December 28, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
509 
annamtfical |ournal. 
-o- 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2S, 1S72. 
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PUBLIC ANALYSTS. 
For some years past it lias been evident that 
there is a growing need for an organized system of 
■ dealing with certain questions of public interest, 
involving exercise of chemical knowledge and skill, 
especially of that technical nature which is requi¬ 
site in conducting analysis. The various chemical 
questions affecting the Revenue have hitherto gene¬ 
rally been dealt with in special laboratories attached 
to the Customs or the ExciseMepartments under the 
direction of chemists who have gained experience in 
those departments, and in this way all requirements 
have been to that extent satisfied. But recent sani¬ 
tary legislation lias had the effect of raising, directly 
or indirectly, a multitude of other questions, for the 
solution of which chemical knowledge is required, 
nnd in many such cases the evidence of analytical 
data is indispensable. The v r ant thus manifested 
has been to some extent met by the appointment of 
such officers as the inspectors under the Alkali Act, 
the inspectors of lime juice and the Rivers Pollution 
-Commissioners, as well as by making the laboratories 
and chemical staff of the Excise or Customs de¬ 
partments available for any inquiry involving che¬ 
mical or microscopical work. The Health Bill in¬ 
troduced by Mr. Stanseeld last Session contained 
'clauses providing for the analysis of v T ater supplied 
for domestic purposes, of matters polluting streams, 
and of samples of food supposed to be adulte¬ 
rated, etc. ■* and although this part of the measure 
was deferred for the present, something of the same 
kind was carried in the Adulteration Act by the 
provision for appointment of analysts under that Act. 
These various official recognitions of the necessity 
for chemical services may perhaps not unreasonably 
be regarded as foreshadowing the establishment of a 
department of State chemistry, much of the same 
general character as the department of State medi¬ 
cine which has done so much public service as a 
branch of the Privy Council, and has lately been 
merged in the nevdy constituted Local Government 
Board. When the Health Act of last session is 
supplemented by more detailed legislative enact¬ 
ments, it may be expected that the very general need 
* See Phakm, Journal [3] vol. II. p. 756. 
for chemists’ services will constitute an inducement 
for more general qualification in this respect on the 
part of those engaged in trade as druggists, and, at 
the same time, offer an opportunity of improvement 
in the character of the trade. The systematic testing 
of gas and water, as u r ell as such other demands of 
the kind as may arise from time to tune, must, v T e 
imagine, be provided for in future by some system 
more certain and convenient than the chance pre¬ 
sence of a person competent to conduct such work, 
or the recourse to chemists in the metropolis. Very 
much of such work will be matter of daily routine, 
and must, therefore, be carried out by a person on 
the spot, though it is probably desirable that the plan 
on which it is done should be laid down and regu¬ 
lated by some central authority. The same may be 
said in regard to the analytical inquiries needed in 
cases of poisoning, or for other legal purposes. 
To take for instance the working of the Adultera¬ 
tion Act, if such a tiling be conceivable, there would 
be some five or six hundred appointments to be made 
throughout the kingdom, and w T e maintain that no 
class of persons would be more suitable for the pur¬ 
pose than pharmacists. 
It has been objected that the fact of a pharmacist 
being a tradesman would render him unfit for the 
office of analyst, or, as a correspondent expresses 
it, for “ sitting in judgment on the wares of his fellow- 
shopkeepers.” 
There is a narrow sort of plausibility about this 
objection, but even that is only apparent, and a 
moment’s consideration will show that it has no 
better basis than ignorance of the provisions of the 
Act, and of the nature of the analytical work requi¬ 
site in such cases. 
There is no sitting in judgment at all,—but 
merely the production of evidence that is required of 
the analyst; it is not even necessary or perhaps 
desirable for him to know whose are the “wares” 
submitted to the scrutiny of his art. Even if it 
should turn out to be his neighbour's ware which 
fails to bear this test, we cannot see that any one 
could be blamed but the defaulter. 
In reference to the functions of the analyst under 
the Adulteration Act, it may be well here to point 
out what seems to be a misinterpretation of the Act 
by Dr. Letheby, according to the report printed at 
p. 512, where he speaks of the analyst being clearly 
justified in directing the inspectors to purchase 
samples of articles suspected of adulteration. So 
far as we are able to read the Act, it confers no 
such dangerous power on the analyst, and although 
there is a strange absence of any indication who is to 
exercise the function of “ suspecting,” and thereupon 
to put the collecting inspectors in motion, there are 
many reasons for securing the entire independence 
of the analyst in this respect. 
It is with much regret that we have seen such a 
precipitate attempt made by medical men, or at least 
