May 28, 1875.

SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS.

THE RECENT CASE OF ALLEGED ADULTERA-
TION OF BEER AT STOKE.

By A. DUPRÉ, Ph.D., &c.
THIS case has been noticed by several daily and weekly
papers, and made the occasion of more or less disparaging
remarks against analysts. All these papers seem, how-
ever, to have been entirely ignorant of the real facts of
the case, and I am therefore induced to give such of the
I am the more inclined to
facts as have come before me.
do so as I see that the House of Commons has rejected
Dr. Cameron's amendment on clause 13, requiring the
samples to be marked and sealed by the analyst. The
case will show, conclusively, the difficulties and dangers
which will have to be incurred when samples are allowed
to be divided by persons not familiar with the art of
securing them against being tampered with.

On March 19th I received a sample of beer from the Secretary of the Licensed Victualler's Protection, &c., &c., Society, in North Staffordshire, with the request to analyse the same. I was told, at the same time, that the beer had been reported against as adulterated with salt. I therefore estimated the chlorine no less than three times, twice by precipitation and weighing, once by neutralising, evaporating, charring, extracting with water, and estimating the chlorine, volumetrically, in the very The figure given is the On carefully neutralised solution. mean of these three fairly concordant results. March 31st I received a second sample of beer, from the magistrates' clerk at Stoke, for the purpose of analysing the same. No other information was given. I had, however, the strongest reason to believe that this sample was supposed to be from the same cask as the preceding one. I learnt afterwards that evidence to that effect had been In this case, also, the given before the magistrates. chlotine was estimated three times, and the mean taken. Having a larger quantity of beer at my disposal than I had in the first case, I examined this sample for some of the other substances stated to be sometimes used for the purpose of adulteration. Without wishing to give any decided opinion as to the substance actually used, I may state that an extract obtained from this beer, which would have contained any picrotoxin present, had a most markedly poisonous effect on fish; the extract obtained in the same way from pure beer is without effect. The following are the results of my analyses :

Chloride of sodium

Acetic acid

First Sample: Second Sample.

7'75
5'04

7.42 4:26

1.27

0'34

40'90

0.48

0'40 136.00 0'32

These two analyses were performed by myself, in exactly the same manner, within a few days of each other, and I need scarcely remark that the differences between the two, entirely irrespective of the enormous difference in the chloride of sodium, are very far beyond the errors of analysis.

Before analysts are sneered at, it would be well to make sure that they had really the same samples to deal with. In this case, fortunately, the two samples came into one hand, and the differences are such that there can be no doubt whatever that the samples submitted to me were not what they had been represented to be, viz., two samples of the same beer taken from the same cask

at the same time.

I trust that it is not too late even now for Parliament
to reconsider clause 13, with a view of inserting some
provision which will render such substitution of one
sample for another, if not absolutely impossible, at least
extremely difficult, and if nevertheless done, to render
the perpetrator liable to heavy punishment,
Westminster Hospital, May 22, 1875.

"THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS BILL." THIS Bill having now been read a third time in the House of Commons, we think it well to reprint its leading clauses, and have italicised the alterations which have been made since its introduction.

A reference to the CHEMICAL NEWS of February 26th,
tenour and the value of the alterations and modifications.
in which the original Bill was printed, will show the
As, however, Clause 5 is not only the principal acting
clause of the Bill, but has undergone more changes-and
those of more importance-than any other clause, we
submit a copy of it as it appeared in the Bill in February,
and also reprint it as it now stands.

Having already printed the Bill in extenso we deem it
unnecessary to reproduce the whole of the clauses, and
we therefore omit many of a formal character, possessing
the functions of the Analyst.
perhaps points of interest for lawyers, but not bearing on

Clause I simply repeals the Adulteration Acts of 1860 and 1872, the 3rd section of the "Sale of Poisons Ireland) Act," and the 24th section of the "Pharmacy 2. The term "food" shall include every article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water:

Act."

The term " drug" shall include medicine for internal or external use:

The term "county" shall include every county, riding, and division, as well as every county of a city or town not being a borough.

The term "justices" shall include any police and stipendiary magistrate invested with the powers of a justice of the peace in England, and any divisional justices in Ireland.

3. No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or rial so as to render the article injurious to health, with powder, any article of food with any ingredient or mateintent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall knowingly sell any such article so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under a penalty in each case not exceeding fifty pounds for the first offence; every offence, after a conviction for a first offence, shall be a misdemeanour, for which the person, on conviction, shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months with hard labour.

