64 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
of his office, a Deputy-Master being responsible for the administration, 
while the valuation of bullion and questions of assay are the duties of the 
Chemist and Assayer. 
Many of the Mint officials have contributed largely to metallurgical 
knowledge. One of them, William Humphrey, in 1565 received the first 
patent for making brass, and a later one, Sir John Brattle, communicated 
work to the Royal Society shortly after its foundation on the oxidation 
of lead. Sir Isaac Newton when Warden is said to have himself conducted 
experiments on the composition of foreign coms. The melting-points of 
metals were studied in conjunction with Wedgwood by Alchorne, who was 
appointed Assay Master in 1789. From 1851 to 1870 several distinguished 
men of science, such as Hofmann, Graham (who in 1866 published a work 
on the effect of the occlusion of gases in metals), Miller, and Stenhouse, were 
officials of the Mint; but in 1870 it was considered preferable to conduct 
the chemical operations of assaying within the Mint itself, and Roberts- 
Austen, to whose pioneering work in metallurgy allusion has been made, 
was appointed. To his successor, Kirke Rose, are due many advances in 
knowledge of the precious metals. Thus, researches at the Mint have been 
directed to the investigation of metallic systems of gold with silver and 
other metals, the means of avoiding brittleness in gold coins, the electro- 
lytic refining of gold, the mechanism of annealing of metals, the surface 
tension of solid and molten metals, as well as to improvements in the 
technique of the methods of assay. 
Revenue. 
In reviewing the influence of our science in its application to Revenue 
questions, it is convenient to consider historically the substances on which 
the State has levied duties. 
In the older tariffs, fixed charges were levied on goods considered as a 
whole, but a time arrived when the chemist was called in ; it then became 
possible to make an assessment on the ground of a percentage. Un- 
certainty prevailed, therefore, as to the basis of taxation and gross 
adulteration flourished until scientific safeguards were introduced. 
The chief substances with which the chemist is at present concerned 
from the Revenue point of view are the following: (1) liquids containing 
alcohol ; (2) tobacco; (3) sugars (4) tea and cocoa; (5) dyestuffs, under 
the Dyestufis (Import Regulation) Act, 1920; (6) substances taken 
under the Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921. 
(1) Liquids containing alcohol.—On imported wine Richard I. imposed 
a duty, and as time went on complications were caused by the intro- 
duction of imposts for various purposes, including reprisals. 
Acts were passed, as in the time of Charles II., for preventing the 
reprehensible practices of mixing wine and vitiating it with other substances 
such as cider, sugar, herbs and vitriol ; it is still forbidden to mix wines of 
different sorts. 
The difficulty of distinguishing the strength of alcoholic liquids is 
apparent in the older enactments, when, for example, the Legislature 
describes brandy as a ‘ strong water perfectly made imported from beyond 
the sea,’ and it was not until the reign of William III. that they were 
assessed, if not in proportion to their strength, at least in some relation 
