268 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



lower portion into ten equal parts, in ueh a manner that these ten parts 

 may represent exactly the volume of butter contained in the other tube 

 to the mark. In order to find this volume, the butter measure is to be 

 filled with water, whilst the stopper is placed exactly at the mark ; the 

 water is then poured into the tube to be graduated ; and after waiting for 

 half a minute, to make sure that all the water has collected, its level 

 may be marked with a file, the height of water being taken to its lowest 

 point in the middle of the tube. The space below this mark is then 

 divided into ten equal parts, and marked with a file. Another file mark 

 is made, three and one-half inches above the graduation. 



To test butter by means of this instrument, the measure is to be filled, 

 as above described, by inserting it to a little above the mark. This is 

 effected with thin pieces of butter, by inserting the tube perpendicularly 

 into the butter on a plate, until the edge of the tube comes in contact with 

 the plate. The tube is then drawn back, and the stopper pushed down 

 until the butter projects a little beyond the edge of the tube ; and this 

 operation is repeated until the tube gradually fills up. The mouth of the 

 tube is then closed with the finger, and the cork pressed upon the butter 

 until it is completely united ; the cork is then pushed exactly to the mark, 

 and the projecting portion of the butter scraped off. In this manner the 

 presence of air is avoided. The butter-measure is then put over the open 

 end of the graduated tube, and the butter pushed out of it by the stopper. 

 The latter is then filled up to the mark with pure anhydrous ether, in 

 which the butter is dissolved by shaking, the open end of the tube being 

 closed by the finger. In about half a minute all the fat dissolves in 

 the ether, whilst the impurities, such as buttermilk and water, are seen 

 floating in the form of flakes, or drops. If the tube be then left standing, 

 all these impurities settle completely, in about twenty-four hours, to the 

 bottom of the tube, forming a stratum the thickness of which may be 

 ascertained by the divisions of the tube. Each division, as may be ascer- 

 tained by experiments conducted in other ways, corresponds pretty 

 exactly with ten per cent, of impurities, whether there be water or other 

 substances ; and as half degrees may be easily marked, the quantity of 

 butter may be determined to five per cent., or even more, exactly. 



Middling samples of butter deposit a stratum of two degrees ; they 

 consequently contain eighty per cent, of butter, and twenty per cent, of 

 impurities ; in bad samples, which were still regarded as salable, the 

 stratum was not more than two and one-half degrees, and one sample 

 even showed four degrees, containing consequently only sixty per cent, of 

 butter, and forty per cent, of impurities. Polytechn. Jour. CXXX. p. 374. 



SOLIDIFIED MILK. 



A method of making solidified milk, as adopted with success by Mr. 

 Blatchford, of Armenia, Dutchess Co., N. Y., is thus described in the New 

 York Medical Journal for October, bv Dr. Doremus : 



