soluble in ether and moderately so in boiling glacial acetic acid. It dissolves in hot concentrated nitric acid, and crystallises out again unchanged on cooling. Leukogallol, C18H6C12012+20H2, is prepared from pyrogallol by saturating the acetic acid mixture with chlorine in the cold in the manner above described; but, instead of heating the solution, about one-fourth of its bulk of concentrated hydrochloric acid is added. Carbonic anhydride and hydrochloric acid are evolved, and on standing the whole solidifies to a mass of minute crystals of the new substance. These are first partially purified by submitting them to strong pressure, to remove as much of the acetic acid as possible, and afterwards washing them with benzene. On dissolving the substance in the smallest quantity of dry ether, adding about one-third of its bulk of benzene, and then evaporating the ether in a current of dry air, crystalline crusts are deposited on the sides of the flask, which, when washed with a mixture of benzene and ether and re-crystallised two or three times, are ultimately obtained pure and colourless. This compound is readily soluble in water, but only moderately so in ether; nearly insoluble in benzene. When heated with nitric acid it is decomposed, with evolution of nitrous fumes and formation of chloropicrin, but no oxalic acid. At 104° it melts, but is at the same time decomposed, water and hydrochloric acid being given off and new products formed, one of which is readily soluble in hot benzene and crystallises out again on cooling in tufts of colourless needles. Leukogallol differs remarkably from mairogallol, by its great instability. ATTENTION was directed to more sensitive transferrers 255 since 1867* by the suggestive inventor, Tessié du Motay. Manganate of soda at the same temperature in a current (To be continued.) SPECTRA. By Dr. T. L. PHIPSON. I therefore I THOUGHT it would be interesting to ascertain what In this way of oxygen than baryta, and in the first place to chloride ON A NEW WAY OF OBSERVING ABSORPTION of copper. Its property, on exposure to the air to pass into oxychlorides of various composition, lies at the root of the manufacture of a well-known pigment, Brunswick green. In 1855. Vogel proposed the action of hydrochloric acid upon oxychlorides of copper as a source of chlorine. Mallett examined these bodies more closely, and in 1867 and 1868 proposed a method for the industrial preparation of chlorine and oxygen. He found that cuprous chloride is converted into oxychloride by a current of steam at from 100° to 200° C., which, in contact with hydrochloric acid, is immediately resolved into cupric chloride and free chlorine, but which, if heated to 400°, gives off all its oxygen. One kilo. of cuprous chloride yields 28 to 30 litres of oxygen. In experiments on the large scale, 100 kilos. of cuprous chloride yielded either 3 to 34 cubic metres of oxygen or 6 to 7 cubic metres of chlorine. As four or five such operations can be conducted daily, 200 to 300 kilos. of cuprous chloride could be made to yield daily 15 to 18 cubic metres of oxygen. The requisite apparatus consists of rotatory cast-iron retorts lined with clay, which contain the cuprous chloride mixed with one-third sand or kaolin to diminish its fusibility. This process was carried out in Cologne in 1871. A company established at Paris for the utilisation of the process flourished for a short time only, probably because it was superseded by an analogous We refer to the method which has been developed "Berichte über die Entwicklung der Chemischen Industrie Während des Letzten Jahrzehends." process. Vogel, Wagner, Jahresberichte, 1800/1 dovi.. 349 found that the slit giving the spectrum of the solar t Bothe, Zeitschr. d. Vereins Deutsch. Ing., 1867, 334. 1873. This action of a thin layer of any substance upon its own spectrum may prove useful in many cases, either to verify this spectrum, or to increase its intensity, &c. Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Putney, S.W. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Professor ABEL, F.R.S:, President, in the Chair. AFTER the minutes of the previous meeting had been read and confirmed, and the donations announced, Messrs. P. Melmore, R. E. H. Goffin, C. G. Cresswell, and A. Senier, were formally admitted Fellows of the Society. The names read for the first time were those of Messrs. A. W. Gerrard, J. Brett Guyer, E. Gee, and A. N. Gow, Messrs. Falkland Mackinnon, Charles Thomas Blanshard, B.A., George Crampton, John Cope Butterfield, Joseph Wilson Iwan, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Robert Stetton, Thomas Purdie, jun., and the Rev. W. J. J. Welch, M.A., were elected Fellows of the Society after their names had been read the third time. The first paper, by Mr. J. T. COLEMAN, was on "The Effects of Pressure and Cold upon the Gaseous Products of the Distillation of Carbonaceous Shales." The author finds that if the gas which is produced in such large quantities in the preparation of oils by the distillation of shales is submitted to a temperature of o° F., at a pressure of 140 lbs. to the square inch, a quantity of volatile hydrocarbons having