198 CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



EEPORTS by Dr A. P. Aitken, Chemist of the Society. 



ANALYTICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 



The first grant given by the Society in aid of the expense of 

 analyses made for members of local analytical associations by 

 their respective chemists, was in 1881, when the sum of 

 £54, 10s. was paid for 221 analyses. There were many more 

 analyses recorded that year, but they had reference to sub- 

 stances bought entirely without a guarantee, and therefore dis- 

 qualified from obtaining the Society's grant. On looking over 

 the kind of guarantees that were in vogue, and regarded as 

 satisfactory eight years ago, it is surprising to find how many 

 of them were so deficient as to be of little or no use, and how 

 many were actually misleading in their terms, and therefore 

 worse than useless. But taking the guarantees as they were, 

 good and bad alike, it is still more surprising to find that out of 

 the whole analyses recorded, not so much as three-fourths were 

 sufficiently up to their guarantees to satisfy the present require- 

 ment of the Chemical Committee, so that, had these returns 

 been made last year, it would have been found necessary to 

 publish in the Transactions the details of about sixty deficient 

 manures and feeding stuffs. 



Deficient Manures in 1887. 

 . The number of analyses for which the Society has given 

 grants this year is 182. The guarantees of all these purchases 

 are expressed in set terms, which are clear and tnimistakable ; 

 the quality of the material supplied is in the great majority of 

 cases above, instead of below, the guarantees ; and out of the 

 whole number there are only two which are so deficient from 

 their guarantees as to require that, in accordance with the 

 Society's regulations, the details should be published. 



It is evident that a great amount of education has been going 

 on to account for this extraordinary change. Farmers are find- 

 ing out that the way to purchase manures safely and economi- 

 cally is to do so in accordance with the rules and instructions 

 published in the memoranda of the Chemical Department of 

 the Society. Manure merchants have also been taught to give 

 greater attention to the quality of the goods they sell, and 

 manufacturers are putting their raw material and their products 

 under more rigid control. Considering the variety of the raw 

 materials they have to deal with, and the difficulty frequently 

 experienced in their manufacture, it says a great deal for the 

 care and attention bestowed by manufacturers, that out of so many 



