March 1st, 1887.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



15 



With regard to hops the chemist does not help much; 

 but yeast lends itself more than the other materials to 

 scientific investigation, for it is the microscope which reveals 

 to the brewer what the flavour of his beer may be. The 

 various ferments which Pasteur has classified yield each a 

 different taste, and the brewer knows that by cleanliness 

 and careful cultivation he must develop the Sacckaromyces 

 ccrivisiw, or pure yeast, otherwise he will introduce into his 

 brewery germs which give him not only sour, but ill- 

 flavoured beers. Moreover, he knows that by supplying 

 the yeast with oxygen or pure air, he stimulates a healthy 

 growth. So thoroughly have some brewers realised this 

 that in one brewery at Burton there are now fitted a series 

 of miniature fermenting rounds, in which the wort is 

 protected from the atmosphere, and supplied with air 

 filtered through cotton wool. In this way experiments 

 are being made on the growth of pure j'east from a single 

 cell. Without attempting elaborate and costly investigations 

 of this kind, the brewer has learned from his microscope 

 and from Dr. Tyndall the need of cleanliness, and of 

 excluding the lloating germs which are always ready to 

 start fermentations other than the alcoholic. It is beyond 

 the limits of this paper to enumerate the various microscopic 

 enemies of the brewer, but the different germs producing 

 sour, ropy, lactic, and butyric fermentations are too often 

 present in many old-established breweries. 



Having spoken of the materials legitimately used for the 

 production of good beers, it may be well to say something 

 of those adulterants, the very name of which has gone so 

 far to bring beer into disfavour with the medical profession, 

 and to make it give place to the light wines about the pre- 

 paration of which we know so little. The substitutes for 

 malt, as mentioned above, are harmless, but there have been 

 prepared, in the form of hop substitutes, quassia, chamomile, 

 and even cocculus indicus. These contain, in a small com- 

 pass, a large amount of bitter principle, and they must, in 

 a very scarce hop year like 1882, recommend themselves to 

 those brewers who are content to accept, without too strict 

 enquiry, what is given them under a pleasing name. But, 

 as Dr. Graham instructs his pupils, the requisite amount of 

 tannin can be obtained in a very cheap form ; and by the 

 careful manipulation of hops, in even a scarce season, the 

 requisite bitter can be secured at a price not ruinous to the 

 brewer. It is worth notice that, whereas now there is an 

 outcry against any hop-substitute, in the first year of King 

 Richard III. a petition was presented to the Lord Mayor by 

 the Brewers' Company against the use of hops, and for many 

 years the brewer could not use hops without rendering 

 himself liable to a pcnalt}'.* 



In these days a more formidable, because more general, 

 cause of complaint arises from the numerous so called pre- 

 servatives, which, to say the least, destroy the pleasant 

 flavour of pure beer. They certainly have a fascination for 

 the brewer in hot weather, when sour beer threatens, and he 

 is tempted by a specious remedy ; like an invalid, who, 

 weary of the hygienic measures of his physician, is cajoled 

 by the promises of quackery. The majority of these pre- 

 servatives are sulphites, and give the familiar and objection- 

 able flavour of sulphuretted hydrogen. They are, however, 

 easily detected by smell or taste, and it is for the public to 

 choose between unpleasant flavour and a chance of sour 

 beer. The quantitative analysis of these compounds is 

 extremely simple. 



With regard to the analysis of the complete beer, no part 

 of the chemist's work is so unsatisfactory from a practical 

 brewer's point of view. The process of finding the original 

 gravity or strength of the wort before fermentation is simple 



* Bickerdyke: " Curiosities of Ale and Beer," p. 78. 



and generally known, but the Government tables, on which 

 the results are based, although worked out at the expense 

 of much labour, give from 5 to 10 percent, below the actual 

 strength, varying as the beer is attenuated and alcoholic, or 

 dextrinous and full-drinking. 



So very much is, after all, dependent on public taste, that 

 it becomes absurd to say what is a pure beer. If the public 

 prefer sugar, the brewer will supply it, but, as a matter of 

 fact, the beer produced from malt alone is gaining favour, 

 and the brewers who have brewed entirely from malt are 

 the most successful. Notably is this the case with the emi- 

 nent firm of Guinness and Co., who, since the year 18S0, 

 have greatly increased their trade, although the general 

 depression would have led us to expect a different result. 

 It IS worth notice that a weaker beer than was formerly 

 liked is now preferred ; and that, although the Inland 

 Revenue shows a decrease, it is not because a less quantity 

 of beer is drunk, but because it is of a lighter kind. 



THE LICK TELESCOPE. 



FOR a long time past attention has been directed to the 

 promise of the erection in America of a telescope which 

 was to throw into comparative shade all previously constiucted 

 instruments. The latest advice from Mount Hamilton is to the 

 effect that, after mast careful attentions in packing, the gigantic 

 lenses of this instrument have been received without any 

 apparent injury, and have been placed in specially prepared 

 fire-proof rooms. This great undertaking has sprung from the 

 munificent bequest of Mr. Lick, amounting to 700,000 dollars. 

 The plan of the observatory is very complete, providing a 

 building of 2S7 feet in length, a transit house, meridian circle, a 

 photo heliograph, a heliostat, and a photographic house. The 

 situation was chosen on account of the climate and the unob- 

 structed view. It is upon one of the highest peaks of the coast 

 ranges of California, some thirteen miles east of San Jose, its 

 elevation being 4,250 feet above the sea level. The object in select- 

 ing such a site was to escape as far as possible minute particles 

 of matter held in suspension by the atmosphere, the movements 

 and magnification of which have so hindered the employment of 

 large powers. The south dome, it is said, will be one of the 

 finest in existence, and will contain the great telescope. The 

 lenses themselves are the largest yet made. According to 

 the contract, the manufacturers, Messrs. Alvan Clark and Sons, 

 of Cambridgeport, had to construct "an achromatic astronomical 

 object-glass of 36 inches clear aperture." The cost was ratlier 

 more than 50,000 dollars. In addition there is the photographic 

 lens, which will cost some 13,000 dollars, and these large sums, 

 added to the cost of the dome, 56,000 dollars, will convey some 

 idea of the magnitude of the undertaking. Unfortunately, we 

 shall not for some time be able to see any photographic results, 

 owing to an accident which at once reveals the power of scientific 

 observation, and the difficulty of construction. When the im- 

 mense disc out of which the " photographic ct>rrector " lens was to 

 be constructed was received from Feil's Paris factory during last 

 spring, it was tested by Messrs. Clark by polarised light, and 

 found that, owing to the lack of perfect annealing, it was subject 

 in some internal parts to great inequalities of strain. Messrs. 

 Clark were careful to note this to the maker, and suggested that 

 the disc would probably not bear working. They proceeded, 

 however, at the request and risk of the maker, but unhappily the 

 disc has demonstrated the e.xactness of their observation by 

 bursting into three pieces on the grinding tool. 



Insane Chinamen i.n the United States. — Referring to a 

 popular belief that there are no insane people in China, the 

 Avaenca.n Jonnia! of Iiisaiufy mentions that Dr. Wilkins, of the 

 Asylum for the Insane at Napa, California, has stated that there 

 were about one hundred insane Chinamen in California. He had 

 also been informed by Chinamen that when a man becomes insane 

 in China he is put in confinement and left alone to die. Dr. Wilkins 

 also stated that in his experience the proportion of Chinese who 

 become insane is not so great as that of other nationalities. 

 They eat rice and unstimulating food, and are less liable to be 

 influenced by the excitements, speculations, and similar causes 

 that serve to bring on insanity amongst others. 



