244 



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 will never tell us in what the 

 want of this organising force consists." l 



The adulteration of articles of food and drink has long 

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

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

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

 which has since been more or less accurately explored by 



Fig. 150. Sample of Coffee, adulterated with both Chicory and Roasted 

 Wheat. (After Hassall.) 



a a a, small fragments of coffee ; b b b, portions of chicory ; c c c, starch-granules 

 of wheat. 



Mitchell, Normandy, Chevalier, Jules Gamier, and Harel ; 

 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 Histology of Vegetables. We would refer the reader 

 to an admirable work on Fungi, by Arimini, an Italian botanist, 1759. 



