AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 489 



The conclusions deducted from an examination of 26 samples 

 of milk, purchased of different milkmen and dairy-keepers, were 

 that 12 were genuine. That of these, two showed a deficiency 

 of cream; that eleven were adulterated; that this adulteration 

 consisted in all cases of water, the per centage of which v^aried 

 from 10 to 50 per cent., or one-half of the article. Milk will bear 

 an enormous quantity of water, without being much deteriorated 

 in appearance. You may introduce three-fourths of water into 

 milk, and yet it will still appear to be milk, only having a bluer 

 tinge. In this examination there was no gum, chalk, size, sheep's 

 brains, or any of the other substances said to be occasionally used 

 for the adulteration of milk, detected. Annatto was found in 

 cream, and supposed to be used for the purpose of improving the 

 color. One of the committee reported that he saw a spectacle 

 near London that prevented him from tasting milk for six months, 

 to wit, forty cows in the most disgusting condition, full of 

 ulcers; their teats in a horribly diseased, ulcerated condition, and 

 their legs full of tumors and abscesses; in fact it was terrible to 

 look at; and the fellow was milking these poor cows in the mid- 

 dle of all this purulent abomination. I have been told that this 

 is by no means an exception, but that the animals of a great many 

 cow-keepers are in the same condition; so that what is introduced 

 into the milk besides the water, (which was taken within a foot 

 of a cess-pool,) is actually the product of disease. The excreta 

 certainly were never meant to be taken in again, and I am satis- 

 fied that a great many of the diseases and epidemics which visit 

 and devastate London, are referable to such causes. 



With respect to isinglass, the conclusions arrived at were, that 

 out of twenty-eight samples submitted to examination, ten con- 

 sisted entirely of gelatine. The genuine isinglass was w^orth 

 thirty-three cents per pound, and the gelatine twenty cents. 



The conclusions resulting from the examination of thirty-three 

 samples of vinegar purchased from grocers , were, that the amount 

 of acetic acid, the most important constituent of vinegar, and 

 which ought not to be less than four per cent., did not come up 

 to more than two per cent., and eight of the samples contained a 

 large quantity of sulphuric acid. A second series of samj^les of 

 vinegar, purchased of the principal manufacturers, twenty-eight 

 in number, were as follows : That seven of the samples were en- 

 tirely free from sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol; that twenty-one 

 were adulterated with that powerful and corrosive mineral acid, 

 the amount of which was often very considerable, over five per 



