460 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



DETECTING ADULTERATION OF GROUND COFFEE. 



The method of detecting the adulteration of around coffee 

 is stated to be as follows : If, on opening the package, the 

 contents are caked, or show a disposition to cake, chicory is 

 present. If, on adding a few drops of cold water to a grain 

 or two of the suspected article, the water becomes almost im- 

 mediately of a brown color, chicory is surely contained in it. 

 Further, on touching with the point of a needle the particles 

 which have been wetted with water and spread out on a slip 

 of glass, if some are found which are non-resisting, soft and 

 yielding, the sample is adulterated. Lastly, the presence of 

 chicory is immediately revealed by the great difference in 

 the forms of the cells, as seen under the microscope. In the 

 case of coffee the cells being coherent and angular, and in 

 that of chicory rounded and composed of smaller cells, the 

 differences are so marked that, once seen, they can never be 

 forgotten. 20 A, December 9, 1871, 727. 



SEA-AVATER IN BREAD-MAKING. 



It was stated at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris that while excellent bread can be made with sea-wa- 

 ter, and that this forms a good tonic, soup or broth made 

 with sea- water is entirely uneatable. It would appear that 

 the chloride of magnesium in the sea-water is raised to a tern- 

 perature, during the process of baking, sufficiently high to 

 effect its destruction, and thereby cause its peculiar taste to 

 disappear, which is not the case when merely boiled, as for 

 soup. If, however, cane-sugar be added to the soup, a com- 

 pound is said to be formed of the sugar with the chlorides 

 which has not the disagreeable taste of the latter. 6 A, De- 

 cember 23, 1871, 814. 



IMPROVED MODE OF BREAD-MAKING. 



Les Mondes gives an account, by Dr. Sezille, of an improved 

 method of bread-making from entire wheat. This consists in 

 first removing the husk of the grain by means of properly 

 constructed machinery, and then acting upon it several times 

 with tepid water, at about 176 Fahr. for the first bath, and 

 104 for the second, by which the cover of resinous gum of 

 the grain is dissolved and removed. This removal is neces- 



