May 21, 1875.

should be made use of for the purpose of advertising. | to enlarge that section, so that the Medical Officer of I see that several other Health can have those articles analysed, and Public Of course that might be the case. But if it be a sanitary points have been mentioned, and I hope that the Council Analysts appointed in each county. That is why I think will see whether they can manage to bring this before the the principle is entirely erroneous. Government. I am afraid that this is the last public act, then it should be consolidated with the Consolidated occasion upon which we may have an opportunity of Sanitary Act, and carried out entirely by sanitary commisspeaking before this Bill passes the House of Commons. sioners, and not by a mixture of chemists and public I should like to hear some further remarks made, because officers. Then I would also urge upon the Council the it will be the most important business we can do this amendment of that clause appointing no less than five evening to really fairly settle this question. Some of the inspectors to take samples. If it be a sanitary Bill, then papers may very fairly wait, but this is a matter which let the sanitary officials carry out its provisions. If it be a Bill based upon fraud, a proper man to collect samples cannot wait. is a police-constable, or, at all events, the police force. I cannot understand this mixture of sanitary officers and The Act by which we hold our appointpolicemen. There should be but one person appointed ments appointed three officers, and that, I believe, is There is another point to too many. by the legal authority. which I think due prominence has not been given, and I would urge upon the Council to try and get an amendment in that respect, and that is, that it should be equally carried out all over the country, and that it should be compulsory. It is a very curious thing that it is about the only Act which does harm if not fully carried out. For example, if you are extremely active in one particular county, and the neighbouring county is not active, the adulterated goods are drafted from one county to the other. I have taken the counties, and made a table of them, which shows that the percentage of adulteration in the counties alone varies from 7 per cent to Now if we are all working equally upon 48 per cent. proper principles, it shows to my mind very clearly that there are some districts more sophisticated than others; that is, that the wholesale adulterator, if he has not a map in his office with the active districts marked with a particular colour, and the active towns marked with a particular colour, has it in his brain; and where the analyst is not there it is he drafts his goods. In twenty-seven counties no appointment appears to have taken place. Therefore, I think I am right in asking the Council to put this very strongly before the Government.

Mr. WIGNER-I think, perhaps, it would be better, even at the risk of a little informality, to answer questions at once. First, as to the 13th clause. I have personally urged twice upon Mr. Clare Sewell Read the alteration which is proposed in the 13th clause, and I received a half promise that the Government would make it; and, more than that, he promised to accept the amendment if put on the paper by a Member, and one now stands on the paper by Dr. Cameron, which will provide that the inspector will bring away out of the shop two out of the three portions. The Analyst will have the choice of which of the two he keeps. It is but an imperfect substitute, I admit, but it is the best that we have yet been able to get. As to the words in the certificate-"I retain the residue of the sample not consumed in the analysis herewith "-the Government explained distinctly that they did not mean by that the portion of the article which we have not used, but that they mean by it the portion referred to in the 14th section; that is, that when a sample is sent by post to the Analyst he shall send back the reference sample, and that is the portion that is referred to. The phraseology will, we hope, be altered in committee. As to the question of certificates, the Government have in their possession the new form of certificate which we have adopted; and, in addition on the paper in Dr. to that, an amendment is Cameron's name which virtually amounts to the same thing.

Mr. BLYTHE-I wish to urge upon the Council a few things in reference to this particular Bill. I, myself, undoubtedly, am very much obliged for the amendments proposed by the Council, and all the Analysts in the United Kingdom, I am sure, share my feeling of gratitude for the trouble they have taken. But there are two ways of looking at a Bill-the one microscopically, and the other as a whole; and I think that, as far as I have heard or read hitherto, the Council have rather looked at it clause by clause, and not looked upon it as a whole. I was extremely surprised to find that by their silence they have approved the principle upon which this B is based, as I have always held, that the sanitary Now if we look at the principle is most erroneous. adulteration laws in existence in Europe åt the present time, we find that the law of France is based upon fraud, with certain sanitary provisions. The law of Belgium only deals with the adulteration of food with noxious substances; and in other countries-in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy-the regulations are, I know, entirely sanitary. But why is that? It is because they have no sanitary laws like our own. Now, it so happens, that the sanitary officers of the United Kingdom can deal most effectually with foods at the present time if they are injurious to health; so that, after looking at it from that one single point of view alone, if the legislature wishes to make a Bill for dealing with things with that one single point of view, all that they have to do is to enlarge the rooth and 110th sections of the present Consolidated Public Health Bill, which will be shortly considered in Parliament. Those sections consolidate various Acts relating to food, and give powers to the Medical Officers of Health to inspect, examine, and, if necessary, seize any animal, carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, flour, or milk exposed for sale; so that if the legislature wished to make a Bill merely for the protection of the public health, all that they would have to do would be

