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and an Account of a simple Lactometer. 245 
the accuracy and delicacy of the instrument. The first morning 
it was employed in the milk markets of Cork, the Mayor, some 
of the Committee and myself attended, when the Mayor seized 
thirty-eight churns of skimmed milk, containing above 2000 pot- 
tles. The lactometer stood in most of it at 20°; the thermo- 
meter being at 58°, which indicated about one-sixth of water. 
In the evening of the same day, we again visited the very same 
markets, but found the milk in all of them so much improved 
that not a single churn was seized. Shortly after, a special 
public Meeting of the Farmers and Dairymen who supply the 
markets with milk was summoned, at which the Mayor of Cork 
presided. In the presence of the Meeting he made several ex- 
periments with the lactometer, which were deemed satisfactory. 
The Mayor then directed the Market Jurors in future to employ 
the lactometer in the milk markets, and to detain all skimmed 
milk, in which the instrument sunk 5° below 0, or the point 
which represents genuine skimmed milk of lowest density. This 
allowance of 5° was made to avoid being too strict, on the first 
use of the new instrument. Since the lactometer was first used 
in the milk markets, the skimmed milk exposed for sale in Cork 
has been materially improved in quality; and hence compara- 
tively few seizures have been made, though the instrument has 
now been employed above two months. Dairymen, who kave 
once forfeited their milk, now find they can no jonger water it 
with impunity, and are beginning to relinquish the practice. 
The same dairy farms, which lately sent milk to the markets in 
which the lactometer stood at 20°, now furnish milk in which the 
instrument stands at 0. Besides the evidence already adduced 
that water is the only substance used to adulterate skimmed milk 
in this neighbourhood, the fact has been repeatedly admitted 
by those concerned in the sale of this article. I have been cre- 
dibly informed that persons have been hired for the purpose of 
watering milk, and that in this way hundreds and even thou- 
sands of pounds have been annually pocketed. This fraud has 
hitherto been suffered with impunity, merely for want of some 
simple means of detection. It is every where so easy and practi- 
cable; and may be carried to a great extent without being per- 
ceptible to the taste or appearance, though it may be readily dis- 
covered by means of the lactometer, which is well adapted, not 
only for markets where skimmed milk is sold, but also for all 
public establishments where it is used in large quantities. 
I think it proper to state, why the scale of the lactometer has 
not yet been extended above 0, though a vacant space remains 
on the stem for this purpose, as may been by a reference to fig. 1, 
(PI. IV.) 
Fig. 1. The lactometer, 
Fig, 2. The reverse of the stem. Fig. 3, 
