B.—CHEMISTRY. 71 
afford the Ministry evidence of his competence for the work. It is the 
practice of the Ministry to accept for such purpose the Diploma of the 
Institute of Chemistry, together with the Certificate of that Institute in 
Therapeutics, Pharmacology and Microscopy. 
The position of the Government Chemist in the administration of the 
Acts is as follows: (1) the Acts provide that in the hearing of any com- 
plaint in a court of justice the magistrates must, at the request of either 
party, and may themselves without any previous request, send the 
reserved portion of the sample to the Government Chemist for analysis. 
This provision is taken advantage of in a number of cases each year, and 
gives rise to a considerable amount of interesting work relating to methods 
of analysis, the alteration in food on storage, and the figures to be taken as 
standards for genuine articles. The necessity for such investigation is at 
once apparent in the case of milk, since samples cannot under ordinary 
circumstances reach the laboratory before the expiry of at least three or 
four weeks, and the fermentation that has taken place in this time has 
resulted in the loss of solid matter. 
(2) The Acts provide for the examination at the Government Laboratory 
of samples of imported tea, margarine, and various dairy products, the 
object being (a) to prevent adulterated food of this character entering the 
country, and (b) to ascertain whether it conforms to the standards laid 
down for such food. 
It may be pointed out that there is nothing in the United Kingdom 
corresponding with the series of food definitions and standards which exist 
in some of our Colonies, and in a marked way in the United States. The 
main provisions of these Acts are briefly that (1) no person shall mix any 
article of food with any ingredient so as to render the article injurious to 
health, and (2) no person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any 
article of food which is not of the nature, substance and quality demanded 
by such purchaser. A few definitions and standards are, however, given 
in the Acts, and these have been added to by Regulations under the Acts, 
or by Regulations made under the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) 
Act, 1907, the Licensing Act, 1921, and the Milk and Dairies Act, 1922. 
Before regulations on questions of limits have been issued, it has been 
customary for the Crown to institute an inquiry into the particular subject. 
A brief summary of the definitions and standards thus fixed is as 
follows: (1) the strength of spirits must not be reduced more than 35 
degrees under proof; (2) standards have been fixed for milk, separated 
milk, condensed and dried milks; (3) limits have been set up for water 
_ in butter, milk-blended butter and margarine, and for butter fat in marga- 
rine; (4) the addition to milk of water, preservative, colouring matter, 
separated or reconstituted milk is prohibited; (5) cream must not be mixed 
with a thickening substance, and the conditions with regard to the addition 
of preservative to it have been laid down. 
In its care for the purity of drinking water the State has made several 
enactments. It may be said that this country led the way as the result 
of the great work of Frankland in devising means for determining the 
potable qualities of water, and in pressing for pure supplies. An enor:mous 
volume of useful work was carried out by the Royal Commission on Sewage 
Disposal of which Ramsay was a member. This sat from 1898 until 1914, 
when it dissolved, having projected further work on industrial effluents 
