ANALYST, in modern times, a person who is professionally skilled in chemical analysis. He may be called upon in the dis charge of his professional duties to analyse a very wide range of substances and report thereon with regard to their composition or their purity. Apart from private practitioners, analysts are em ployed by manufacturers, their duty being to exercise a constant watch over the processes of manufacture, to test the purity of raw materials used, and of the final product, and generally to engage in research work connected with the industry concerned. The services of analysts are constantly required in judicial en quiries, sometimes in purely criminal cases, sometimes in civil proceedings. In the case of criminal proceedings, the services of the local public analyst are usually employed, but in certain instances the official analyst of the British Home Office may be engaged. At the Government Laboratory, Clement's Inn Passage, London, W.C. a large staff of analysts examine foods, spirits, tobacco, etc., for import or excise duties and for other purposes. Under the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, 1927, agricultural analysts are appointed by every county council, whose duty is the analysis of fertilisers and feeding stuffs.
A British public analyst is an analyst appointed by a local authority for the purposes of the administration of the Sale of Food and Drugs and closely allied Acts. He must be possessed of definite qualifications and be a competent authority on the microscopy and chemical analysis of all articles of food and drink. He must also have studied pharmacology and therapeutics.
The Society of Public Analysts was founded in 1874, and membership of the Society is open to any practising analytical chemist.
In the United States there are, in addition to numerous laboratories dealing exclusively with the control of plant operations, many consulting laboratories whose work is largely on analytical problems. Many of these laboratories deal in specialties, as foodstuffs, clinical, pathological and forensic analysis, fuel and water, and iron and steel. A large share of the consulting work of university laboratories deals with analytical problems. The
the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture in 1862 (becoming a department represented in the cabinet in 1889) included a chemist. This branch developed through the Bureau of Chemistry (I goo) into the Bureau of Food, Drug and Insecti cide Investigation (1927), which is charged with the enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act (1906). A number of branch laborato ries assist in this work. Other analytical work on foods, drugs, fertilizers, soils, etc., is fostered by the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. The official methods of analysis are those of the Associa tion of Official Agricultural Chemists, with the exception of offi cial drugs, the methods for the analysis of which are found in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia. Supplementing the Bureau of Food, Drug and Insecticide investigation are the analytical laboratories and consulting chemists sponsored by the food commissioners of the several States under authority of their dairy, food and drug legislation. Most of this legislation is modelled after the Federal Food and Drugs Act. Agricultural analysis began in the agricul tural experiment stations, organized in conjunction with the land grant colleges which were fostered by the Morrill Act of 1862. The experiment stations were provided for further by the Hatch Act of 1887. Other analytical laboratories of full or semi-public standing are those of the customs service, public health service, and the geological survey and State and municipal boards of health. Associations dealing largely with problems of analytical chemistry include the Association of Official Agricultural Chem ists, the American Society for Testing Materials, the Association of Cotton-oil Chemists, the American Association of Cereal Chemists and the American Leather Chemists' Association. The majority of associations of this type publish their own journals and proceedings. Among societies of broader scope in which analytical procedures are given prominent attention are the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Public Health Association and the American Pharmaceutical Association.
