12 



problems of the food analyst were greatly different from those of the analytical chem- 

 ist, but as the work has developed, a new literature and a new chemistry have by 

 rapid evolution been added to the broad field of chemical science. The boast of the 

 manufacturing chemist that he is always a year in advance of the official chemist who 

 is hunting down iniquities is a constant stimulus and makes necessary the continual 

 development of new methods of analysis and the refinement of old practices. 



No radical departure from established methods is advocated by those who have 

 studied the different phases of food adulteration this past year, but the reports of the 

 associate referees show the necessity for continued research. 



On fruit products, baking powder and baking chemicals, fats and oils, condiments 

 other than spices, and the determination o* water in foods no reports were made. 

 These subjects are all worthy of careful study, and it is to be hoped that this coming 

 year they may be taken up. 



I take occasion to call the attention of all food chemists to the imperative ner-es.-it y 

 for the adoption of uniform methods of analysis which have been proved accurate and 

 reliable. The work of this association is most valuable in providing official methods, 

 but no association can compel chemists to employ standard methods or insist upon 

 more careful analytical work. The food analyst is to-day working constantly in the 

 limelight and his results very frequently are carried to the courts and are subject to 

 the scrutiny of expert chemists and the counsel for the defendant. In too many cases 

 it has appeared that the results of analyses have been published and even used in court 

 which later were found to be inaccurate, thus compelling those responsible for 

 the publication and use of such reports to make public retraction. The value of our 

 work is greatly impaired by the constant recurrence of such mistakes. The necessity 

 for more careful work is well shown by data published in the Proceedings for last year, 

 where chemists analyzing similar condensed milks report an ash content varying 

 from 1.34 to 2.17 per cent and a fat content varying from 7.50 to 9.24 per cent. If 

 the fat in the original milk is determined in these samples on the ash basis, in one case 

 the original milk content is 4.2 per cent fat, in the other case 2.56 per cent, figures 

 which indicate that the same sample of evaporated milk was in one instance made 

 from whole milk and in the other from skimmed milk. 



Attention is again called to the fact that we have no satisfactory alcohol table which 

 i> accepted by all chemists as a standard. The several alcohol tables now in use, 

 namely, those published in the Official and Provisional Methods of Analysis, the 

 tables given in the United States Pharmacopoeia, and those in use by the Internal 

 Revenue Bureau, are not alike. More than that, they are all calculated at 60 F., 

 instead of at the generally accepted standard temperature of 20 C. Can not this 

 association be of assistance to the puzzled chemist who is constantly compelled to 

 recalculate and correct his results and who is confronted in court by alcohol per- 

 centages so different from his as to discredit his testimony, but which when calculated 

 to the same basis on the same table are found to be identical? 



The Bureau of Standards may well cooperate with the committee from this associa- 

 tion for the purpose of revising the alcoholometric tables, and it is recommended that 

 a committee be appointed for this pin-pose. 



REPORT ON WINE. 



By JULIUS HORTVET, Associate Referee. 



OUTLINE OF THE WORK. 



On February 28, after some preliminary correspondence, the referee on wine sent 

 out the following letter, accompanied by methods of analysis for alcohol, extract, 

 glycerol, ash, fluorids, and total sulphurous acid, substantially as given in Bulletin 

 107 and in Windisch's Untersuchung des Weines. On June 11 these instructions 