Mr. WANKLYN-I should wish to make a few remarks on the question of the object of this Act. Touching the desire to make this an Act to put a stop to fraud, there are great practical difficulties in the way of any enactment dealing with fraud; but really this Act appears to me to be partly a sanitary Act, and partly an Act for dealing in a much more stringent manner than with the mere question of fraud. We do actually propose to punish people, not when they are not sufficiently vigilant, but we propose to punish dealers for ignorance, for carelessness, and for fraud; and we do not propose to pass any judgment as to which of these dealers have offended. It appears to me that, in this respect, the Act is very wide indeed. The Act would be almost unworkable with our laws if we were to require the proof of fraud against people; but, if we are not required to prove fraud, and if all that we have to do is to show that the articles of food do not come up to the value, and so punish a man either for fraud, or for want of knowledge, or for negligence, I think the Act better for the community than if we were to deal simply with fraud. I regard the Act as a very broad one.

Dr. STEVENSON--With regard, Sir. to the division of samples, I may state that, ever since I have been an Analyst, in two of my districts the process of division of samples has been carried out under legal advice, in a manner which is almost-I may say certainly-identical with that which Mr. Wigner has explained to be proposed as an amendment on the new Bill, and it is this:-That, when the sample is procured by the inspector, he divides with the vendor, and the other two portions are brought it into three portions, one of which he seals up and leaves to me, both sealed, by the inspector. One of these is divided, and the other is not divided, but is retained; so that if, in case the vendor should produce an analysis rebutting my own, there would be the sample which wa

226

Society of Public Analysts.

CHEMICAL NEWS,
May 21, 1875.

taken by the inspector in his presence, and which the | it sanctions, or authorises, any purchaser of an article to vendor has had an opportunity of putting his seal upon at take such article to an Analyst and get it analysed for a the time it was procured. In this way there would be small fee, which shall not exceed half-a-guinea; and the three samples, so that any tampering with the sample objection I take to be founded very much upon this: that could at once be detected. I may state that this has been the certificate so obtained may be used for the purposes of carried on with many hundreds of samples, and that no advertisement. I presume that many Analysts have occadifficulty has arisen except in one case, where the vendor sionally to do what I am sometimes called upon to do, disputed my analysis of butter, and procured a certificate namely, to analyse privately, and not officially, articles of another analyst, to the effect that the sample which he which may also, under other circumstances, go before the had sent him was unadulterated. That same analyst sub- official Analyst through the inspector. That is to say, sequently, on analysing my sample, agreed with me, and grocers will sometimes send samples of tea, or other said that it was adulterated. That was the only case in articles, to be analysed. I have always made it a practice which any difficulty arose. I cannot make out that in that to refuse to issue certificates in such cases on any other case there was any tampering with the sample; but it condition than that the certificate shall refer to the article seems rather that the analyst had changed his opinion. I merely under a certain letter and number; and I never With regard to the approval of the Bill, I think the Council introduce into the certificate the name of the person from would energetically repudiate any such statement as that whom the article is received; and I do not see anything they approved the Bill as it went before Parliament. The in the Bill, as it stands, that requires the Analyst to do original Bill, as first printed, met with a most energetic anything more than to indicate who the party is from opposition on the part of this Council. The effect has whom he has received the article. Without the name, I been that the original Bill, which has been passed pro do not see how the certificate could be used for the purforma, is virtually a new Bill altogether. pose of advertisement in the manner indicated.