4. No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding as hereinafter described, mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any drug with any ingredient or material so as to affect injuriously the quality or potency of such drug, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall knowingly sell any such drug so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under the same penalty in each case respectively as in the preceding section for a first and subsequent offence.

Clause 5, as originally drawn :—

No person shall knowingly sell any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, and manded by the purchaser, quality of the article deunder a penalty of twenty pounds, except as herein is to say, exceptis excepted and provided; that

Where any matter mixed therewith for the purpose of rendering it porWhere a harmless ingretable, or of preserving it; dient is mixed with it for the purpose of rendering it

Clause 5, as it now appears:

No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of quality of the article dethe nature, substance, and manded by such purchaser, as herein excepted and prounder a penalty not exceedvided; that is to say, exing twenty pounds, except cept

Where any harmless matter or ingredient is mixed therewith for the purpose of rendering it portable or palatable, or of preserving it,

236

palatable or of improving
its appearance;
Where according to the
usage of trade it is sold in
a mixed state;

Where it is the subject of a patent in force, and is supplied in the state required by the specification of the patent;

Where British, colonial, or foreign spirits are reduced from their ordinary strength by persons licensed and paying duties under the excise;

Society of Public Analysts.

or of improving its appear-
ance, unless such matter is
used to conceal the inferior
quality of the article ;

Where the article named
is a proprietary medicine or
is the subject of a patent in
force, and is supplied in the
state required by the speci-
fication of the patent;
Where a drug is com-
pounded as hereinafter de-
scribed;

Where the article is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the process of collection or precon-paration.

Where a drug is compounded either in formity with a prescription of a registered medical practitioner or otherwise, according to the usage of trade;

Where the article is unavoidably mixed with some

extraneous matter.

Provided that no article shall be deemed to be within any of the exceptions above set forth, if the matter or ingredient mixed therewith shall have been added with intent fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight, or measure of the article.

6. No person shall sell any compound article of food which is not composed of ingredients in accordance with the demand of the purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

there is any Analyst appointed under this or any Act hereby repealed shall be entitled, on payment to such Analyst of a sum not exceeding ten shillings and sixpence, or if there be no such Analyst then acting for such place, to the Analyst of another place, of such sum as may be agreed upon between such person and the Analyst, to have such article analysed by such Analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result of his analysis.

13. The person purchasing any article with the intention of submitting the same to analysis shall, after the purchase shall have been completed, forthwith notify to the seller or his agent selling the article his intention to have the same analysed by the Public Analyst, and shall offer to divide the article into three parts to be then and there separated, and each part to be marked and sealed or fastened up in such manner as its nature will permit, and | shall, if required to do so, proceed accordingly, and shall deliver one of the parts to the seller or his agent.

He shall afterwards retain one of the said parts for future comparison, and submit the third part, if he deems it right to have the article analysed, to the Analyst.

14. If the seller or his agent do not accept the offer of the purchaser to divide the article purchased in his presence, the Analyst receiving the article for analysis shall divide the same into two parts, and shall seal or fasten up one of those parts and shall cause it to be delivered, either upon receipt of the sample or when he supplies his certificate to the purchaser, who shall retain the same for production in case proceedings shall afterwards be taken in the matter.

16. If any such officer, inspector, or constable, as above described, shall apply to purchase any article of food or any drug exposed to sale, or on sale by retail on any premises or in any shop or stores, and shall tender the price for the quantity which he shall require for the purpose of analysis, not being more than shall be reasonably requisite, and the person exposing the same for sale shall refuse to sell the same to such officer, inspector, or constable, such person shall be liable to a penalty of ten pounds.

No person shall sell any compounded drugs except the same shall be compounded in accordance with the demand of the purchaser, or with the prescription in writing of a registered medical practitioner, or with the regulations prescribed by the British Pharmacopoeia issued by the General Medical Council, or in Great Britain with a basis to be laid down by the Council of Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, or the Privy Council, or in accordance with the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, or in Ireland in accordance with the Aet of the Session of the 17. The certificate of the analysis shall be in the form thirty-third and thirty-fourth of Victoria, chapter twenty-set forth, or to the like effect. six, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

7. Provided that no person shall be guilty of any such offence as aforesaid in respect of the sale of an article of food or a drug mixed with any matter or ingredient not injurious to health, and not intended fraudulently to increase its bulk, weight, or measure, if at the time of delivering such article he shall supply to the person receiving the same a notice, by a label distinctly and legibly written or printed on or with the article, to the effect that the article is mixed.

