Annual  Report  for  1909  of  the  Consulting  Chemist.  339 
When  a bull  is  known  to  be  contaminated  the  sheath  and 
penis  ought  to  be  disinfected  several  times  with  intervals  of 
a few  days,  and  even  then  it  is  always  best  not  to  use  the 
animal  for  service  for  some  weeks.  When  once  a bull  has 
been  found  to  transmit  the  disease  it  is  never  safe  to  con- 
clude that  recovery  has  taken  place  until  he  has  served  a 
cow  without  infecting  her. 
Finally,  when  a new  bull  is  introduced  into  a herd,  it  is 
a common-sense  precaution  to  keep  a sharp  look-out  for  any 
indications  of  vaginitis  in  the  first  cow  or  heifer  that  he  serves. 
Koyal  Veterinary  College,  J*  McFADYBAN. 
London,  N.W. 
ANNUAL  REPORT  FOR  1909  OF  THE 
CONSULTING  CHEMIST. 
There  has  been  a satisfactory  increase  this  year  in  the  number 
of  samples  sent,  for  analysis,  by  Members  of  the  Society.  As 
against  408  in  1908,  the  number  has  risen  in  1909  to  485. 
The  detailed  list  of  these  is  given  at  the  end  of  this  Report. 
In  addition  there  were  186  samples  of  milk  and  65  of  cider  and 
perry  analysed  in  connection  with  the  Society’s  Country  Show 
at  Gloucester. 
The  most  marked  features  of  the  year  as  concerns  the  supply 
of  feeding  materials  has  been  a general  rise  of  price  in  these, 
particularly  in  linseed  cake,  and  the  introduction  of  a new 
article — Soya  bean  cake.  As  regards  fertilisers  there  is  no  great 
change  to  record,  and  the  new  nitrogenous  materials,  calcium 
cyanamide  and  calcium  nitrate,  have  hardly  come  as  yet  into 
general  use  in  this  country. 
Reverting  to  observations  made  in  my  last  Annual  Report,  it 
is  satisfactory  to  state  that  the  practice  of  gross  adulteration  of 
offals  then  instanced,  has,  by  the  adoption  of  energetic 
measures,  now  been  put  an  end  to.  Attention  was  drawn  to 
the  mixing  of  sawdust  and  gypsum  and  the  sale  of  the  mixture 
under  the  name  “ Shudes.”  Bran,  middlings,  and  other  offals 
were  similarly  found  to  be  frequently  adulterated  in  this  way. 
After  careful  establishment  of  the  facts  of  several  cases  of 
adulteration  of  this  kind,  prosecutions  under  the  Fertilisers 
and  Feeding  Stuffs  Act  were  instituted  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  and  heavy  penalties  against  the  principal  offending  firms 
were  obtained,  with  the  happy  result  of  almost  entirely  breaking 
up  the  traffic  in  the  spurious  material.  The  Royal  Agricultural 
Society  of  England  took  a very  prominent  part  in  urging  on 
these  prosecutions,  and  it  is  largely  to  its  exertions  that  so 
successful  an  issue  was  brought  about. 
