PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. — SECTION II. 3I 



on the community. During the early years of this branch of 

 Avork in the Cape Colony, one article of food out of every five 

 analysed was found to have been adulterated in some way or 

 other ; in other words, about 20 per cent. That proportion has 

 now diminished to less than 10 per cent. The sale of margarine 

 and other fats under the name of butter was once common in 

 the Colony, but for years the practice has been unknown. Skimmed 

 and separated milks were freely imported under the guise of pure 

 full-cream milk : this practice, too, was soon effectually stopped, 

 and skimmed milk henceforth came into the country under its true 

 colours, until the recent alterations in the Customs tariff practically 

 stopped its importation altogether. During a period of six years 

 some 800 vinegars on sale in the Colony were analysed, and of 

 these 440 were condemned, being in most cases simplv diluted 

 and flavoured acetic acid to which a little caramel had 'heen added 

 as a colouring. I advised the introduction of stringent legislation, 

 and we have now an enactment which not only protects the Colony 

 from the sale of such concoctions under misleading names, but is 

 also building up a new South African industry, having for its object 

 the manufacture of a good sound wine vinegar. And when at times 

 the stoppage of the imported artificial article has been protested 

 against on the plea that it was admitted without demur into the 

 other colonies, the obvious rejoinder has been to point to the fact 

 that those other colonies have not yet adopted a stringent vinegar 

 law. 



From the subject of the purity of food supplies we turn to 

 dwell for a moment on two other branches of chemical investiga- 

 tion somewhat akin thereto ; pharmacology and toxicology. The 

 chemical control of the drug market is. I fear, practicalh- a dead 

 letter at present in all the South African States. In the Cape 

 Colony there is a " Food and Drugs Act." but although, during 

 the last sixteen years, nearly 18,000 food samples have been 

 analysed, of drugs — even though we stretch that word to its widest 

 possible limit — less than 400 were examined. Not that drugs do 

 not need supervision, for in 1897, when the analytical control of 

 drugs was first put into effect, nearly 30 per cent, of those analysed 

 were found defective, a proportion which dropped to 14 per cent, 

 for the subsequent years, but is still far higher than it should be. 



In the indigenous flora of South Africa the chemist finds almost 

 limitless scope for investigation and research. The chemical 

 aspect of this question has never yet been seriously considered. 

 Practically all that has been published regarding the chemistry 

 of the alkaloids, glucosides, resins, oils, and aromatic compovmds 

 ■existing in plants peculiar to South Africa is comprised in three 

 papers : two of these were read before the S.A. Philoso})hical 

 Society ; one, by i\Ir. I. Meiring, dealt with a single plant* ; and 

 the other, by myself, though more comprehensive, can scarcely 

 be termed satisfactory. j" Dr. R. Marloth, in his Presidential 

 Address to the Cape Chemical Society a few months ago.t added 



* Trans. S.A. Phil. Soc, Vol. 9, 1897, pp. 48-50. 



t Trans. S.A. Phil. Soc, Vol. 16, 1905, pp. 111-133. 



I C.G.H. Agr. Journal, Vol. 34, pp. 634-638. 



