C., Market Hall Chambers, Huddersfield, Public Analyst for the Borough of Huddersfield, and Mr. Arthur Edgcome Brown, B.Sc. (Lond.), 13, Baronet Road, Tottenham, chief assistant to Mr. R. H. Harland, and Gas Examiner to the Enfield and Tottenham Urban Sanitary Councils, were read for the first time. Messrs. J. E. Jenkins, A. R. Tankard, A. Tighe, and F. L. Watt, A.R.C.Sc., were elected members of the Society. The following paper was read : “ The Microscopic Examination of Metals,” by J. H. B. Jenkins and D. G. Riddick. The paper was illustrated by lantern slides.