a density of about o'680 is obtained suitable to be used for air-gas purposes, or for increasing the illuminating power of poor coal gas. The amount of liquid condensed is about one gallon per 1000 cubic feet of gas. The latter, after the removal of these hydrocarbons, burns with a blue flame resembling that of a Bunsen's burner. The PRESIDENT having thanked the author for this interesting communication, a paper by Dr. C. BROWN "On the Agricultural Chemistry of the Tea Plantations of India," was read. This paper contains a large number of analytical results connected with the cultivation of the three varieties of the tea plant grown in India. In one instance it was found that in the portion of the tea garden treated with Dr. C. Brown's fertiliser, the yield of tea per acre was 494 lbs., and in the unmanured portion it was only 397 lbs. Analysis of the ash of the two specimens of tea yielded results which were almost identical. The PRESIDENT, in thanking Dr. Brown for his important contribution to the agriculture of the tea plant, said it would scarcely be possible to do justice to it with out studying it in detail. Mr. WAY was much struck by the interesting fact which the table of the ash constituents showed, that there was a large amount of soda uncombined with chlorine. In his own somewhat extended experience he had observed that the sodium, in most cases, was chiefly present as sodium chloride. Mr. WARINGTON remarked that the diminution in potash and phosphoric acid, and the increase in lime, which Dr. Brown found in the old leaves as compared with the young buds, also occurred in the older leaves of forest trees. It had been suggested that the proportion of potash to lime in the ash of tea would determine whether it were made from young or old leaves, but by adulteration, old tea leaves with the buds of other plants, the natural proportion of lime and potash would be destroyed. Dr. Brown had apparently selected a manure for the tea plant from considerations based on the com position of the ash. The composition of a plant was a very unsafe guide to the selection of an economical CHEMICAL NEWS, June 11, 1875. manure. Thus the turnip was rich in potash and poor in phosphoric acid, yet the latter substance was by much the more efficient manure. Clover, again, was a highly nitrogenous crop, while wheat contained far less nitrogen; yet nitrogenous manures had scarcely any effect on clover, but greatly increased the growth of wheat The fact was that plants assimilated different portions of their food with different facility, and required most aid from manure in respect of those ingredients which they had most difficulty in acquiring. Actual experiment with a series of manures was the only means of ascertaining the most economical manure for a given crop and soil. Dr. THUDICHUM remarked that the table suggested a very interesting point. We knew that potash was very necessary for plant growth, and it was remarkable that as the leaf grows old it loses its potash. It would appear from this that after the potash had served to build up the leaf, as it were, it was absorbed again into the system, its place being taken by lime and magnesia. In certain pathological diseases the potash in the cell structure is withdrawn and replaced by lime. It would seem, therefore, and this was a point of great importance, that potash was essential both to animal and to vegetable | life. He did not quite agree with the last speaker as to the effect of manures. In the case referred to it was not the phosphoric acid, but the sulphuric acid which was accidentally present, that gave the manure its peculiar action. Professor MASKELYNE then gave a short account of Mr. J. A. Phillips's paper "On the Structure and Composition of Certain Pseudomorphic Crystals having the form of Orthoclase." These remarkable crystals, which occur at Huel Coates, in Cornwall, are felspar crystals in which the potash has been removed and its place occupied by oxide of tin and other minerals. The author has procured thin sections of these crystals and submitted them to microscopical examination. He describes the r appearance as that of a mass of interlaced mica-like plates of a silvery white colour in erspersed with quartz crystals and crystals of tin oxide, and in some instances blue tourmaline (indicolite). The paper contains analyses of two specimens of these pseudomorphs of very different composition. The PRESIDENT said the Fellows were much indebted to the author and also to Professor Maskelyne for the lucid comments which he had combined with the summary of the paper. Dr. WRIGHT then read two papers by himself, and Mr. G. H. BECKETT, the first of which was entitled "Notes on the Sulphates of Narceine and other Narceine Derivatives." After referring to the pertinacity with which narceine hydrochloride retains traces of hydrochloric acid, and the readiness with which the former is decomposed by water, the authors say that in no case could they get any definite narceine sulphate more basic than the "bisulphate," which is prepared by crystallising narceine from dilute sulphuric acid two or three times. I: has the composition C23H29NO, H2SO4, 10H2O, but