164 Canadian Record of Science. 



gate the matter, and the result of their labours and dis- 

 cussions was to show clearly that Wanklyn's method did 

 not extract all the fat, and therefore should be discarded for 

 one of those processes which did so, but that in that case 

 the limit of 9 per cent, solids not fat was too high. "While 

 the committee were deliberating, one of their number, Mr. 

 Adams, brought forward a new process which commended 

 itself to them as the best hitherto proposed, and which they 

 accordingly adopted. 



It consisted in absorbing the milk in a paper coil, dry- 

 ing it and extracting the fat from the dried coil with 

 ether in a Soxhlet's extraction apparatus. The very fine 

 division of the milk solids enables the other to get at every 

 jmrticle of fat and remove it completely from them. The 

 Society adopted the process and reduced their limit to 

 8 -5 per cent, solids not fat. 



Our chief analyst, Mr. Thos. Macfarlane, has introduced 

 a method in which he absorbs the milk by asbestos in a 

 special apparatus, dries and extracts with ether. This 

 method is beautifully simple and extremely accurate, and 

 enables a great number of samples to be analysed with a 

 very little expenditure of time. 



The public analysts of Canada had followed with deep 

 interest this discussion, and they felt that before they could 

 intelligently adopt this or any other limit, they ought to 

 make a thorough trial of the new methods upon the milk 

 of Canadian cattle. Upon representing these views to the 

 Department of Inland Revenue, they were favourably 

 received, and the plan was put into execution during the 

 summer of 1887. One hundred and sixty-two samples of 

 milk were taken by the collectors of Halifax, St. John, 

 Quebec, Montreal and Toronto. Each sample represented 

 the whole mixed milk of a herd of cows milked in the 

 presence of the collector and the public analyst of the 

 district. Altogether the samples represented the milk of 

 about 1,600 cows. The samples were analysed in duplicate 

 by the public analyst and (also in duplicate) by the chief 

 analyst at Ottawa. The chief analyst used the asbestos 