8. No person shall, with the intent that the same may be sold in its altered state without notice, abstract from

an article of food any part of it so as to affect injuriously its quality, substance, or nature, and no person shall sell any article so altered without making disclosure of the alteration, under a penalty in each case not exceeding twenty pounds.

At the end of the 9th clause, which provides for the appointment of Analysts, the Government have added the following sub-section :- Provided that no person shall hereafter be appointed an Analyst for any place under this Section who shall be engaged, directly or indirectly, in any trade or business connected with the sale of food or drugs in such place.

10. The town council of any borough may agree that the Analyst appointed by any neighbouring borough, or for the county in which the borough is situated, shall act for their borough during such time as the said council shall think proper, and shall make due provision for the payment of his remuneration, and if such Analyst shall consent, he shall during such time be the Analyst for such borough for the purposes of this Act.

11. Any purchaser of an article of food or of a drug in any place being a district county city, or borough where

* Here insert the name of the person submitting the article for analysis. Here insert the name of the person delivering the sample. When the article cannot be conveniently weighed, this passage may be erased, or the blank may be left unfilled.

Here the Analyst may insert at his discretion his opinion as to whether the mixture (if any) was for the purpose of rendering the article portable or palatable, or of preserving it, or of improving the appearance, or was unavoidable, and may state whether in excess of what is ordinary, or otherwise, and whether the ingredients or materials mixed are or are not injurious to health. In the case of a certifi Analyst shall specially report whether any change had taken place is cate regarding milk, butter, or any article liable to decomposition, the the constitution o he article hat would interfere with the analysis.

18. Every Analyst appointed under any Act hereby repealed or this Act shall report quarterly to the authority appointing him the number of articles analysed by him under this Act during the foregoing quarter, and shall specify the result of each analysis and the sum paid to him in respect thereof, and such report shall be read at the next meeting of the authority appointing such Analyst, and every such authority shall annually transmit to the Local Government Board, at such time and in such form as the Board shall direct, a certified copy of the number of articles analysed.

21. The justices before whom any complaint may be made under this Act may, upon the request of either party, in their discretion cause any article of food or drug to be sent to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, who shall thereupon direct the chemical officers of their Depart ment at Somerset House to make the analysis, and give a certificate to such justices of the result of the analysis; and the expense of such analysis shall be paid by the complainant or the defendant, as the justices may by order

direct.

24. If the defendant, in any prosecution under this Act, prove to the satisfaction of the justices or court that he sold the article in the same state as when he himself purchased it, and that he purchased it as the same article in nature, substance, and quality as that demanded of him, and with a warranty in writing to that effect, he shall be discharged from the prosecution, but shall be liable to pay the costs incurred by the prosecutor, unless he shall have given due notice to him that he will admit at the hearing "the matters charged against him in the information.

papers will be read :-" On the Volumetric Estimation of Chlorides, in the Presence of Alkaline Phosphates," by W. C. Young (London); “Improvements in Butter Analysis," by Arthur Angell, F.R.M.S.; "The Decomposition of Milk," by E. L. Cleaver.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Advantages of the Separate System of Drainage.
By E. MONSON, Assoc. Inst. C.E. London: E. and
F. N. Spon.

the strictest sense of the term, should be kept separate
THE object of this pamphlet is to show that sewage, in
said that the more concentrated sewage can be kept, the
from surface-water, springs, &c. It need scarcely be
more economical becomes its treatment by any process
whatever. At the same time it can scarcely be denied
that the separate system involves a greater risk of nui-
flushed by storm-water. As an instance that doctors are
At present the drains are, from time to time,
not the only parties who differ among themselves, we may
mention that a certain eminent engineer, so far from
recommending the separate system, suggests that the
sewage of London should be diluted to four times its
present bulk.

sance.

Our author is an enthusiastic admirer of the water

closet system, which in practice has proved to be an 25. Every penalty imposed and recovered under this ingenious contrivance for introducing sewage-gases into Act shall be paid in the case of a prosecution by any noxious matters to ferment in the dust-bin. He seems our houses, and which leaves a variety of putrescible and officer, inspector, or constable of the authority who shall to entertain an amusingly exaggerated opinion of the have appointed an Analyst or agreed to the acting of an Analyst within their district, to such officer, inspector, or effects produced by his pamphlet "The Sewage Difficulty constable, and shall be by him paid to the authority for Exploded." We certainly have failed to trace any change whom he acts, and be applied towards the expenses of in public opinion to its appearance. Whether or no executing this Act, any Statute to the contrary notwith-value, and if we only go on pouring it into the sea we sewage has a commercial value, it has an agricultural standing; but in the case of any other prosecution the must ultimately run short of fertilising matter. same shall be paid and applied in England according to supply of phosphates and of potash is not unlimited, and the law regulating the application of penalties for offences in proportion as the nearer sources are exhausted, and as punishable in a summary manner, and in Ireland in the other nations compete with us more and more, prices manner directed by the Fines Act, Ireland, 1851, and the Acts amending the same.

