NOTES. 835 



Department. Seed condemned as being mixed, adulterated, or misbranded is to 

 be confiscated and disjiosed of by direction of the court. The legal conception of 

 mixing, adulterating, and misbranding is defined in detail. 



Our Future "Public Analysts." — In an article under this caption in the issue of 

 Science for ]\Iarch 18, R. O. Brooks, of the New Jersey Lalwratory of Hygiene, 

 directs attention to the growth of public supervision of food products and standard 

 drugs, and to the need of supplying men for this work. He points to the State 

 experiment stations as the logical and most appropriate institutions for carrying out 

 the technical part of the inspection, the food commissioner being mainly a prosecut- 

 ing officer, and commends these institutions for that service on account of their 

 equipment and personnel, which make research work on composition, nutritive 

 value, etc., feasible, and the present relations of the station chemists to the Associa- 

 tion of Official Agricultural Chemists. The need of considerable special training 

 for this branch of service and the dearth of properly trained men to fill prospective 

 positions are pointed out, and the colleges maintained iinder the land-grant and 

 Morrill acts are thought to be especially qualified for training at least the locally 

 needed public analysts of the future. The association of the exi^eriment stations 

 with these colleges is mentioned as an especial advantage. These colleges "have 

 facilities (departments, profes.sors, and laboratories) wherewith to give instruction 

 in the subject of foods, their composition, nutritive and economic value, methods of 

 adulteration and detection of the same, etc. ; and in the senior year or as postgraduate 

 assistants, give the students an opportunity to gain an insight into and a little actual 

 experience in food investigation A\'ork, and also, if possible, in methods of rapid legal 

 inspection work at the local experiment station, or at least from the official chemists 

 of these stations. The preparatory subjects, which we may consider as junior year 

 electives, would include organic ehemistrv and outlines of organic analytical methods 

 (fat extractions, melting point determinations, etc.), histological botany and micro- 

 scopy and physiology, especially the subjects of nutrition, digestion, and assimilation. 

 In the senior year the really special studies would be undertaken, viz, the study of 

 foods as previously outlined; the natural composition, nutritive and economic value, 

 utility, methods of adulteration, etc., of foods being taught by lectures, while the 

 methods of scientific investigation and rapid legal inspection, especially the use of 

 the microscope and the utilization of histological botany, would Ije taught simul- 

 taneously in the laboratory. . . . Such a comparatively smiple, wholly possible and 

 practicable course of training, especially if supplemented with actual experience 

 in the local experiment station, would supply a national and soon to be a pressing 

 need for competent trained 'public analysts,' similar to those regarded necessary by 

 the smallest and least pretentious English towns and cities." 



National Diploma in Agriculture. — As many of our readers know, the National Agri- 

 cultural Examination Board, representing the Royal Agricultural Society of England 

 and the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, has for several years past 

 been issuing a national diploma in the science and practice of agriculture to candi- 

 dates who successfully pass the examinations. The fifth annual examination will 

 be lield early in May at Yorkshire College, Leeds. It is interesting to note that the 

 examination consists of two parts, which must be taken in different years, the second 

 part being taken within two years after passing the first part. The examination in 

 I^art 1 comprises agricultural botany, mensuration and land surveying, general chem- 

 istry, geology, and agricultural entomology; and in part 2 practical agriculture, 

 agricultural bookkeeping, agricultural chemistry, agricultural engineering, and vet- 

 erinary science. Candidates who obtain an average of 75 per cent in the two parts 

 receive the diploma with honors, and a gold medal is awarded to the candidate mak- 

 ing the highest grade. 



Proposed Aberdeen Agricultural College. — The establishment of an agricultural col- 

 lege in Aberdeen, Scotland, has been under consideration for some time, and from 



