Abstract
REPORTING on the work of the Government Labora tory for the year ended March 31, 1934 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1934. 9d, net), the Govern ment Chemist, Sir Robert Robertson, refers inter alia to the frequent necessity for investigating work in connexion with chemical tests on imported goods and articles of commerce. He briefly summarises the results of tests applied to dairy products, and once again mentions that there is no standard, as regards fat content, for cream in Great Britain, and no regulations relating to the marking of skimmed or partially skimmed milk cheese. A curious incrustation on the surface of stored marine shells was found to consist of calcium acetate. The shells had been stored in drawers of oakwood, which is known to evolve traces of acetic acid continuously, and the effect w,as attributed to the localised action of acetic acid attracted by the deliquescent residue from sea-water salts. Among the great variety of duties per formed by the Laboratory during the year, in addition to numerous analyses of foods, drugs, fertilisers, water, beverages, dyes, oils, silk, etc., were the restoration of medals and plaques for the Imperial War Museum, detection of the fraudulent use of stamps, a search for the cause of earthy flavour in fish, complete analyses of rocks for the Geological Survey, the recovery of radium from decayed luminous paint, and the examination of materials purchased for the public service.
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The Government Laboratory. Nature 134, 599 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134599a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134599a0