Feb. 3, 1876J 



NATURE 



267 



the general public will be perfectly logical in concluding that 

 either the public analysts are generally incompetent, or that 

 chemical analysis is self-contradictory, and therefore worthless. 

 The subject is one that seriously affecU the dignity and general 

 interests of science. 



Much of the blundering that has unquestionably occurred is 

 doubtless due to the peculiar position of public analysts and the 

 impossibilities they are called upon to perform. The political 

 economist tells us that " demand for commodities induces a cor- 

 responding supply," and the Adulteration Act was evidently 

 framed upon the assumption that analytical skill is a "com- 

 modity" subject to this law, as it demanded the immediate crea- 

 tion of a whole army of chemists endowed with a peculiar kind 

 of knowledge and skill, which was not to be acquired in any 

 college, school, university, or other educational institution, 

 public or private, in Great Britain. Laboratories existed wherein 

 the analyses of acids, bases, and salts, organic and inorganic, 

 were carefully taught, and others where special attention was 

 devoted to pharmaceutical preparations ; but where (before the 

 passing of this Act) could a student find a laboratory in which 

 he might learn how to analyse the multitude of articles that pass 

 over a grocer's counter, and acquire the commercial knowledge 

 which 15 as necessary to the public analyst as analytical skill ? 

 I use the past tense here, knowing that since the passing of the 

 Act many public analysts have industriously and meritorioasly 

 availed themselves of the opportunities afforded at one laboratory 

 that has been specially devoted to the useful purpose of affording 

 them the special analytical skill they should have possessed be- 

 fore obtaining tbeir appointments. There do__not, however, appear 

 to be any sufficient means provided for the commercial and tech- 

 nological education of public analysts. 



As an example of the necessity of commercial or technical 

 knowledge, I need otily refer to the discoveries of " iron filings " 

 in tea which were so common until I ately, the absurdity of 

 which I have already demonstrated by simply calculating the 

 number of tons of iron filings that would be annually required for 

 the alleged adulteration, and showing the practical impossibility 

 of obtaining such a supply, either here or in China. Iron was 

 found in the tea unquestionably, — the chemistry was not at 

 fault, — but the theory which confounded accidental impurity 

 with wilful adulteration arose from lack of technical knowledge, 

 the possession of which would have shown that leaves carelessly 

 gathered and thrown upon the dusty ground of a highly ferru- 

 ginous soil, and then roasted, must ot necessity be mingled with 

 more or less of magnetic oxide of iron, besides the iron natur- 

 ally contained in the ashes of this particular plant. 



The series of butter cases, of which the one you quote is only 

 a recent and ordinary example, illustrate the same want of 

 trade knowledge on the part of nearly all concerned. I have 

 been surprised at the repeated and uncontradicted assumption 

 that butter must be adulterated because it is cheap, which has 

 nm through all these cases. We all know that good butter at 

 this season is not obtainable at less than \\s. &/. per lb., 

 and much is sold at is., and therefore it is inferred that if butter 

 is offered fcr sale at \od. or \s. it must be adulterated. This 

 is a very plausible inference, but nevertheless a great mistake, 

 which public analysts and sitting magistrates have evidently 

 shared with the general public. Bat for irritating old sore?, I 

 might quote from early prosecutions, and show how an inspector 

 and public analyst have evidently been so biassed and deceived by 

 the simple fact that butter was offered for sale at &/. per lb., and 

 that the analyst interpreted equivocal analytical results according 

 to such preconceptions. Had he known that parcels of genuine 

 butter, sometimes amounting to several tons, are occasionally 

 offered as low as 7</. per lb. in wholesale markets, this erro- 

 neous preconception would not have been formed. I have eaten 

 butter made in some of the primitive peasant-dairies of the 

 North of Europe, which if imported to this country would not 

 sell at so good a price as " P. Y. C." (Petersburgh yellow 

 candle) tallow. It was perfectly genuine and detestably 

 nauseous, but nevertheless was highly relished by the people 

 who made it, and to whom it forms a staple ar;icle of food, 

 especially in winter. Such butter is occasionally shipped to 

 England from Kiel and other Northern ports ; also from Canada 

 and Australia, and sells at ruinous prices; the merchants who 

 send it being unacquainted with the fastidiousness of English 

 palates, and supposing that what is eaten in their own country 

 will be eaten here. 



