October 26, 1905] 



NA TURE 



63 = 



spirits, and tobacco. For instance, beer-duty is 

 charged according to tlie specific gravity of the 

 brewer's wort betore fermentation, and this gravity 

 is " declared " by the brewer himself. To test the 

 accuracy of such declarations, 6370 samples of wort 

 in various stages of fermentation were analysed, with 

 the result that the amount of dut\' was increased in 

 more than 10 per cent, of the cases. Again, on beer 

 which is exported, " drawback " corresponding to the 

 original duty can be claimed : to check the claims, 

 samples of the beer are analysed ; and during the 

 year 2789 barrels were found to be not entitled to 

 the drawback claimed. 813 samples of beer out of 

 6589 taken from publicans were shown by analysis 

 to have been illegally diluted with water. Of so- 

 called " temperance " drinks, about one-third of the 

 whole number examined, loii, contained alcohol in 

 excess of the legal limit, the highest quantity being 

 about as much as in ordinary light beer. Forty-four 

 specimens of beer and brewing materials were found 

 to contain arsenic in objectionable amount. 



.\s regards spirits, it is noted that the exportation 

 of medicinal tinctures, flavouring essences, and per- 

 fumes is increasing. So, too, is the use of denatured 

 alcohol for industrial purposes, and of pure duty-free 

 spirit issued to medical and other science schools. 



Tobacco is e.xamined chiefly to prevent an excessive 

 admixture of water or oil ; penalties were imposed in 

 87 cases of this kind during the past year, and also 

 in other instances where glycerin and liquorice were 

 unlawfully present. 



Legal proceedings are necessarily a feature of the 

 chemical control over dutiable articles. Penalties 

 aggregating 5072/. were imposed during the year in 

 respect of offences proof of wliich depended upon the 

 analytical evidence. 



Much work, of very varied scope, is carried out for 

 the .\dmiralty, the Boards of Trade and .Agriculture, 

 India Office, Post Office, War Office, and other .State 

 departments. Imported dairy produce, for instance, 

 is analysed for the Board of .Agriculture in order to 

 check the importation of adulterated foodstuffs; 2468 

 such articles were examined in the year, of which 

 2 no were butter and 305 milk and cream. Boron 

 |)reservatives and artificial colouring-matter are found 

 to be common additions to the butter. The use of 

 the preservative is increasing; but, as the principal 

 chemist points out, there is a difficulty in restricting 

 the admixture so long as a legal limit has not been 

 fixed. In two other respects it would seem that the 

 law might well be amended. Butter, about the purity 

 of which there were grave doubts, and cheese con- 

 taining merely nominal amounts of fat, had, " in the 

 absence of legal limits," to be admitted into the 

 country without objection ; this seems hardly fair, 

 either to the home farmer or to the consumer. 



In connection with the testing of filters, a useful 

 note of warning is .o-iven to the makers of these 

 articles. The actual filtering material may be quite 

 satisfactory, but as regards giving a sterile filtrate 

 the whole apparatus is sometimes rendered useless 

 by leakage of unfiltered water through faulty fittings. 



For the Home Office an interesting series of lead- 

 gla/e samples was e.xamined during the year. It 

 may be remembered that cases of lead poisoning in 

 the pottery industry had a few years ago become so 

 numerous as almost to constitute a public scandal. 

 Profs. Thorpe and Oliver, who were commissioned by 

 the Home Secretary to investigate the matter, re- 

 commended, among other remedial measures, the 

 substitution of lead silicates for the white lead then 

 in general use as a glazing substance, on the ground 

 that the silicate, properly comnounded. would be 

 almost insoluble in the acids of the eastric iuice. and 

 therefore far less poisonous than the easily soluble 



NO. 1878, VOL. 72] 



white lead. Based on this recommendation, a regu- 

 lation was framed by the Home Office ; it was, how- 

 ever, thought by the potters to be too stringent, and 

 eventually the point was submitted to arbitration. 

 Lord James of Hereford being umpire. His award 

 was in the nature of a compromise giving the manu- 

 facturers greater freedom than under the original 

 proposal. The conditions are set forth in the report, 

 together with the results of the analyses of samples 

 of glaze showing how nearly the manufacturers, in 

 the first year's working of the new rules, have been 

 able to keep their glazes within the specified limits. 

 On the whole, the results are fairly satisfactory. 

 Thus thirty samples were represented as " leadless," 

 and all but four did, in fact, conform to the regulation. 



The India Office requires the analysis of a great 

 variety of articles, which are examined in order to 

 ensure that goods supplied by contractors are actually 

 what they purport to be. Metals and alloys, cements, 

 chemicals, disinfectants, drugs, food preparations. 

 oils, paints, and surgical dressings were among the 

 supplies sent for analysis during the year ; but how- 

 far thev proved to be satisfactory is not stated. 



In cases which arise under the Sale of Food and 

 Drugs Acts there may be a conflict of testimony, and 

 the magistrate may wish to have before him inde- 

 pendent evidence upon the chemical aspects of the 

 question. In such matters the Government Labor- 

 atory acts as amicus curiae, and examines a sample 

 of the article in dispute which has been specially 

 reserved for that purpose. Further, whether the 

 magistrate wants it or not, either of the litigants can 

 claim to have this reserved sample forwarded for 

 analysis. This is an excellent provision, securing as 

 it does a careful examination of the disputed points 

 by chemists unconnected with either prosecution or 

 defence, and detached from any local influences which 

 mia-ht, however wrongly, have been alleged or sus- 

 pected by an accused person to have been used against 

 him. During the past year this provision has been 

 taken advantage of in 109 instances. The net result 

 of the references was to support the allegation brought 

 against the article in the great majority of cases, viz. 

 in 05 out of 105. 



The report bristles with matters of interest similar 

 to the foregoing. It is the record of a useful year's 

 work. 



ON THE ORIGIN OF EOLITHS. 



THE more detailed paper by M. Marcellin Boule 

 on the subject of the origin of eoliths (see 

 N.vriRE, .\ugust 31, p. 438) has now appeared in 

 VAnthropologie (Tome xvi., p. 257), and was briefly 

 noticed in N.vrURE of September 28 (p. 538). The 

 paper is too long for us, with the existing pressure 

 upon our space, to give a full translation of it, but 

 the following are the principal new features in the 

 extended essay. The velocity of the circumference of 

 the wheels in' the delayeurs, or vats, is stated to be 

 about 13 feet per second, the same as the speed of the 

 Rhone "in times of flood. It will therefore be seen 

 that these mixing vats are of an entirely different 

 character from ordinary pug-mills, and that the 

 motion of the water in them may be properly de- 

 scribed as torrential. The author attaches no import- 

 ance to the fact that some of the blows to the flints 

 are given by the iron teeth of the suspended harrows, 

 and "states that most of the flints are reduced to the 

 condition of rolled pebbles, identical with those to be 

 found in all flint gravels, but that there are numerous 

 examples of retouches, or secondary working. In 

 illustration of this he gives photographic figures of 

 eleven different specimens by which he contends that 



