TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF CHE:MICAL INVESTIGATION. IO5 



wines, all the 149 liquors being specially procured for the pur- 

 poses of this particular investigation. The outcome was that 

 once again I was entrusted with the drafting of a legislative 

 measure, and as, following on our numerous analyses of vinegar, 

 an extraordinary proportion of which had proved to be practi- 

 cally diluted and coloured acetic acid, I had repeatedly drawn 

 attention to the necessity of specific vinegar legislation, it was 

 •decided to embody the requisite clauses in the Bill, and so the 

 second Statute of the series became law in 1908. Further legis- 

 lation along these lines had been under contemplation, but this, 

 as we all know, has been suspended by the establishment of the 

 Union. That the Acts resulting from our investigations have 

 been appreciated is clearly evidenced by the frequently expressed 

 desire, both inside and outside of Parliament, for their speedy 

 extension so as to embrace the entire Union within their scope. 



Just here I may say that in 1907 the chemical composition 

 of typical Cape wines of definite origin was investigated, and 

 all the prize wines exhibited at every Government Wine Show 

 during the last score of years have been systematically analysed 

 in the Cape laboratories. These would probably aggregate alxDut 

 six hundred in number, and the results obtained are all available 

 for compilation when time permits. 



Let me conclude this section of my paper by once more 

 drawing attention to the fact that the investigations into the 

 composition of Colonial wine, brandy and vinegar on the one 

 hand and of the imported articles on the other were undertaken 

 in the interest of the South African agricultural community, and 

 it was in that interest that the subsequent statutes were passed 

 and are at present being administered : yet it was in proceedings 

 taken under the Food and Drugs Act that all this had its origin. 

 It was this kind of interdependence that I had in view when 

 referring just now to the solidarity of the chemical body — a 

 solidarity that will have to be carefully maintained if the greatest 

 good of the greatest number is to be achieved. 



Fertilisers. 

 The two enactments above mentioned were not the sole 

 representatives of the fruition that came after years of labora- 

 tory work. In 1907 a statute vvas^ passed by the late Cape Par- 

 liament that had its first beginnings fifteen years earlier: this 

 was the Fertilisers. Farm Foods, Seeds and Pest Remedies 

 Act. As long ago as 1892 I suggested that investigation should 

 be commenced of the commercial fertilisers on sale in the 

 country, and this was done in the first instance by purchasing 

 the fertilisers through the medium of a commission agent. Al- 

 most at once the discovery was made that some, at least, of the 

 fertilisers on the market exhibited considerable anomalies of 

 composition. It was equally clear that to restrict the sale of 

 these was quite impracticable in the absence of legislative pro- 

 vision, and so in 1894 I suggested the introduction of the Bill 

 which ultimately became law in 1907. During the intervening 

 years the practice carried out was to purchase about a dozen lots 