It is the choice brands of " fresh " butter that are the most 



adulterated, and those delicately-constituted people who cannot 



eat salt butter, but insist upon ha^'ing fresh grass butter in the 



nndst of winter when no grass is growing, are abundantly regaled 



with refined mutton suet, P. Y. C. tallow, candle ends, and 

 kitchen stuff which, when skilfully prepared, churned up with a 

 little milk and sugar and prettily rolled, moulded or packed in 

 rustic-looking baskets, sells at 2s. per lb. in the west- end, and 

 progressively down Xois. %d.or is.6d , proceeding further east- 

 ward. 



Knowing that this class of butter is systematically adulterated 

 at this season with refined fats, you may judge of my respect for 

 the skill of the public analysts when I find that it has escaped 

 the prosecutions that liave fallen so heavily upon the cheap 

 butters. Taking the facts as they have come out in these pro- 

 secutions, it appears that at present chemical analysis fails to 

 distinguish between the fat which is excreted from the udder of 

 the cow, and that which is deposited in the tissues of the same 

 animal or of the sheep, provided both are mechanically prepared 

 in a similar manner and flavoured with a little sugar and caseine. 

 I may possibly be wrong in this conclusion, and therefore pro- 

 pose a test which may be used to decide this question. Let 

 samples be made and certified by first churning pure milk, then 

 mixing such churnings with varying proportions of foreign fats 

 prepared as those manufacturers can, who have converted their 

 soap-boiling into butter-frying plant, and let such samples be 

 sent to Mr. Muter, or any other expert who believes himself able 

 to certify to the purity or impurity of butter. If he can deter- 

 mine \hG percentage of foreign fat in such varied mixtures his 

 future certificates will have considerable value and authority. 



W. Mattieu Williams 



Science in Hastings 



I HAVE just seen your comments (vol. xiii. p. 21 7) on a letter that 

 appeared a few weeks ago in the Hastings and St. Leonards A^'ezi's, 

 and at once write to vindicate the honour of Hastings. We have a 

 Philosophical and Historical Society, a Literarj- and Scientific 

 Institution, and a Mechanics' Institution, besides two or three 

 others of a more private character. A museum we certainly do 

 not possess, and if it should prove like most local ? museums, a 

 collection of " et cetera," trying to rival the British Museum in 

 the extent of its field of research, and an overturned workbox as 

 to arrangement, the longer we are without it the better. Far 

 be it from me to say that the people of Hastings and St. Leo- 

 nards display as much interest as they ought in the pursuit of 

 science, but still they are not so bad as you make out. Tne 

 Philosophical Society, in which I am chiefly interested, and of 

 which I enclose last year's report, has done much good work in 

 bygone days, but owing to a variety of circu Tistances it is not at 

 present quite so flourishing as we could \vish. However, I am 

 glad to say that at the last Council meeting it was decided to pub- 

 lish a pamphlet containing a list of the specimens in the various 

 branches of Natural History to be found about the neighbourhood, 

 both on the land and in the sea. This will be but a commence- 

 ment, and will be distributed among the inhabitants and visitors 

 with a request that a notice of any alterations or additions should 

 be sent to the Society for future publication. Thus it is hoped 

 that fresh interest will be awakened. 



My own idea is that our failure arises from a multiplicity, not 

 a paucity of institutions, and that their aims are too high. I be- 

 lieve one good institution would be far better than all the separate 

 ones. Thus we have the Literary Institution, subscription twenty- 

 five shillings a year. This is in the old part of the town, and 

 formerly possessed the museum and a good set of meteorological 

 instruments. The only privileges members have are the reading 

 room and a good standard library, which, however, has hardly 

 been added to for some years. Next we come to the Philoso- 

 phical Society, subscription 10^. 6d. a year. This certainly tries 

 to do something, for there are papers read on various subjects, and 

 each session concludes with a conversazione. But in my opinion 

 its weak point is that the majority of papers read have no local 

 bearing. I acknowledge that many display great ability, but the 

 chief aim of such a Society should be the collection and descrip- 

 tion of subjects connected with local natural history, botany, 

 climate, archaeology, geology, &c., and wider researches should 

 be left for other more suitable societies, or for special occasions 

 now and then. The Mechanics' Institution I believe is getting 

 on pretty well. There is a reading room, with a library, and lec- 

 tures are delivered on all imaginable subjects. 



If these three institutions could unite, instead of being to a 

 certain extent antagonistic to each other, great advantage, I am 

 sure, wotdd accrue to the members and science generally, although 

 none but those who have gone into the question can imagine the 

 diffictdties that would have to be overcome before a harmonious 

 union could be effected. 



