CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 3OI 



The other classes of the show afford little room for 

 observation. 



The sum drawn for admission and for catalogues was 

 again large, amounting to ^1398 6s. 



At the dinner in the Music Hall, the Duke of 

 Montrose, President, was in the chair, and the croupiers 

 were Sir John Hope, Bart, M.P., Mr Charles Cowan, M.P. 

 Among those present were Lord Polwarth, the Duke of 

 Buccleuch, Lord Erne, the Earl of Traquair, Sir David 

 Baird, Sir James Drummond, Lord William Douglas, Sir 

 James Riddell. The Chairman, in proposing the Highland 

 Society, referred to the character and some of the results of 

 the Highland Society's operations. He specially noticed 

 the new department of Agricultural Chemistry. On the 

 last day of the show, a special meeting was held, at which 

 resolutions were passed setting forth that, impressed with 

 the great importance of chemistry and its application to 

 agriculture, it Avas resolved to approve of the proposed 

 establishment of a Chemical Department under the cog- 

 nizance of the Highland Society. This motion was pro- 

 posed by the Duke of Buccleuch, and seconded by Mr 

 Finnic, Swanston. At the same time, a resolution was 

 passed, on the motion of Sir John Stuart Forbes, thanking 

 the office-bearers and other members of the Agricultural 

 Chemistry Association for having first brought this subject 

 prominently before the agricultural community of Scotland, 

 and for their exertions in subsequently prosecuting it. 



The Society gave practical effect to the resolution, in so 

 far as, at the November meeting, they resolved to appoint 

 Dr Thomas Anderson to be chemist to the Society. The 

 new chemist was spoken of in a certificate by Sir Robert 

 Kane as a }'oung and energetic chemist, and one of the 

 most diligent and exact of Liebig's students. Dr Anderson 

 entered upon his duties early in January 1849, and at a 

 meeting of the Society held on the 7th February, he 

 reported that in the preceding month he had made about 

 thirty analyses. At this meeting he delivered an address, 

 explaining the objects which he would have in view 