Mr. JONES-There seems to me one difficulty about the division of the sample into four portions, as proposed by Dr. Stevenson, and it would arise in the case of bulky.or extensive samples. Taking beer as an instance, where we require half a gallon of beer for an analysis, you see the amount of bulk that the inspector would have to carry about with him. In order to deliver his samples, he would have to take, according to Dr. Stevenson, about three gallons.

or

Dr. TRIPE-I do not propose to go into a discussion with regard to any part of the principle of the Bill. I would merely point out that there is a somewhat singular misconception that five persons may obtain the samples, or that five persons might be appointed by the authorities to obtain them. The words of the 12th section are clear: "Any Medical Officer of Health, Inspector of Nuisances, "(not and) "Inspector of Weights and Measures, or inspector of a market, or any police constable, at the direction and at the cost of the local authority, appointing such officer, inspector, or constable, may procure any sample of food or drugs." Now, in the face of those disjunctives, I cannot think how anybody could take them as the copulatives, and say "and" in every case where the Bill has distinctly stated "or." I may say that the Council held a long meeting, and that they gave a vast amount of time-I know, for myself, that it has been time that I could very badly spare in discussing this Bill, and we are satisfied that we have had it materially altered, and have obtained an alteration for the better; but we do not approve of it as it stands, although we think that it is better to get the best you can than to oppose it tooth and nail, and say, "We will have nothing to do with it if you do not alter it as we wish." My opinion is, in these matters, that the law of England has been to a great extent a matter of compromise between party and party, and those who are so extremely ultra, as a rule, get nothing. If you can make a good compromise, I think it is far better than to go farther and

fare worse.

Mr. WIGNER-The Council have proposed very strongly that the Government should make the appointment of Analysts compulsory, and the last reply was"When you can pass a law which can compel a sufficient number of capable analysts to be found in every town, then we will make the Act compulsory, but not until then." They evidently have an opinion that it is utterly impossible to find competent analysts everywhere. As to the division of the samples, I may say that I have pressed it as strongly as possible; therefore, all that can be done as to the sealing of the samples has been done.

Dr. REDWOOD-I would just like to offer one remark in reply to what has been said by Dr. Dupré-merely an explanation. Dr. Dupré seemed to think that the 11th clause, as it stands, would be objectionable, inasmuch as

Dr. DUPRE-I think you will see, if you read the certificate, that it is headed-"To Mr. So-and-so, and all whom it may concern." The Analyst is obliged to state that he has received from Mr. So-and-so a sample of such and such an article. I say the law, coupled with the certificate, is very objectionable. Either one by itself might not be objectionable.

Mr. SUTTON-My name has been mentioned in connection with the suggestion with regard to those who are connected with pharmacy-for instance, having anything to do as Public Analysts. Well, I can quite see a great deal of force in that. I can quite see the objection that is taken, on theoretical grounds, to anybody who is concerned in any business-in a pharmaceutical or dispensing business, and so on-having anything to do with a matter of this kind. But, at the same time, I can quite excuse myself personally, as I can excuse other people too, from being involved necessarily in any complication in the matter, just in the same way in which I am concerned. I happen to be the chemist of the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture, and I happen, also, to be a manufacturer of manures on a very large scale, and I do not know at all what samples come to me. They come to me quite independently of my own knowledge, and I can. not tell my samples from any other person's samples; and I might condemn myself readily, as I might condemn other people, without knowing who was who. If you know that you have a man whom you can depend upon, it does not much matter. We cannot find analysts in every corner of the country, or just everywhere; and we must find men who have got special experience. And I must say, with regard to pharmaceutical chemists, that their botanical education and other studies, which are well calculated to instruct them in many things connected with this investigation, very much fits them for the post of Analyst. But I cannot get rid of the feeling in my mind that Í should not like to have the appointments put into the hands of those people exclusively, or even largely. At the same time, if you can depend upon the people having the skill for it, there need not be any objection. Of course, they can be checked in every way. If there is any trickery, it will soon be found out, and it seems to me that, so long as you get hold of the right man, it does not matter what he may be. The rule that would exclude everybody in the business is a mistake, but still it has its claims; and, having said that, I leave it.

A METHOD OF DETERMINING THE FUSING-
POINTS OF FATS.
By ARTHUR ANGELL.
Principle.

IF a weight be placed upon the top of the cold fat, the
fusing-point of which is to be estimated, it will sink as

NEWS

soon as the fat is so far liquefied as to present less resistance than the weight can overcome.

If this sinking be found constant, and a given weight be universally used, reference tables of relative sinking or fusing-points may be constructed for all fats; and if mixtures of fats be found to behave in accordance with the figures set down in these tables, then the qualitative and percentage composition of a given mixture may be approximately estimated.

