O F. B. GUTHRIE. 



Government Laboratories. 



The Government Analyst. — Through the courtesy of the 

 present Government Analyst, I am able to place before you 

 some information relative to the first Government Analyst, 

 Mr. J. S. Norrie. Mr. Nome's was the first chemical 

 appointment made in New South Wales, and consequently 

 (as at that date Australia had not yet been divided into 

 States) in Australia, a fact that will make any details con- 

 nected with his life to be of interest to a scientific audience. 

 The information is supplied by his son, Mr. T. H. Norrie, 

 now chemist to the Customs Department. 



The first Government Analyst, James Smith Norrie, was 

 born at Bethnal Green, Londou, in the year 1820 ; and died 

 at Sydney, New South Wales, March 1883, aged 63 years. 

 Mr. Norrie was educated at the Blue Coat School, London, 

 receiving his chemical training in the laboratory and busi- 

 ness of John Bell, 338 Oxford Street, London, being associ- 

 ated with his son, Jacob Bell (one of the founders of the 

 Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) attending also the 

 scientific lectures at King's College, and was one of the 

 first members of the then recently formed Chemical Society. 

 In the beginning of the year 1840 he came to Australia, 

 intending to join an uncle in charge of British troops 

 in New South Wales, and a little later in the same year, 

 (1840) he established a chemist and druggist business in Pitt 

 Street, and was the first wholesale and retail chemist and 

 druggist here. In the year 1844 he was appointed Govern- 

 ment Chemist. As this was before the partition of Aus- 

 tralia into States, Mr. Norrie was in fact Government 

 Analyst for all Australia, and his attendance at distant 

 parts of the continent necessitated his absence from Sydney 

 for many weeks and even months together, to the detriment 

 of his business. Mr. Norrie afterwards established his 

 laboratory at Lyons' Terrace, Sydney, where he worked 



