ii8 THE MICROSCOPE. 



of boys as a subject for an essay. One of the essays began in 

 school-boy English : ' The first thing in bread-making is to boil the 

 potatoes, and then you must peel them and mash them carefully. 

 Then you must mix them with a little water, and set them in a 

 warm place till they begin to fermant,' etc., etc. Oddly enough flour 

 was not mentioned in the course of the essay. The boy's father is a 

 baker. — Ex. 



BuTTEU 3,000 Years Old. — A .sample of Irish bog but- 

 ter, probably 1,000 years old, on analysis, yielded the following re- 

 sults : Volatile fatty acids, calculated as butyric, 6 per cent.; soluble 

 fatty acids, not volatile, 42 per cent.; glycerole, minute traces. The 

 insoluble fatty acids contained 9 per cent, oleic acid and 91.0 per cent, 

 stearic and palmitic acids. An older sample of ancient butter was 

 taken some time ago from an Egyptian tomb. It dates from about 

 400 or 600 years before Christ. It was contained in a small alabas- 

 ter vase, and had apparently been poured in while in a melting 

 state. In appearance, color, smell and taste it corresponds closely 

 with slightly rancid butter. Analysis showed that the sample had 

 not undergone any notable decomposition. — Ex. 



How TO Distinguish Natural & Artificial Butter, — Dr. G. 

 C. Wittstein, in an Austrian pharmaceutical journal, explains how to 

 distinguish cream butter from " ox butter " by means of the micro- 

 scope. Place a small piece of the butter upon an object-glass, 

 spread it out by means of a cover-glass, and observe it under a 

 power of three hundred to four hundred. If it is pure butter the 

 whole field is filled with extremely fine globules, which are entirely 

 destitute of any approach to crystalline form. If the butter is artifi- 

 cial, or a mixture of both, the field presents numerous angular or 

 acicular particles between the globules. These crystalline particles 

 are derived, no doubt, from the slearine which forms part of the 

 beef-tallow in artificial butter. Lard doe.^ not show any such crys- 

 talline particles. — Ex. 



FiLARiA in the Blood. — An interesting letter from P. Manson, 

 M. D., who has been studying the filarial in the blood of two 

 Chinese lads, to Dr. T. Spencer Cobbold, is printed in the Journal 

 of the Quekett Club [ox ]\\\\. The filarice arc long, hair-like worms 



