ed to make soap yield to ammonia, as sulphuric acid had in its
time succumbed to soap. For not only was ammonia of great importance
to us as a manufacturing nation, but it almost appeared to be a
condition of our existence. England had a large population
concentrated on an area so small as to make it almost a matter of
apprehension whether the surface could maintain the people upon it.

We were now importing almost as much food as we consumed, and were
thus more and more dependent on the foreigner. Under certain
conditions this would become a very serious matter, and thus any one
who showed how to produce plenty of ammonia at a cheap rate was a
benefactor to his country. Mr. Mond's process seemed to come nearer to
success than any which had preceded it, and it needed no words from
him to induce the meeting to accord a hearty vote of thanks to the
president for his admirable paper.

Mr. J. C. Stevenson, M.P., in seconding the motion, said that no paper
could be more interesting and valuable to the society than that
delivered by the president. It opened out a future for the advancement
of chemical industry which almost overcame one by the greatness of its
possibilities. Mr. Mond had performed an invaluable service by
investigating the various methods proposed for the manufacture of
ammonia, and clearing the decks of those processes supposed by their
inventors to be valuable, but proved by him to be delusive. It gave
him hearty pleasure therefore to second the vote of thanks proposed by
Sir Lowthian Bell.

The vote having been put and carried by acclamation, after a brief
reply from the president:

The secretary read the report of the scrutators, which showed that 158
ballot papers had been sent in, 154 voting for the proposed list
intact, and four substituting other names. The gentlemen nominated in
the list issued by the Council were therefore declared elected.

* * * * *

In his brief report for the year ending May 1, 1889, the director of
the Pasteur Institute, Paris, announces the treatment of 1,673
subjects, of whom 6 were seized with rabies during and 4 within a
fortnight after the process. But 3 only succumbed after the treatment
had been completely carried out, making 1 death in 554, or, including
all cases, 1 in 128.

* * * * *

ALKALI MANUFACTORIES.

When the alkali, etc., Works Regulation Act was passed in 1881, it was
supposed