The reasons for keeping samples in a dark, cool place are obvious. This is to prevent any increase in rancidity and any undue increase in free fatty acids. In the case of many fats the committee has found in its co-operative analytical work that free acid tends to increase very rapidly. This tendency is minimized by low temperatures. MOISTURE AND VOLATILE MATTER. After careful consideration the committee has decided that moisture is best determined in a vacuum oven of the design which accompanies the above report. Numerous results on check samples have confirmed the committee's conclusions. The oven recommended by the committee is constructed on the basis of well-known principles and it is hoped that this type will be adopted generally by chemists who are called upon to analyze fats and oils. The experiments of the committee indicate that it is a most difficult matter to design a vacuum oven which will produce uniform temperatures throughout; and one of the principal ideas in the design adopted is uniformity of temperature over the entire single shelf. This idea has not quite been realized in practice but, nevertheless, the present design approaches much closer to the ideal than other vacuum ovens commonly used. In the drawing the essential dimensions are those between the heating units and the shelf and the length and breadth of the outer casting. The standard Fat Analysis Committee Oven (F. A. C. Oven) can be furnished by Messrs. E. H. Sargent & Company, 125 West Lake street, Chicago. The committee realizes that for routine work a quicker method is desirable and has added one such method and has also stated the conditions under which comparable results can be obtained by means of the ordinary well-ventilated air oven held at 105 to 110deg. C. However, in accordance with a fundamental principle adopted by the committee at its first meeting, only one standard method is adopted and declared official for each determination. The committee realizes that in the case of all methods for determining moisture by means of loss on heating there may be a loss due to volatile matter (especially fatty acids) other than water. The title of the determination MOISTURE AND VOLATILE MATTER indicates this idea, but any considerable error from this source may occur only in the case of high acid fats and oils and particularly those containing lower fatty acids such as coconut and palm kernel oil. In the case of extracted greases which have not been properly purified, some of the solvent may also be included in the moisture and volatile matter determination, but inasmuch as the solvent, usually a petroleum product, can only be considered as foreign matter, for commercial purposes, it is entirely proper to include it with the moisture.