The late Dr. Voelcher. 
317 
sidering the number of Members the Society includes ; but it is 
high as representing the degree in which guarantee of value is 
increasingly sought, or analytical knowledge is increasingly 
appreciated. 
The foregoing list does not, however, at all adequately repre- 
sent the extent to which such knowledge is had recourse to by 
the agricultural interest at large. A very large, and largely 
increasing amount, of analytical work is done, not only for 
farmers themselves, but for the importers or manufacturers of 
the articles they need, in the numerous private laboratories, 
several of which have been established by those who have been 
trained by Dr. Voelcker himself, in his own private laboratory 
in Salisbury Square. Finally on this point, it is of interest, 
and it is at the same time significant of the good that has been 
accomplished, that in his Reports Dr. Voelcker has occasionally 
referred to the increase or diminution in the number of analyses 
of individual articles, as indicating the prevailing doubt or 
anxiety as to their quality at the time, or the admission of sub- 
stantial improvement as the result of investigation or of public 
discussion. 
The subject of Milk and the Dairy, which is one of rapidly 
growing importance to the British farmer, was early taken 
up by Dr. Voelcker. In connection with it he executed a 
great amount of analytical work, made many experiments in 
dairy management, gave several lectures, and published not 
a few papers recording existing knowledge, and the numerous 
results of his own investigations. 
His first paper on the subject in this ' Journal ' appeared in 
1861. In it were recorded the results of nearly seventy analyses 
of milk, cheese, and whey ; including those of new milk, of 
eleven different descriptions of cheese, and of many samples of 
whey. The various stages of the manufacture, and the practical 
mistakes frequently committed in the conduct of them, were dis- 
cussed. In 1862 he published the results of numerous actual 
experiments in the making of cheese — from whole milk, from 
partially skimmed milk, from skimmed milk, and from new 
milk with cream added. He gave the analyses of the cheese, 
in some cases of the whey, and in some of the original milk 
also. In 1863 he published a paper in this ' Journal,' entitled 
' Milk,' in which he discussed the physical and chemical cha- 
racters of milk, its chief organic compounds, and their com- 
position, and the composition of its mineral matter ; described 
dairy arrangements ; gave the composition of cream, of skimmed 
milk, and of whole milk under different circumstances of pro- 
duction, as to the period of the milking, the time after calving, 
drawn morning or evening, at different seasons of the year, with 