breaks up in presence of water into more basic salts of indefinite composition. Unlike the hydrochloride, narceine sul phate is completely decomposed by sodium carbonate, affording a means of obtaining pure narceine. The action of nascent hydrogen on narceine removes the oxygen and gives rise to an uncrystallisable base. When narceine is heated with acetic anhydride it is partly dehydrated, and with excess of ethyl iodide it yields a varnish like noncrystalline compound C23H29NO9.C2H5I. In the second paper "On the Action of Organic Acids and their Anhydrides on the Natural Alkaloids. Part V.," the authors treat of the action of succinic acid, camphoric acid, and oxalic acid, on codeine and on morphine, and of tartaric acid on codeine. With succinic acid the action is not similar to that which takes place with the mono June 11, 1875. Society of Public Analysts. 257 basic acids, but a new class of compounds is formed | Tartaric and Citric Acid," by Mr. R. Warington; (3 analagous to the ethylene-succinic acid of Lourenço. The action of oxalic acid on the alkaloids converts them into a mixture of polymerides from which, in one case, dicodeine and tricodeine were isolated, and in the other dimorphine, trimorphine, and tetramorphine. The PRESIDENT thanked the authors, in the name of the Fellows, for their valuable papers. After which a communication, entitled "Action of Chlorine on Pyrogallol," by Dr. J. STENHOUSE and Mr. C. E. GROVES, was read by the latter. An abstract of this appears in another part of our Journal. At its conclusion Mr. LEWIS gave an account of three forms in which mairogallo crystallises. The PRESIDENT having thanked the authors for their interesting communication, Mr. W. H. Perkin read a paper "On Nitro-alizarin." He finds that the action of nitric acid on diacetyl-alizarin produces nitro-alizarin C14H7(NO2)04, a very definite and stable body crystallising in orange yellow needles, and dissolving in caustic alkalis with a beautiful blue colour. convert this into amido-alizarin C14H7(H2N)O4, which Reducing agents crystallises from alcohol in dark chocolate coloured needles with a greenish metallic lustre. The solutions of this substance are crimson red, and its alkaline derivatives are of a similar colour. Nitro-alizarin produces with alumina mordants an orange red colour similar to "aurin," and with iron mordants a reddish purple, whilst amido-alizarin gives a purple with alumina mordants, and a bluish violet or steel colour with iron. Both these derivatives dye unmordanted silk; nitro-alizarin a clear golden colour, and amido-alizarin a purple red. The author also gave an account of monacetyl-alizarin C14H7(C2H3O)04. crystallises in golden scales, and like the diacetyl derivaIt tive, is readily decomposed by alkalis. The PRESIDENT thanked the author in the name, of the Fellows for his valuable and interesting paper, and Mr. R. Williamson then read a communication "On some Metallic Derivatives of Coumarin." After noticing the silver compound C9H6O2,Ag2O obtained bv Mr. Perkin, the author proceeded to give a description of the various derivatives he had obtained. C9H6O2,2NaHO forms a yellow gummy product which The sodium compound does not crystallise. When heated to 150° C. it loses water, and then no longer yields coumarin when treated with an acid, but an amorphous brown substance. The potassium compound C,H6O2,2KHO is very similar. The barium compound is not crystallisable. All these are prepared directly from coumarin and an aqueous solution of the base. The lead compound, C,H6O2.2PbO, is obtained as a bright yellow precipitate on adding plumbic nitrate or acetate to a solution of the sodium compound. The last paper was on "The Action of Dilute Mineral Acids on Bleaching Powder," by Mr. F. Kopfer. The author, after noticing the conflicting statements as to the nature of this important compound, gives details of the experiments he made by carefully distilling an aqueous solution of carefully prepared chloride of lime with various acids (acetic, hydrochloric, and nitric) in the proportion sufficient to liberate only the hypochlorous acid, assuming the formula Ca/Cl oci proposed by Dr. Odling to be the correct one. one. The next meeting, the last of the session, will take place on Thursday, June 17, when the following papers will be read: (1) "On Nitrosyl Bromide and on Sulphur Bromide," by Mr. M. M. P. Muir; (2) "Notes on the Chemistry of Especially in the Presence of Metallic Nitrates," by Mr. