Robert Warington. X1X 
which had been adopted when any analysis had been made, had been faulty. 
Warington now altered these methods, so that the samples analysed should 
faithfully represent the average composition of the drainage-waters. 
Having examined the indigo method. for determining nitric acid, he next 
examined the Crum-Frankland method by agitation with mercury; and, sub- 
sequently, the method of Schleesing, modified, however, in such a way that 
the nitric oxide produced was determined by gas analysis. The exhaustive 
examination of these methods of analysis are described in a series of papers 
published in his own name in the ‘J ournal of the Chemical Society’ 
and elsewhere, extending down to 1882. The modified Schloesing method 
was the one which he finally adopted, and with it he began a long series of 
determinations of nitrates in soils, and in mangels, swedes, and potatoes. 
Having satisfied himself as to the methods of nitrogen determination, he 
next turned his attention to those for the estimation of carbon, and having 
examined the permanganate and the bichromate methods, and found them 
wanting, he finally adopted the combustion method, which proved to be 
thoroughly satisfactory, provided that carbonates were entirely removed by 
prolonged treatment with sulphurous acid. In this work he was assisted by 
Mr. W. A. Peake, and the results were brought before the Chemical Society 
in the names of Warington and Peake. 
Warington’s results from the examination of the rain and drainage water, 
together with results previotsly obtained at Rothamsted, formed the subject 
of a very long report published in the names of the three investigators in the 
‘Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society’ for 1882. The subject, however, 
continued to occupy Warington’s attention long after this date, and we find 
a report on the subject in the three joint names in 1883, and papers by 
Warington alone in 1889 and 1887. The last-mentioned paper is an 
important contribution* to the study of well waters, and deals with the wells 
in the chalk formation on which Harpenden is situated. In later years (1904) 
Warington was enabled to give these results a practical bearing on the 
supposed contamination of the Harpenden water supply, and he saved the 
community, at any rate, for a time, from adopting an expensive, and, 
apparently, quite unnecessary system of sewerage. 
So far, Warington’s work, as here described, consisted largely of examining 
and perfecting methods of analysis for use in agricultural research. For this 
work the precision of his nature, and the carefulness of his manipulation 
pre-eminently fitted him, and most of the methods of analysis which he 
elaborated have been accepted as standard methods, which promise to remain 
in use for many years to come. The remainder of his work, however, is that 
by which he made his name, and, if a strictly chronological © sequence of 
events had been followed, it should have been mentioned earlier in this 
notice, for it was in 1877 that he began to study nitrification, and this subject 
occupied the foremost place in his mind till 1891, when his opportunities for 
pursuing the subject ceased. During this period he published about ten 
* “Journ. Chem. Soc.,’ pp. 500—552. 
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