The most convenient form of weight is that of a glass bulb containing mercury, the gravity of which is of course not arbitrary: all our figures are, however, based upon one weight, and of course-if our tables are to be of any use that same weight must be adopted.

The bulb is made by blowing a small globe on the end of a piece of glass tubing of inch outside diameter, and drawing it off with a tapering neck, very near the bulb. By this means a pear-shaped float is obtained. Sufficient mercury should be introduced to cause the bulb to weigh 34 grms., which is the weight of the bulb used in our experiments.

The bulb should displace, as near as possible, I c.c. of water, when immersed in a burette. Absolute accuracy is not necessary, since it was found that a slight difference -say from 5 to 10 milligrammes-in weight, or a little variation in shape, does not materiaily affect the results. Butter and mixtures of it with other fats are the fatty substances with which food analysts will have mostly to deal: our researches have, therefore, been pushed in that particular direction, and only those fats have been tested which are likely to be used as adulterants of butter.

By using such a weight as that described above the sinking-point of all butters comes within the limits of 3 degrees, and any number of observers witnessing an experiment would agree when to read the thermometer. Beef, mutton, pork, and other fats, are also equally constant, provided that they are taken from the same part of the animal.

Sussex butter..
Normandy butter
Butter from Ventnor

Jersey butter..'
Butter from Guildford

Salt butter from Ventnor

Average of twenty-four samples

(Varying from 34°3° to 36'3°.)

Adulterated Butters."

Ox fat
Mutton fat
Lard..
Dripping

from beef

veal

mixed

53'3° C.

313

from 48.3 to 53.0t

from 501 to 51.6

from 42.1 to 45'3

To take the sinking-point of a butter, place 20 or 30 grms. in a dish or beaker, and melt in the water-bath: when quite fluid pour into a test-tube, of inch interior diameter and about 6 inches long, until filled to within about 2 inches of the top. Keep the tube warm until the whole of the water, casein, and salt has sunk, and left a perfectly clear fat; now solidify, by immersing the tube in water of 15° C. temperature. Immerse the tube containing the sample in cold water, contained in a beaker of the capacity of 1 litre: the top of the fat must be about I inches below the surface of the water. A convenient method of fixing the tube in position is to pass it through a hole drilled in a piece of wood, and placed across the top of the beaker: by this means two or more sinking- 667 per cent butter and 33.3 tallow points may be taken at the same time. Having fixed the tube in an upright position, drop the bulb on to the surface of the fat. The arrangement is now complete, and heat may be applied by means of a Bunsen burner, raised so as to just touch the sand-bath. The water should now be stirred at intervals, and the thermometer read off just as the whole of the globular part of the bulb has sunk ON A METHOD OF TAKING THE MELTINGbeneath the fat.

POINT OF FATS.

By CHARLES HEISCH.

THERE is nothing either original or novel in the method of taking the melting-points of fats which I have to describe to-day; but as it has yielded in my hands better results than any other which I have tried, and as experience has taught me the precautions necessary to ensure concordant results, I have thought it worth while to bring the method, and more particularly the said precautions, under your notice.

The method is a very slight modification of one described some thirty-five years ago by a gentleman who was at that time a pupil in the Laboratory of University College,

Proved to be adulterated by subsequent treatment.

228

Chemical Notices from Foreign Sources.

in a paper in which he pointed out the fact that some fatty |
bodies had two melting-points. Glass tubes, of about
o2 inch bore, are drawn out at the end till almost capil-
lary, the capillary portion being about 3 inches long.
The melted fat is drawn into this to the height of about
I inch, and allowed to cool; in the original plan the end
of the tube was sealed, but since that time it has become
customary to leave it open. The tube is then placed, to-
gether with a thermometer, in a beaker of water, the part
of the tube containing the fat being on a level with the
bulb of the thermometer, which should be at least 2 inches
from the bottom of the beaker. Heat should be now
applied very gradually, the temperature being raised at
the rate of about 1° F. per minute, and the moment watched
at which the fat rises in the tube. The experiment is
made by placing one beaker within another, the tube and
thermometer being in the inside beaker, there being
2 inches of water at the bottom of the inner beaker and
I inch at least round it. I always take the melting-point
in two different tubes, and when two beakers are employed
the difference will never be more than about a degree.
When only one beaker is employed accidental circum-
stances will sometimes cause a warm current of water to
rise against the tube, and make a greater discrepancy in
the results; but the difference between two experiments
is never great, as may be seen from the following results
obtained from butter-fats freed entirely from curd and
water. I may mention that No. 1 is the fat of absolutely
pure butter, to which no salt had been added. The others
are believed to be pure butters. The difference in the
melting-point of No. 1 and the others is very marked.
The experiment with No. I was repeated five times, the
largest differences being those indicated in the table.