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS. AFTER the reading of the rapers by Dr. Tripe, Mr. Heisch, difficulty in getting accordant results from the same tubes used might seriously affect the indications of tem- lary tube. He, however, considered it essential that the Dr. DUPRE expressed his decided preference for the capil samples of fat should be subjected for an hour or so to a It was also important that the beaker in which the tubes uniform temperature before commencing the experiment. of fat are to be placed should be itself put into a larger 258 Society of Public Analysts. CHEMICAL NEWS, beaker, also containing water, and that the temperature | adulterated article should not be sold, I submit that the should not rise more rapidly than one degree in ten new Act holds out but little hope of amelioration for perminutes. sons selling adulterated or spurious articles. At the meeting on June 1st Mr. WIGNER read a paper on The old Act contained no comprehensive provision as to drugs, but referred us to two previous Acts, and enacted in addition that no drug should be knowingly mixed with "any substance with intent fraudulently to increase its comprehensive regulations are laid down; thus-, THE PROBABLE WORKING OF THE NEW ACT weight or bulk." In clauses 4 and 6 of the 1875 Bill very AS COMPARED WITH THE OLD. As this is probably the last opportunity which we, as a Society, shall have of discussing the Sale of Food and Drugs Bill before it becomes Law, it seems desirable that we should consider what differences there are between the Bill in its present state and the old Adulteration Act, and then consider the objectionable provisions which still remain in the Bill. It will be in your recollection that there are two Adulteration Acts (those of 1860 and 1872) still in force, the latter one incorporating the former. We may therefore proceed with the comparison between the 1872 Act and the "Sale of Food and Drugs Bill, 1875." The preamble of the "Adulteration of Food Act, 1872," recites that "the practice of adulterating articles of food and drink for sale in fraud of Her Majesty's subjects, and to the great hurt of their health and danger to their lives, requires to be repressed." And the preamble of the Act of 1860 was almost identical. The Bill now before us contents itself with stating that "it is desirable that the Acts now in force relating to the adulteration of food should be repealed, and that the law regarding the sale of food and drugs in a pure and genuine condition should be amended." It will thus be seen that the older Acts took for their basis the act of fraud, which is ignored in the preamble of the 1875 Bill. 4. No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding as hereinafter described, mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any drug with any ingredient or material so as to affect injuriously the quality or potency of such drug, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall knowingly sell any such drug so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under the same penalty in each case respectively as in the preceding section for a first and subsequent offence. 6. No person shall sell any compounded drugs except the same shall be compounded in accordance with the demand of the purchaser, or with the prescription in writing of a registered medical practitioner, or with the regulations prescribed by the British Pharmacopoeia issued by the General Medical Council, or in Great Britain with a basis to be laid down by the Council of Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, or the Privy Council, or in accordance with the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, or in Ireland in accordance with the Act of the session of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth of Victoria, chapter twenty-six, under a penalty of twenty pounds. The importance of the words "so as to affect injuriously the quality or potency of such drug" is selfevident. Clause 6 also makes an important provision as to compound articles of food. It says:— 6. No person shall sell any compound article of food which is not composed of ingredients in accordance with the demand of the purchaser, under a penalty of twenty pounds. The Act of 1872, whilst providing for the punishment of persons found guilty of adulterating articles of food and drink, omitted to give any definition of what constituted" adulteration or what was to be understood by any article of food or drink." It therefore remained for the Courts to decide what adulteration was, and they vir- This is perhaps somewhat obscure; but if I understand tually if not actually-construed it to be "impurity." it aright it would ensure a purchaser getting what he In the 1875 Bill, not only is there no definition of "adul-wanted, even if he did not require an unmixed article: teration," or of an adulterated article, but the very word thus if a man (as many people do) wanted a mixture of adulteration is carefully eschewed. The term "food" is, coffee and chicory, it would be compulsory on the vendor however, defined as "every article used for food or drink to supply coffee mixed with chicory, and not with some by man other than drugs or water, and is perhaps as clear other adulterant, as, for instance, roasted acorns. and comprehensive a definition as could be desired. It should be carefully noted that under this Act no Public Analyst can be called upon to make any water analyses, and this is, so far, a gain, as under the old Act some authorities held that water was included. Leaving out of consideration the clauses in both Bills where a knowledge of adulteration on the part of the manufacturer or vendor has to be proved, we may compare the acting clauses of the two bills. The first clause of the 1872 Act makes it an offence to sell an article adulterated with " any injurious or