26. Any person who shall forge, or shall utter, knowing it to be forged for the purposes of this Act, any certificate or any writing purporting to contain a warranty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be punishable on conviction by imprisonment for a term of not exceeding two years with hard labour;

Every person who shall wilfully apply to an article of food or a drug, in any proceedings under this Act, a certificate or warranty given in relation to any other article or drug, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and be liable to a penalty of twenty pounds;

Every person who shall give a false warranty in writing to any purchaser in respect of an article of food or a drug sold by him, as principal or agent, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and be liable to a penalty of twenty pounds;

And every person who shall wilfully give a label with any article sold by him which shall falsely describe the article sold, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and be liable to a penalty of twenty pounds.

34. This Act shall commence on the first day of October one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.

35. This Act may be cited as "The Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875."

A MEETING of the Society will be held on Wednesday next, the 2nd of June, at Cannon Street Hotel, at 4 o'clock P.M., when "The Sale of Food and Drugs Bill," which has now passed the third reading in the House of Commons, will be again considered And the following

must rise.

The

Mr. Monson seems inclined to treat the sewage with lime, and either use the effluent for irrigation or run it into the rivers. This process must, in any case, expel the ammonia, and fail to throw down the alkaline salts. London-we would venture to say it would prove a diffi. As to the sludge produced--e.g., from the sewage of culty scarcely dreamt of in his philosophy.

Fragmentary Papers on Science and Other Subjects. By the late SIR H. HOLLAND, Bart. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.

64

WE have here a collection of essays on a great variety of subjects, few of which have any direct connection with chemistry or physics. Of these the most noteworthy are those entitled "Matter and Force in Physical Phenomena;" "On Mattér, Force, and Motion in Space;" Divisibility of Matter;" and "The Electric Element." These essays display a very peculiar character. Did we know nothing of their authorship, we should, from internal evidence, feel compelled to pronounce them the work of one thoroughly versed in the results of modern science and feeling a warm interest in its progress, yet, in his own nature, rather a metaphysician than a physicist. So long as he describes the conclusions of others he is scientific, but the moment he attempts to add anything of his own he diverges insensibly into ontology. He seeks for definitions of force, matter, space, life, electricity. Not content with the research into phenomena he strives to penetrate into noumena, and puts questions which have hitherto proved barer, because

238

Chemical Notices from Foreign Sources.

their solution does not lie within the limits of our capacities. He asks, as did the thinkers of earliest antiquity, "What are these unseen forces-call them cuvάusic, ivépyɛa, vis viva, potential energy, plastic force, Kräfte, or whatever the diversities or the importance of language may suggest which thus give movement and change to the material world? What is the matter itself thus acted upon? Is it something brought into existence by a creative will of higher date, or is it eternal in itself, and that with which the Creator worked in evolving and giving laws to the visible universe?" He points out that philosophers have, from time immemorial, asked these questions. He refers with the accuracy of the deeplyread scholar to their doubts, their guesses, and their suggestions. But towards the actual solution of the problems stated he advances no nearer than did his forerunners in this line of thought. We may read his essay on the "Divisibility of Matter." We may recognise in it a fair and full exposition of the present state of human knowledge-and of human ignorance-on the subject. But there is nothing to increase the sum-total of the former, or diminish the sum-total of the latter. He describes eloquently the researches of the past. He does not point the way to the researches of the future. It would, at least, be difficult to find in these essays any suggestion capable of being worked out by the recognised methods of science.

Into the essays dealing with organic science-which seem of higher value-we can, of course, not enter.

Wildungen: Its Baths and Mineral Springs. By Dr. A.
STOECKER. Translated by O. HARRER, M.D. London:
Trübner, and Co.