No. I
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
No. 6

No. 7
Lard
Suet

30'9

87:5

30.6

87

32.2 90'0

32.2

90

33°0

91.5

32.8

32.2

I should mention that all shaking of the beaker should be avoided. A person walking heavily across the room will make several degrees difference in the apparent fusing-point.

CHEMICAL NEWS,
May 21, 1875.

We are

attempt to get the word "finally" struck out.
glad, for the credit of the House of Commons, that he
was equally unsuccessful in both efforts.

Clause 24, which provides a method of escape for a retailer innocently selling adulterated goods, where he can produce a written warranty of purity from the wholesale dealer, was hotly contested, and it was amusing to see the change of front on the part of members representing "trade" interests. Hitherto their contention has been that adulteration is all a myth; but when asked to display the courage of their opinions by guaranteeing their customers from loss by means of a warranty, they protested vehemently against having to do anything of the kind. The fairness of the provision being, however, obvious to all unprejudiced persons, and the President of the Local Government Board insisting that unless the words were retained the whole Bill would fall to the ground, the clause was agreed to.

Various other amendments were considered, some minor ones were accepted, and ultimately, as we have said, the Bill passed through Committee.

We hope to present our readers with a copy of the Bill, as it now stands, very shortly, and we will reserve any further remarks until we are able to do so.

CORRESPONDENCE.

MELTING-POINTS OF FATS.

To the Editor of the Chemical News. THE author of "An Easy Method of Taking the MeltingPoint of Fats" (CHEMICAL NEWS, vol. xxxi., p. 205, 1875) does not seem to know that his process has long been in use, and is published in at least one manual, "Chemistry; General, Medical and Pharmaceutical (Van Voorst), at page 313 of the first edition of that work (1867), and in each of the subsequent editions the following sentences

Occur:

"Heat a fragment of the substance till it liquefies, and then draw up a small portion into a thin glass tube about the size of a knitting needle. Immerse the tube in cold water contained in a beaker and slowly heat the vessel till the thin opaque cylinder of solid fat melts and becomes transparent; a delicate thermometer placed in the water indicates the point of change to the fifth of a degree."

The author of the paper proposes to record a softening point rather than the true melting-point of the fat. Why? T. A.

In order to try how far the water in the inner vessel was heated regularly throughout, experiments were made with thermometers at the surface and at different depths in the inner vessel, and when the temperature did not rise at a greater rate than 1° F. per minute the variation among CHEMICAL NOTICES FROM them was (after the water had reached about 75°) not more than o'25° F..

SOURCES.

FOREIGN

NOTE. All degrees of temperature are Centigrade, unless otherwise expressed.

des Sciences, No. 15, April 19, 1875.

"SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS BILL." THE Committee on this Bill was resumed on the 13th inst., and though there were still five pages of amend- Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie ments on the paper-such rapid progress was made that before the House rose the Bill passed through Committee, and was reported. It is needless to say that the majority of the amendments were either withdrawn or negatived, and many of them were so impracticable that their authors could never have seriously contemplated their being accepted by the House.

Clause 22 provides for appeals to Quarter Sessions, and gives power to such Courts to "finally determine the matter of such appeals."

In the previous clause, referring to the examination of in re, samples by the employés in Somerset House, Sir H. W. explanaeek endeavoured very hard to get the word "final" inclause, as ed, and in this clause he made an equally strenuous

The President (M. Fremy), in his opening address, paid MM. Crocé-Spinelli and Sivel. a tribute to the memory of the unfortunate aeronauts,

Second Note on the Theory of the Processes of Magnetisation.-J. M. Gaugain.-Not adapted for ab straction.

New Source of Magnetism.-M. Donato Tommasi. -If a current of steam at a pressure of 5 to 6 atmospheres is passed through a copper tube of 2 to 3 m.m. in diameter, and coiled spirally around an iron cylinder, the latter is magnetised so effectually that an iron needle, placed at the distance of some centimetres from the steam magnet,