SKETCH OF DR. CHARLES F. CHANDLER. 837 



Barker, Morton, Silliman, Caldwell, Goessmann, and many others, as 

 well as the more practical endorsemeHt of verdicts from the Judges of 

 the Courts of Special Sessions and the jury of the General Sessions. 

 At least fifteen thousand dollars has already been paid by milkmen in 

 fines for watering and skimming milk. This investigation of the lac- 

 tometer is important and interesting, for, while the Swiss and German 

 investigators use it with the greatest confidence, the English analysts 

 were shaken in their faith by the special pleading with which Wanklyn 

 recommended his own method of analysis. 



At the same time an investigation of the liquors sold in the com- 

 moner resorts was undertaken. The Metropolitan Excise Commission- 

 ers decided to withdraw the license of every one of the eight thousand 

 dealers who should be found selling adulterated liquors. Professor 

 Chandler was engaged to make the analyses on terms which might 

 well have turned the head of any chemist. He was to receive twenty 

 dollars for each analysis ; there were eight thousand dealers, and there 

 were likely to be three or four samples from each. But when he came 

 to examine the first installment of forty samples of whisky, gin, rum, 

 and brandy from Mulberry, Mott, Baxter, and other streets of that 

 character, he was compelled to report that while the brandy was all 

 factitious, and the basis of the others was common whisky, there was 

 no adulteration in the sense of anything added of an injurious char- 

 acter. Some of them had been carelessly made and contained moi'e 

 fusel-oil than others, but the poisonous constituent Avas the alcohol. 

 This ended the projected reform of the liquor-traffic by chemical 

 analysis. 



An effort was made to put a stop to the sale of poisonous cosmetics, 

 especially the various preparations of lead salts which are employed 

 either on the skin as a white enamel or upon the hair to restore the 

 original color. His analyses were widely published. 



The most important work of Professor Chandler was, however, the 

 investigation of kerosene accidents, which were of very frequent oc- 

 currence, not only in New York, but wherever this cheap illuminator 

 was used. It was supposed by the world at large that the accidents 

 were an unavoidable incident to the use of the oil. Kerosene came in 

 as a substitute for " camphene " or " burning-fluid," which was inher- 

 ently dangerous and could not be made safe. Kerosene was supposed 

 to be similar in chemical composition and properties, and the accidents 

 were generally attributed to carelessness. In 1869 Chandler began his 

 work on this subject, his first report to the Board of Health bearing 

 date January 11th of that year. It was a simple statement of the 

 chemical nature of petroleum and its products, explained the process 

 for refining the oil, and clearly established the fact that the dangerous 

 character of the oils in use was due to the fact that the refiners, in 

 order to realize a profit of two or three cents per gallon, left a certain 

 quantity of the highly inflammable naphtha in it. He also reported 



