LABORATORIES FOfi SPECIAL PURPOSES 61 



exerted on the product by the composition of the water supplied 

 to the brewery. He ought to be familiar with all the operations 

 of water analysis, and to understand how to modify the quality 

 of the water when found to be unsuitable. The use of antiseptics 

 for destroying moulds and bacteria and so preventing infection 

 from lurking impurities in brewing plant or barrels has long 

 been recognised. The sulphites are the most commonly used 

 agents, but many others such as salicylic acid have come into use 

 in more recent times. In the brewing school the student will have 

 opportunity of comparing them as to efficiency, and of learning 

 when their employment may be regarded as useful and legitimate. 



The brewing school in the University of Birmingham is the 

 only one of its kind in Great Britain, and it has been en- 

 dowed almost entirely by the brewers of Birmingham and its 

 neighbourhood. The buildings are in the city itself and are 

 independent of the new chief buildings of the University which 

 is situated nearly two miles away. The accommodation provided 

 includes a main laboratory with places for more than twenty 

 students, and well equipped with special apparatus suitable for 

 the study of general brewing and bacteriological subjects ; an 

 analytical laboratory adapted more especially to the examination 

 of brewing materials ; a microscope room and library ; a balance 

 room ; a dark room for polariscopic and photographic purposes ; 

 a research laboratory and a lecture room. The courses of study 

 in the School are to a large extent, but not entirely, technical 

 in character, and on the purely scientific side include bio- 

 chemistry in its relation to fermentation. A Diploma in Brewing 

 is granted by the University to students who pass successfully 

 through studies covering a period of three years, while a Degree 

 course in the Biochemistry of Fermentation is provided for 

 students who contemplate taking up biological or chemical work 

 connected with the fermentation industries, agriculture, water 

 supply, sewage treatment, etc. 



Professor Adrian J. Brown, F.R.S., has been Director of the 

 School since its foundation, and his practical experience for 

 many years in the brewery of Messrs. T. Salt and Co., at Burton- 

 on-Trent, added to his previous scientific training and reputa- 

 tion based on his published researches, are ample demonstration 

 of his eminent fitness for the post. Much of Professor Brown's 

 work is rather too technical to be described here, but two im- 

 portant results may be made intelligible. The first published 



