December 5-, 191 2] 



NATURE 



587 



REPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT CHEMIST. 



IX his report ^ upon the work of the Government 

 Laboratory for the year 1911-12, the Govern- 

 ment Chemist gives a short historical introduction, 

 showing the principal steps in the progress of the 

 department. 



The origin of the laboratory dates back to 1843. 

 Its duties at first were mainly concerned with 

 checking the adulteration of tobacco ; but subse- 

 quently its scope was extended, and other branches 

 of the executive besides the fiscal departments 

 obtained permission of the Treasury to avail them- 

 selves of its services. Recently, in order to pro- 

 mote the centralisation of Government chemical 

 work, and to place all the departments using the 

 laboratory on the same footing, it was constituted 

 a separate establishment, with the official title of 

 "The Department of the Government Chemist." 

 There are two branches of the laboratory, namely, 

 the main building, at Clement's Inn Passage, and 

 a smaller establishment at the Custom House. 



In the present report the matter has been classi- 

 fied more conveniently than formerly, and in 

 respect of the chief substances examined explana- 

 tory notes are given, showing for what purposes 

 the analyses are undertaken. These modifications 

 make the report so much the more easily under- 

 stood by the non-technical reader. 



Evidence of the- necessity for the kind of 

 analytical control which the laboratory exercises 

 is to be found in plenty in the pages of the report. 

 For example, in the matter of safeguarding the 

 revenue it was found that the " declarations " of 

 brewers, on which the assessment of beer-duty is 

 based, were erroneous in 20 per cent, of the cases 

 examined during the year. Also, out of 2608 

 samples of certain exported spirituous articles on 

 which rebate was claimed, the proportion of alcohol 

 was found to have been wrongly stated by the 

 exporters in 315 instances, and the amount of sugar 

 in 185. 



In connection with the supervision of foodstuffs, 

 more than a quarter of a million pounds' weight of 

 tea was condemned as containing sand or being 

 otherwise unfit for consumption. This quantity of 

 tea, it is noted, though apparently large, is small 

 compared with the total amount of tea imported, 

 namely 347 millions of pounds. The rejected tea 

 was allowed to be used free of duty as a source of 

 the alkaloid caffeine. Of the samples of imported 

 butter examined, 30 per cent, were found to con- 

 tain boron preservative, and i3"7 per cent, to have 

 been coloured artificially. Oysters suspected to 

 have caused copper poisoning were proved, on 

 analysis, to contain not only copper, but zinc. .'\ 

 few samples of malt and beer were found to contain 

 an excessive quantity of arsenic, which vias gener- 

 ally traced to the fuel used in drying the malt. 



For many years past analytical work has been 

 done in connection with supervision of dangerous 

 trades by the Home Office. Numerous samples 

 ol air from collieries were examined last year for 



1 Report of the Government Chemist upon the Work of the Government 

 Laboratory.— Cd. 6363. 



NO. 2249, VOL. 90I 



the purposes of the Mines Regulation Bill ; and 

 from pottery works where cases of lead poisoning 

 had occurred fifty-six specimens of the glazes in 

 use were taken ; these proved to contain lead 

 ranging in amount from 9 to 51 per cent. With 

 few exceptions the whole of the lead present was 

 " soluble " lead — accentuating once more the 

 danger which attends the use of this form of leaci 

 in pottery glaze. 



The total number of analyses and examinations 

 made during the year was 195,170, as compared 

 with 186,044 for the preceding year. 



ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE 

 ROYAL SOCIETY. 



THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Society 

 was held, as usual, on St. Andrew's Day, 

 November 30, when the report of the council was 

 presented, the president's address was read, and 

 the new council, the names of the members of 

 which were given in Nature of November 14 

 (p. 312) was elected. 



From the report of the council, we learn that 

 the Government of India has agreed to appoint 

 an additional European assistant in the Indian 

 Meteorological Department, and to maintain the 

 scheme of observations of the tipper air for a 

 further period of ten years, tmless in the mean- 

 time they prove void of result. 



The council of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic 

 Society has informed the Gassiot Committee that 

 it will be necessary, owing to insufficiency of 

 funds, to discontinue Falmouth Observatory at 

 the end of the year. Individual members of the 

 committee have been giving their support to 

 efforts that are being made to secure the necessary 

 financial assistance for that observatory from 

 Government. 



The attention of the council has been directed 

 to the urgent desirability of installing self-record- 

 ing magnetic instruments at suitable stations in 

 South Africa, as few standard records of ter- 

 restrial magnetism are available for the southern 

 hemisphere ; and also to the great need of pro- 

 viding stations to take part in the observations 

 of tidal disturbance of the solid earth, which are 

 now being inaugurated in Europe and America 

 under the general direction of Dr. Hecker, of 

 Strasburg. The council has transmitted to the 

 Royal Society of -South Africa, for its information 

 and for transmission to the South .'\frican Govern- 

 ment, the opinion of the Royal Society that pro- 

 vision for installing: and attending to permanent 

 magnetographs, giving continuous magnetic re- 

 cords at suitable observatories at different places 

 in South Africa, and also arrangements for ob- 

 servations on tidal deformation of the solid earth, 

 are urgently needed in the international interests 

 of the sciences of terrestrial magnetism and 

 geodesy. 



Reference was made by the council last vear to 



the provision of new buildings for the National 



Physical Laboratory. The estimated cost of these 



I buildings, together with the Wernher Metallurgy 



