150 Bibliography 



♦ 



V. Bibliography. 



1. Report in relation to Sugar and Hydrometers : on researches made 

 under the superintendence of Professor A. D. Bache, by Prof. R. S. 

 McCulloch. Revised edition, published by order of the Senate of the 

 U. S. (Ex. Doc, No. 50, 30th Congress, 1st Session.) Washingion, 

 18 18, p. 653. — This voluminous and elaborate report is divided into 

 two par:s, as its title indicates, the subjects being entirely distinct and 

 yet quite germane. The first part of the sugar report was issued in 

 1845-6, and is now reprinted by order of the Senate in connection 

 with the subsequent and more extended research of Prof. McCulloch. 

 To sketch even the scope of these reports would take us quite beyond 

 the limits of a book-notice. 



The labors encountered by Prof. McC. and his assistants in these 

 researches, at home and abroad, are evidently very great, and it appears 

 that no care has been spared to probe the several subjects of investiga- 

 tion thoroughly. The method of analysis for saccharine fluids adopted 

 by McCulloch, is that of circular polarization originally indicated by M. 

 Biot. The reasons for this preference are given and comparative re- 

 sults by the ordinary chemical methods. In an extended series of re- 

 searches like these, embracing nearly two hundred analyses of molasses 

 and sugars, the method of polarization undoubtedly possesses great ad- 

 vantages in every respect, but it may be doubted whether it can replace 

 the chemical methods in ordinary cases, with perhaps imperfect appa- 

 ratus and an insufficient experience in the use of the instrument and 

 the application of the formulas. 



We receive Mr. McCulloch's reports with great satisfaction as sub- 

 stantial and important additions to our previous knowledge, and an ad- 

 ditional proof of the wisdom of Congress in consigning special sub- 

 jects of this sort, involving profound scientific principles, to competent 

 hands for investigation and report, as the only just and enlightened 

 basis of their legislation. 



In hydrometers for determining the value of distilled spirits, the re- 

 sults adopted by Prof. McCulloch are entirely in accordance with the 

 opinions and practice of scientific men and of the more intelligent man- 

 ufacturers, viz., that the centesimal system of notation is the only proper 

 one, founded on a well conducted set of comparisons of actual weights 

 and densities. The report contains ample details on this subject, and 

 tables of results of numerous careful experiments or known mixtures 

 of absolute alcohol and pure water. The results of these sufficient 

 trials will undoubtedly be the adoption, by the revenue laws, of an uni- 

 form standard instrument which is much called for by the notorious dif- 

 ferences now acknowledged to exist in the methods followed in various 

 parts of the country. 



2. Mohr, Redwood and Proctors Pharmacy* — We had scarcely 



finished a glance at the beautiful London edition of Mohr and Red- 



* Practical Phan j\ the Arrangements, Apparatus and Manipulations of the 



Pharmaceutical Shop and Laboratory, by Francis Mohr, Ph. D., and Theophilus R< '- 

 wood, Edited, with extensive additions, by William Proctor, Jr., Prof, of Pharmacy in 

 the Philad Col^ ;e of Pharmacy, Illustrated by 500 engravings on wood. Philad.: 

 Lea & Blanchard. 1 t9. pp. 576. 