poisonous ingredient." The suggestion made by us has been adopted, and the new Bill says with any "ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health." The improvement is obvious. The second clause in the old Act makes it punishable for any person to sell "as unadulterated any article of food or drink, or any drug which is adulterated." Clause 5 in the new Bill enacts that "No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded." This clause is qualified by certain "exceptions," which have undergone most remarkable changes as the Bill has passed through Committee; but though it would be easy to quibble as to some of them, even in their present state, yet on the whole looked at in a common-sense way-I think they are not open to objection. Remembering that the old Act contained no definition of adulteration, but only said that an Clause 3 in the old Act says that, in the case of "mixed" articles the admixture shall be "declared," but it does not say how. The Courts have repeatedly held that verbal declaration was the only declaration contemplated by this clause, and there have been numerous convictions for selling mixtures of coffee and chicory even when they have been so labelled. Clause in the new Bill enacts that in cases of "mixtures" the article shall be accompanied by a "label distinctly and legibly written or printed," declaring the admixture. The Act of 1872 contains no provision forbidding the abstraction of any important constituent of an article of food, and although in several districts the magistrates have convicted in cases of "skim "milk, the convictions have, I consider, been obtained by straining the Act of Parliament. This omission is supplied by clause 8 of the Bill of the present year, where it is provided 8. No person shall, with the intent that the same may be sold in its altered state without notice, abstract from an article of food any part of it so as to affect injuriously its quality, substance, or nature, and no person shall sell any article so altered without making disclosure of the alteration, under a penalty in each case of twenty pounds. Clause 9 in the old Bill and clause 11 in the new relate to the analysis of articles of food brought by purchasers other than duly appointed inspectors; and in this case the old Act is the best, inasmuch as under it such purchasers had to take their samples to the inspectors, whereas under the new Bill they are to take them direct to the Analysts. | but the remainder should certainly be brought as now to This I consider very objectionable; and as the inconvenience and undesirability of such a system has been repeatedly pointed out, and as no reason for its enactment has been given, I am at a loss to know on what ground our legislators have insisted upon its retention. Clause 5 in the old and clause 9 in the new Bill relate to the appointment of Analysts, and they are practically identical, except that in future no person engaged in any trade connected with the sale of food or drugs shall be eligible for the appointment of Public Analysts for the place where such business is carried on. This will, however, of course not interfere with any appointments already made. Clause 6 in the old A&t and clause 12 in the new relate to the purchase of samples by inspectors duly appointed, but though the intention of the framers of the two measures may have been substantially the same, the wording is different. The first says "The Inspector, &c., . shall procure and submit samples of articles of food or drink and drugs suspected to be adulterated to be analysed by the Analysts, &c." The second reads 12. Any medical officer of health, inspector of nuisances, or inspector of weights and measures, or any inspector of a market, or any police constable under the direction and at the cost of the local authority appointing such officer, inspector, or constable, may procure any sample of food or drugs, and if he suspect the same to have been sold to him contrary to any provision of this Act, shall submit the same to be analysed by the Analyst of the district or place for which he acts, and such Analyst shall with all convenient speed analyse the same and give a certificate to such officer, wherein he shall specify the result of the analysis. Now it will be seen that a strict interpretation of the clause last read might lead to consequences amounting to the ludicrous; as an inspector after having, in pursuance of his instructions, purchased certain samples is only bound to take them to the Analyst if he suspects them to be adulterated. An unsuspicious inspector might therefore (feeling quite satisfied of the quality of the goods he had bought) decide not to trouble the Analyst with them, but take them home for his household consumption instead. Absurd as this is it is really, I imagine, of little moment, as it may safely be left to the local authorities to give explicit instructions to their inspectors that when articles are bought with public money for the purpose of analysis they shall be analysed. Clause 12 also provides that Medical Officers of Health and policemen may be appointed as inspectors. The former certainly seems a useful addition. One