PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 259 



near tlieir residence ; these heaps are at the right time spread out to 

 diy and shrivel ; and, after facing, are leaded, packed, and sold for. 

 dispatch to this country, often mixed with iron-filings, sand, &c., to 

 increase the weight of the chest. As with tea, so with coffee ; chicory- 

 is made up in the form of the coffee-berry, so as to deceive even the 

 diligent housewife who grinds her own; and in ground coffee you get bad 

 flour, roasted beans and peas, acorns, and even mahogany saw-dust ; and 

 the chicory itself is diluted (the mild term) with black-jack or roasted 

 old sea biscuits, and Croats, the spent tan of the tan-yard. Our bread 

 is such dry innutritions stuff as inferior starches and alum can make 

 it ; our milk a sky-blue fiction, with cream that falls to the bottom, a 

 thief in the nursery, and a robber of the invalid. Our microscopes 

 may be our own inspectors, and surely something of a wholesome 

 check to tradesmen would arise from the constant practice of analyza- 

 tion of food, as the notice of any particular specimen of adulteration 

 would act as a caution to check the tide of imposition from which we 

 all so severely suffer, both in health and j)Ocket. 



Turning now to the detection of crime by the aid of the microscope. 

 In cases of poisoning, the crystals may be obtained from the victim, 

 and shown to the juiy ; in poisoning by arsenic, by strychnine, by 

 opium, by corrosive sublimate, oxalic acid, and other mineral poisons, 

 this may be, by care, easily effected. And in many other cases of 

 judicial inquiry the microscope brought to the analysis may positively 

 decide the verdict. In a notorious case that has lately been before the 

 public, the presence of blood-stains was proved on the dress of the 

 accused, and here the utility of the spectroscope was manifestly shown — 

 a scientific adjunct to the microscope, which is yet only in the infancy 

 of its application, but yields such well-marked and characteristic 

 spectra, that there are few subjects to which the spectrum microscope 

 can be more advantageously applied than the detection of blood-stains. 

 A millionth of a grain will show the chai'acteristic absorption-bands. 



Thus we have passed in review the generalities of the subject of 

 microscopic analysis, and it is my hope that sufficient has been shown 

 to impress on the minds of my hearers how deeply important it is, to 

 those who are engaged in any such pui'suit, or to those who have not yet 

 commenced some systematic investigation, to at once determine not to 

 follow in paths already well trodden, but to open up new ones ; not 

 to seek to use our microscopes here by repeating experiments, but 

 rather let us all vie in seeking to show the results of new and original 

 work. 



A vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to Dr. Helsham for 

 his interesting paper. 



Excursions were announced on August 26th to Eainham, and on 

 September 9th to the Victoria Docks. 



The meeting then resolved itself into a conversazione, a paper being 

 announced for the next meeting, on Tuesday, September 19th, at half- 

 past seven o'clock in the evening, by Charles Stewart, Esq., M.R.C.S., 

 " On some of the Lower Forms of Animal Life." 



