36 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[July 20, 1883. 



largely used as a substitute for guui arable. If the heat is 

 continued a change of colour takes place ; it grows darker 

 and darker until it blackens just as sugar does, the final 

 resu't being nearly the same. Water is driven off in both 

 cases, but in carbonising sugar we start with more water, 

 sugar being starch plus water or the elements of water. 

 Thus the brown material of bread-crust or toast is nearly- 

 identical with caramel. 



I have often amused myself by watching what occurs 

 when toast and water is prepared, and I recommend my 

 readers to repeat the observation. Toast a small piece of 

 bread to blackness, and then Hoat it on water in a glass 

 vessel. Leave the water at rest, and direct your attention 

 to the under side of the floating toast. Little thread-like 

 streams of brown liquid will be seen descending in the 

 water. This is a solution of the substance which, if I mis- 

 take not, is a sort of caramel, and which ultimately tinges 

 all the water. 



Some years ago I commenced a course of experiments 

 \vith this substance, but did not complete them. In case 

 I should never do so, I will here communicate the results 

 attained. I found that this starch caramel is a disinfec- 

 tant, and that sugar caramel also has some disinfecting 

 properties. I am not prepared to say that it is powerful 

 enough to disinfect sewage, though at the time I had a 

 narrow escape from the Great Seal Office, where I thought 

 of patenting it for this purpose as a non-poisonous dis- 

 infectant that may be poured into rivers in any quantity 

 without danger. Though it may not be powerful enough 

 for this, it has an appreciable efiect on water slightly 

 tainted with decomposing organic matter. 



This is a very curious fact. We do not know who in- 

 vented toast and water, nor, so far as I can learn, has any 

 theory of its use been expounded, yet there is extant a 

 vague popular impression that the toast has some sort of 

 wholesome effect on the water. I suspect that this must 

 have been originally based on experience, probably on the 

 experience of our forefathers or foremothers living in 

 country places where stagnant water was a common 

 beverage, and various devices were adopted to render it 

 potable. 



Gelatine, fibrine, albumen, ic. — i.e., all the materials of 

 animal food — as already shown, are composed, like starch 

 and sugar, of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, ■with, in the 

 case of these animal substances, the addition of nitrogen ; 

 but this does not prevent their partial carbonisation (or 

 "caramelising," if I may invent a name to express the 

 action which stops short of blackening). Animal fat is a 

 hydro-carljon which may be similarly browned, and, if I 

 am right in my generalisation of all these browning pro- 

 cesses, an importa.nt practical conclusion follows, viz., that 

 cheap soluble caramel made by skilfully heating common 

 sugar is really, as well as apparently, as valuable an 

 element in gravies, iVrc, as the far more expensive colouring 

 matter of brown meat gravies, and that our English cooks 

 .should use it far more liberally than they usually do. 



Its preparation is easy enough ; the sugar should be 

 gradually heated till it assumes a rich brown colour and 

 has lost its original sweetness. If carried just far enough, 

 and not too far, the result is easily .soluble in hot water, 

 and the solution may be kept for a long time, as it is by 

 cooks who understand its merits. In connection with the 

 idea of its disinfecting action, I may refer to the cookery of 

 tainted meat or " high " game. A hare that is repulsively 

 advanced when raw, may by much roasting and browning 

 become quite wholesome, and such is commonly the case 

 in the ordinary cooking of hares. If it were boiled or 

 merely stewed (without preliminary browning) in this con- 

 dition, it would be quite disgusting to ordinary palates. 



A leg of mutton for roasting should be hung until it 

 begins to become odorous ; for boiling it should be as 

 fresh as possible. This should be especially remembered 

 now that we liave so much frozen meat imported from the 

 antipodes. When duly thawed it is in splendid condition 

 for roasting, but is not usually so satisfactory when boiled. 

 I may here mention incidentally that such meat is some- 

 times unjusth' condemned on account of its displaying a 

 raw centre when cooked. This arises from imperfect 

 thawing. The heat required to thaw a given weight of ice 

 and bring it up to G0°, is about the same as demanded for 

 the cookery of an equal quantity of meat, and therefore, 

 while the thawed portion of the meat is being cooked, the 

 frozen portion is but just thawed, and remains quite raw. 



A much longer time is demanded for thawing — i.e., 

 supplying 142" of latent heat — than might be supposed. 

 To ascertain whether the thawing is completed, drive an 

 iron skewer through the thickest part of the joint. If 

 there is a core of ice within it will be distinctly felt by its 

 resistance. 



THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 



By Thomas Foster. 



IXTRODUCTORY. 



IT is known to all who watch the signs of the times — 

 ol:)vious, indeed, to them, and known to many who 

 are less observant — that those moral restraints which 

 claim to be of sacred origin are no longer accepted by a 

 large and increasing number of persons. I have no wish 

 to inquire here whether those restraints should be re- 

 garded as of divine origin or not. I note only the fact 

 that by many they are not so regarded. I am not con- 

 cerned to ask whether it is well or ill that their authority 

 should be rejected, and their controlling influence be 

 diminishing or disappearing among many ; it suffices, so 

 far as my present purpose is concerned, that the fact is so. 

 The question then presents itself. Does any rule of conduct 

 promise to have power now or soon among those who have 

 rejected the regulative system formerly prevalent 1 We 

 need not consider whether such a rule of conduct, neces- 

 sarily secular in origin, is in itself better or worse than 

 a rule based on commandments regarded as divina All 

 we have at present to ask is whether such a regulative 

 system is likely to replace the older one with those over 

 whom that older law no longer has influence. 



Here at the outset we find that those who hold extreme 

 views on either side of the questions I have left untouched, 

 agree in one view which is, I think, erroneous. On the 

 one hand, those who maintain the Divine character of the 

 current creed insist, not only that it is sufficient for all, but 

 that, in the nature of things, no other guide is possible. 

 On the other hand, those who reject the authority of that 

 creed most energetically, assert as positively that no new 

 regulative system, no new controlling agency, is necessary. 

 As Mr. Herbert Spencer has well put it, " both contem- 

 plate a vacuum, which one wishes and the other fears. ' 

 But those who take wiser and more moderate views, who, 

 in the first place, recognise facts as they are, and, in the 

 next, are ready to subordinate their own ideas of what is 

 necessary or best for the ideal man to the necessities of man 

 as he really is, perceive that for the many who no longer 

 value a regulative system which, so far as they are 

 concerned, is decaying, if not dead, another regula- 

 tive system is essential. Again to use the words of the 

 great philosopher whose teachings are to be our chief guide 

 in this series of papers, " Few things can happen more 