CHEMICAL NEWS,
May 28, 1875.

violent explosion took place. On examination, I found
that the bulk of the retort had been almost pulverised; and
my face and the hand which held the lamp were studded
with drops of blood from the punctures of small fragments
of glass. I had my coat off at the time, and the sleeve of
my shirt was set on fire by the explosion. I believe the
circumstances of the other case I have referred to were
very similar. Had the retort in either case been an iron
one, the results would probably have been more serious.
It may be worth recording these accidents as a warning
to others. I am, &c.,
ALEX. T. MACHATTIE.

88, Hope Street, Glasgow,
May 22, 1875.

FUSING-POINT OF FATS.

To the Editor of the Chemical News.
SIR,-In the CHEMICAL NEWS, vol. xxxi., p. 226, is a report
point of fats. Notwithstanding that in some parts of the
of my short paper on a method for determining the fusing-
text is used the possessive pronoun plural, by some mis-
take the name of my friend and colleague, Otto Hehner,
has been omitted. The paper read before the Society of
Public Analysts is in the main a reprint of a chapter pub-
lished in our little book on "Butter Analysis," and it
would be an obvious injustice on my part silently to allow
my name to figure alone, above anything approaching an
abstract from that our joint work. I therefore beg that
you will insert these few lines in your next number.-I am,
&c.,
ARTHUR ANGELL.

Hants County Laboratory, Southampton,
May 24, 1875.

SOURCES.

AN account of the mineral waters of Wildungen, in the territory of Waldeck, which, it appears, are much recommended in affections of the urinary organs. Incidentally the author mentions the curious fact that in CHEMICAL NOTICES FROM FOREIGN Bristol, Leeds, and Norwich, calculus in the bladder is about ten times more plentiful than at other places,-a fact not easy to explain. The author ascribes the paucity of English visitors at Wildungen to the want of acquaintance of English physicians with the virtues of the waters. But, from whatever cause, mineral springs are not nearly so popular in England as on the Continent, nor as they Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie appear to have been in this country in the last century.

CORRESPONDENCE.

ACCIDENTAL USE OF SULPHIDE OF
ANTIMONY.

To the Editor of the Chemical News. SIR, In the portion of Dr. Hofmann's "Report on the Development of the Chemical Arts during the last Ten Years published in the CHEMICAL NEWS, vol. xxxi., p. 221, I observe a statement that accidents have occurred by the accidental use of sulphide of antimony instead of peroxide of manganese in the preparation of oxygen. I can add two instances; one happened to a druggist's assistant in Glasgow, the other to myself. In the latter case, though the materials were purchased at the shop of a thoroughly competent druggist in London, Canada, the mistake occurred of supplying sulphide of antimony instead of peroxide of manganese. I remarked to a friend who was with me while making arrangements for preparing the oxygen, that the manganese looked uncommonly like sulphide of antimony, but, nevertheless, proceeded with our operations. Chlorate of potash and the sulphide of antimony (as I afterwards found it to be by analysis) being mixed in a glass retort, I began to heat gently with a Bunsen lamp, holding the lamp in my hand, and had raised the temperature very slightly, when a

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

des Sciences, No. 16, April 26, 1875.

Detection of Ordinary Alcohol Mixed with WoodSpirit.-M. Berthelot.-The two problems to be solved are-To detect the presence of common alcohol in woodspirit, and that of wood-spirit in common alcohol. The latter seems solved by the elegant method which MM. Riche and Bardy have this day presented to the Academy (see below), but M. Berthelot thinks it useful to give here the practical solution of the former. The process consists in mixing the suspected liquid with double its volume of concentrated sulphuric acid. In these conditions methylic alcohol yields gaseous methylic ether, entirely absorbable by water or concentrated sulphuric acid, whilst ordinary alcohol produces ethylen, a gas almost insoluble in water nised and determined by causing it to be absorbed in broand concentrated sulphuric acid, but which may be recog mine. On operating with the precautions customary in gaseous analysis, the presence of common alcohol may be detected in wood-spirit, even when the proportion does not exceed 1 or 2 per cent. Aceton and the normal impurities of wood-spirit may yield, under these circumstances, carbonic acid and carbonic oxide, but not ethylen.

Cycle Corresponding to the Performance of Thermic Machines with Open Cylinders, and Demonstration of this Cycle, and of the Weight of the Motive Substance Forming the Working Body.— M. A. Ledieu.-Not adapted for abstraction.

Results of Experiments Made by the Commission on the Vine Disease in the Department of l'Herault. -M. Marès.

Use of Alkaline Sulpho-Carbonates against the Phylloxera.-M. Dumas.-The author considers himself justified in maintaining that the alkaline sulpho-carbonates are a poison for the phylloxera, and that they have no injurious action upon the vines.