348 



THE MICROSCOPE. 



that the diseased potatoes contain a larger proportion of 

 water than those that are healthy. A want of organizing 

 power is evidently the cause of this deficiency of starch ; 

 but we fear the microscope w411 never tell us in what the 

 want of this organising force consists." ^ 



The adulteration of articles of food and drink has lonsf 

 been a matter of uneasy interest, and of strong, though 

 vague, misgiving. Accum's Death in the Fot, between 

 thirty and forty years ago, awoke attention to the subject; 

 which has since been more or less accurately explored by 



Fig. 19ii. — Sample of Coffee, adulterated with both Chicory and Roasted 



Wheat. (After Hassall.) 



a a a, small fragments of coffee; bbb, portions of chicory; ccc, starch-granules 



of wheat. 



Mitchell, Normandy, Chevalier, Jules Garnicr, and Harei ; 

 and has at length derived a singularly lucid exposi- 

 tion from Dr. Hassall's researches, whose report of these 

 inquiries fills between 600 and 700 closely printed pages 



(1) Professor Quekett's ITistclogij of Vegctablts. We would refer the reader 

 to an aditiij-able work on Fajigi, by Ariraini, an Italian botanist, 17 59, 



