296 FOOD AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



saccharine material for brewing purposes. There may be said to be 

 three ways of substituting saccharine material. First, other grain may 

 be used for malting; second, unmalted starchy matter, that is whole 

 grain, may be added to the malt before it is mashed, the latter being 

 diluted as it were, for the diastase in the malt has converting power 

 sufficient for considerably more starch than is contained in itself; 

 third, the saccharine matter may be supplied already converted, as in 

 commercial starch-sugar, or glucose, cane sugar, inverted cane sugar, 

 &c. Of these different substitutes the third class is probably the more 

 objectionable, as beer brewed from such saccharine matter is lacking 

 in various constituents derived from the grain, which are important 

 additions to its nutritive power, namely, the phosphatic salts and the 

 nitrogenous bodies. 



In much the same way would bread made from starch alone be lack- 

 ing in nutritive value. 



There is no way of determining directly or absolutely that a beer has 

 been brewed partially from glucose, but it may be inferred from its 

 small content of those constituents which are contained in malt, but 

 not in glucose, such as phosphoric acid and albuminoids, and the exist- 

 ence in the ash of large proportions of such salts as are known to form 

 a large part of the ash of commercial starch-sugar, as sulphates. Konig 

 gives .03 per cent, of phosphoric acid as the lowest limit fora beer con- 

 taining 5 per cent, of extract or over. 



The association of Bavarian chemists depends on the estimation of 

 the nitrogen for the detection of the use of malt substitutes, and estab- 

 lishes the minimum of .65 per cent, of nitrogen (4 per cent, of albumi- 

 noids) in the extract. It is very evident that these figures are too high 

 for American beers; only two of the samples examined, Nos. 4821 and 

 4823, contain less than .05 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and these are 

 both imported beers ; while the average content of the samples of 

 American beer is .077. Not a single oue^)f the samples contains as low 

 as .65 per cent, of nitrogen in the extract, most of them containing 

 about 1 per cent., while some give over 2 per cent. Dr. Englehardt's 

 samples show a still higher average per cent, of phosphoric acid. Un- 

 fortunately there was no determination of the albuminoids in his sam- 

 ples. Yet it is a well-known fact that very few beers are made in thi.s 

 country without more or less malt substitution. Nothing can settle 

 this point and enable the analyst to decide positively whether malt sub- 

 stitutes have been used until a standard is established by the analysis 

 of a large numberof samples known to be brewed from pure malt alone. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR HOPS. 



The nature of the bitters used in beer has long been the target to- 

 wards which public suspicion is directed, and ne.irly every substance 

 known possessing a bitter taste has been enumcrati'd among the! adul- 

 terations of beer, from poisonous alkaloids, such as strychnin and pic- 



