"SECTION 3. The ink so furnished shall be examined from time to time by a chemist to be designated by the secretary of the Commonwealth, and if at any time said ink shall be found to be inferior to the established standard the secretary shall have authority to cancel any contract made for furnishing said ink, and the quantity so found inferior shall not be paid for." Professor Markoe, referred to before, was appointed "chemist" by the Secretary of the Commonwealth and prepared what he considered the best formula, for a standard ink, which was competed for by a number of ink manufacturers after proper advertisement, and a contract awarded. Mr. Swan says that this departure was received with favor by recording officers. No change was made in the formula until after the death of Professor Markoe in 1900, when Dr. Bennett F. Davenport of Boston was selected as his successor. He submitted a modified formula to be employed in the manufacture of an official or standard ink. It was adopted and such an ink is without exception now used by all recording officers of both Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 1901 the United States treasury department adopted a similar ink except that it permitted the introduction into it of an unnamed blue coloring material. Early in 1894 and during the legislative session of the state of New York, after consultation with General Palmer, the then secretary of state, I prepared a bill somewhat on the lines as laid down in the Massachusetts statute. The press all over the state at once took up the matter and urged that some such measure should be enacted into law. A New York City newspaper discussed it as follows: "A bill is to be introduced in the legislature this week, probably to-morrow night, providing for an official ink to be used by every public officer throughout the State of New York in the writing of public documents and in making entries in the records. "The official ink is for the purpose of making public records permanent and to guard against fraud by the alteration of the records. As the law stands at the present time in the state every official, whether municipal, county or state, is allowed to purchase and use for the records of his office whatever ink he may choose. The consequence is that there is no uniformity in public records throughout the state, and entries, transcripts and certificates are written with hundreds of various kinds of inks.