of the most important points in the Act is that relating to sealing and dividing, and the rule laid down in the new Bill is very objectionable. Up to now (as everybody knows) the inspector has taken the whole of the sample to the Analyst, where it has been divided into two parts, the inspector retaining one which the Analyst has duly secured and sealed: but in clause 13 of the new Bill the inspector is to divide the sample on purchasing it into three parts, hand one part back to the vendor, keep one himself, and take the third one only to the Analyst. It will be at once seen that if there were any collusion between the vendor and the inspector, or, for that matter, between the vendor and a private purchaser, the Analyst might be placed in a very awkward predicament. Thus, the purchaser goes to the shop of a friend of his, and seals up three packets. Two of them are pure coffee, and the other contains 50 per cent of chicory. Of the two pure ones, he takes one home with him, and hands the other back to the vendor. The adulterated one he then takes to the Analyst, who of course certifies to the adulteration. The vendor disputes the analysis; a second analysis is ordered of the purchaser's, or the vendor's portion, or of both. The coffee is found to be pure, and the Analyst is stigmatised as "incompetent." There is not much objection to the proposal to leave one portion with the vendor, the Analyst and divided by him, so that at least one authenticated duplicate sample should still remain. The Government have had the matter repeatedly pointed out to them both in and out of the House, and their only objection to such an obviously just proposal is that it does not fit in with the clause authorising transmission of samples by post. In the new Bill no provision is made for allowing a vendor to accompany a purchaser to the Analyst. We may summarise the remaining new points in the Bill before us. Clause 16 provides a penalty in the case of a vendor refusing to supply an inspector. Clause 18 orders that all local authorities shall make an annual report to the Local Government Board, giving particulars of the working of the Act in their districts. Clause 20 gives the right to a defendant to tender himself or his wife as witnesses for the defence. Clause 21 is the much-canvassed Somerset House clause, and is entirely objectionable, though it appears to be inevitable. I may just point out three things in it. (1.) It says the justices "may" "send samples to be analysed there, not that they shall. (2) Nothing is said pro or con as to the Analyst being required to attend and give evidence; and in the absence of this it is as probable as not that the magistrate would not enforce attendance. (3.) No form of certificate is prescribed for the Inland Revenue chemists to use, though a form for the Public Analysts is carefully drawn out. Clause 24 meets a just complaint on the part of the tradesman by allowing him to go free on the production of a warranty from the wholesale dealer, and clause 26 makes the forgery of such a warranty penal. Clause 25 provides for the fines in every case going to the local authorities, to be applied towards the expenses of the Act. In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper no difference of opinion was expressed as to the conclusions at which Mr. Wigner had arrived. Dr. BERNAYS, after stating his opinion as to the value of the paper, and to the obligation which the Society owed to Mr. Wigner for his exertions in reference to the sale of Food and Drugs Bill, related a case in his experience corroborative of the fact that samples are sometimes tampered with. Dr. DUPRE particularly objected to Clause 11, on the ground that it allowed a purchaser to bring samples direct to the Analyst, and to claim a certificate addressed to him personally, which might afterwards be used as a trade advertisement. He also insisted very strongly on the very objectionable provisions in clause 13 as to sealing and dividing samples, and to illustrate the danger to which Analysts will be exposed if it remains unaltered, referred to a beer case in which he was concerned recently, and particulars of which were published in CHEMICAL NEWS, vol. xxxi., p. 235. The speaker next adverted to clause 21, and pointed out the injustice of taking the mere ipse dixit of an official at Somerset House as against the duly authenticated certificate of a Public Analyst of repute; and he argued that, unless the Inland Revenue employés were compelled to attend the adjourned hearing of disputed cases and verify their results on oath, it would be impossible for Public Analysts to retain their appointments with due regard to their self-respect. Dr. Dupré added-I will not say anything against the chemists of Somerset House, because I know very little of them I may say that I know of no improvement in analysis which could be traced home to Somerset House; whereas we know that there are a number of Public Analysts appointed who have been before the public for years, and who have themselves discovered processes by means of which the public can judge them. It seems to me entirely inadmissible that such men should be put below |