DECEMBER 31, 1903] 
NATURE 
203 
| a presumption that the butter is not genuine. In its 
first report the committee, which was a large and re- 
presentative one, consisting of analysts, producers, 
vendors, and public officials connected with the English 
and Irish Boards of Agriculture, under the chairman- 
ship of Sir Horace Plunkett, after hearing evidence in 
this country and in Ireland, unanimously recommended 
the adoption of a limit of 16 per cent. for the proportion 
of water, and this recommendation was promptly given 
effect to in the Sale of Butter Regulations 1902. 
In the present report the committee deals with the 
other matters referred to it. These questions have 
led it to inquire into the chemical nature of butter, 
to ascertain how far the composition of butter-fat is 
dependent upon conditions of production and within 
what limits it may vary. It has also had to in- 
‘quire into the nature of the substances which may be 
used for the purpose of adulterating butter, and what 
methods are open to analysts to detect and determine 
tthe extent of such adulteration. 
The space at our disposal precludes any attempt to 
‘deal in detail with the many interesting points con- 
nected with the chemical nature of butter which have 
come out in the course of the inquiry. 
has shown that the chemical constitution of butter-fat 
as dependent to a certain extent upon climatic con- 
ditions, period of lactation, nature and amount af food, 
breed and idiosyncrasy of the cow. The extent to 
which its composition may vary from these several 
causes is shown in the evidence which was taken, and 
which is summarised in the report. 
The majority—one member, a butter vendor, alone 
dissenting—were of opinion that for the purposes of 
the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899 it was expedient 
to recommend a limit or ‘‘standard’’ based on a 
deficiency in the normal constituents of butter, and 
that it was desirable that the limit should have regard 
to what all authorities are agreed are the characteristic 
constituents of butter-fat, namely, the volatile acids, 
which by general consent is by far the most important 
‘criterion in butter analysis. They recommend, there- 
fore, that if the amount of the volatile acids in any 
sample of butter, as determined by the Reichert- 
Wollny method—a description of which is appended 
in a schedule to the report—should fall below the 
number 24, a presumption should be raised that the 
‘butter is not genuine. Two members of the committee 
are disposed to place the limit at 23. 
The committee is strongly impressed with the 
necessity of taking such steps as would directly identify 
margarine if present in butter, and with this view it 
recommends that all margarine made or imported into 
this country should be ‘‘ ear-marked,’’ as is done in 
‘Germany, Austria, and Belgium, and as it is proposed 
should be done in France, by the addition of 10 per 
cent. of sesamé oil during its manufacture. 
It further suggests that steps should be taken to 
give effect to the recommendations of the Dairy 
‘Congress held at Brussels on April 27 and 28, 1902, to 
secure international agreement on the subject of 
control of the manufacture of butter and margarine. 
In a large number of the countries producing butter 
for sale in this country a system of control more or 
less well organised and under State authority already 
exists, and there ought to be little difficulty in securing 
by international cooperation and agreement that the 
system should be uniform and effective. 
It remains to be seen what the Minister of Agri- 
culture will do with a report which is particularly 
interesting as a contribution to the literature of a sub- 
ject of great importance to the community, and is evi- 
dently the carefully digested result of an exhaustive 
and complicated inquiry. 
NO. 1783. VOL. 69] 
Observation | 
| few hours. 
THE JANUARY METEORS. 
pee meteors shoot from a point at about 230°+ 
53° in Bode’s modern constellation Quadrans 
Muralis, placed in the barren region between Bootes, 
Draco, and Hercules. But the former constellation 
has never been generally recognised and admitted into 
recent star-maps. The name ‘‘ Bootids ’’ has, in fact, 
been sometimes suggested as preferable to ‘‘ Quadran- 
tids ’? for this new-year meteor-shower. 
In 1904 the meteors will probably return in their 
greatest abundance on the nights following January 
3 and 4, but the moon will unfortunately be full, and 
only the brighter members of the shower will be visible. 
But watches of the sky should be maintained on the 
early evenings of January 3 and 4, and also on the 
mornings of those dates (between about 5 and 7 a.m.) 
if the weather is sufficiently clear. A few large meteors 
are sure to be visible, notwithstanding the strong 
moonlight. In some years, when all the conditions 
are favourable, the display of January meteors is as 
plentiful as that observed during an average Perseid 
shower. The really active period of the Quadrantids 
(or BoGtids) is usually very brief, being confined to a 
Meteors in the front of the stream begin 
to appear on about December 28, and the display seems 
practically exhausted on January 5 or 6. The radiant 
has a very low northerly position during the greater 
part of the night, and the meteors exhibit long flights 
and moderately swift motions. 
W. F. DENNING. 
NOTES. 
M. ALPHONSE Rosert, the energetic natural history 
collector who accompanied Dr. Forsyth Major some years 
ago in his expedition to Madagascar, and who only re- 
turned to England a few months ago from a three years’ 
sojourn in Brazil, has just started on another collecting 
trip to the latter country, where his first destination is 
Para. The expenses of both the previous and the present 
expedition, which sre undertaken in the interests of the 
British Museum, are borne by Mrs. Percy Sladen. M. 
Robert, we understand, intends to spend some time collect- 
ing at Para, and thence to ascend the Amazons into 
Peruvian territory. The specimens collected by M. Robert 
during his last trip have done much to increase our know- 
ledge of the mammalian fauna of the Matto Grosso and 
adjacent districts of Brazil, and the novelties obtained have 
been from time to time recorded by Mr. O. Thomas in the 
Annals of Natural History. Among these are several new 
bats (one indicating a new generic type), a squirrel, and 
a new race of the crab-eating fox (Canis thous angulensis). 
M. Robert has also obtained a fine series of skins of the 
large and handsome brown woolly spider-monkey (Brachy- 
teles arachnoides), a pair of which are now being set up 
by Mr. Rowland Ward for the British (Natural History) 
Museum. 
THE report submitted at the second annual meeting of 
the trustees of the Carnegie Institution, held in Washing- 
ton recently, shows that sixty-six grants were made by the 
executive committee for scientific research, amounting to an 
aggregate sum of 30,o000l., the recipients of which represent 
every part of the United States and the smaller colleges as 
well as the large universities, observatories and laboratories. 
Twenty-five research assistants were appointed. These 
sums are exclusive of administrative and incidental ex- 
penses of the Institution. Arrangements have been made 
for publication at an early day of eleven scientific papers, 
