SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, MARCH 23, li 



Col. Carroll D. Wright, chief of the Bureau of Labor Sta- 

 tistics, is now engaged in the preparation for the work of the com- 

 ing year. The subject he proposes to have investigated is the actual 

 earnings of the railroad employees of the country. To ascertain 

 this, he does not propose to be content with averages, but will as- 

 certain from the pay-rolls of the companies just what each man in 

 each grade of employment receives during the year. From this he 

 will be able to determine what the actual earnings in the several 

 departments are. The defect of all statistics of this kind, except 

 those gathered by Colonel Wright in Massachusetts, is that they 

 have dealt chiefly with averages, which really give no idea whatever 

 ■of what the income of the working-people is. Dividing the total 

 amount of wages paid in a month, or a year, by the total number 

 of employees, produces a result that is of little or no value in eco- 

 nomics. As the proportion of high or low priced employees is in- 

 creased or diminished, the average will be raised or lowered, 

 though the actual earnings of an individual in any particular de- 

 partment may not be changed. The series of reports now issuing 

 from Colonel Wright's office are, of more scientific value than any 

 statistics heretofore published by the government, excepting the 

 census reports. They are collected in accordance with a carefully 

 devised and skilfully worked-out plan prepared by Colonel Wright 

 himself. The agents employed are experienced and trained, and 

 the results are calculated to show the actual facts. In the discus- 

 sion of these facts. Colonel Wright has no preconceived theories to 

 establish, no partisan purpose to serve. The one object is to find 

 the truth, and, that discovered, the purpose of Colonel Wright's 

 work is accomplished. 



The United States Department of Agriculture has 

 issued the third part of the report on foods and food adulterants. 

 It treats of fermented alcoholic beverages, malt liquors, wine, and 

 cider, and represents a vast amount of work by C. A. Crampton, 

 the chemist, and his assistants. The opening sentences of this 

 report are calculated to excite a good deal of thought and reflection. 

 They are as follows : " The production of malt liquors in this 

 country as an industry is second only in importance to the produc- 

 tion of breadstuffs. Their consumption is steadily on the increase, 

 as is also the amount consumed in proportion to other kinds of 

 alcoholic beverages." These facts are well illustrated by tables, 

 from which a few figures will be selected. In 1840 there were con- 

 sumed in the United States, 23,310,843 gallons of malt liquors. 

 From that time until 1886 the amount of annual consumption in- 

 creased, until during that year it had reached 642.967,720 gallons. 

 In 1840 the consumption per capita of the population was 1.36 

 gallons, while in 1886 it was 11. 18 gallons. During the same 

 period t\\e per capita consumption of distilled spirits has decreased 

 from 2.52 to 1.24, or, in other words, the malt liquors have been 

 driving out the distilled at the rate of about .05 of a gallon /^r 

 capita each year, and supplanting them at the rate of about .38 of 

 a gallon /,?r capita. It is estimated that the amount expended for 

 beer per annum is $304,852,683, placing the cost to the consumer 

 at 50 cents a gallon. The annual cost to the consumer, of all 

 liquors consumed, is placed at $700,000,000. And yet the state- 

 ment is made that the United States, although holding her own in 

 the quantity of distilled liquors consumed, is still far behind the 

 other great nations in the consumption of the milder alcoholic 



liquors ; and the statistics certainly bear out this statement. Thus 

 in the United States there were consumed 11. 18 gallons of malt 

 \\(\\io]:s per capita in 1886: in the United Kingdom there were con- 

 sumed 32.79 ; and in Germany, 23.78 gallons in the same period. 

 In speaking of the enormous consumption of beer in the United 

 States, Mr. Crampton says that there is no beverage that compares 

 with it in the amount consumed by the people, except water, and 

 possibly milk; and that but little supervision has been exercised 

 over its manufacture and sale, except the rigorous enforcement by 

 the government of its demands for a share in the profits. The 

 processes of brewing, malting, fermenting, clarifying, and preserv- 

 ing are fully described in the report, and analyses are given of all 

 the beers which are drunk in the United States. From these it 

 would appear that the average amount of alcohol, by weight, is 

 4.63 per cent. Of thirty-two samples analyzed by the department, 

 salicylic acid was found in seven. These were all bottled beers, 

 one of them being imported. None was found in any of the 

 draught beers. Of the nineteen samples of American bottled beers 

 analyzed, six contained this acid. These six included the product 

 of some of the largest breweries in the country, — beers that are 

 used to a very large extent all over the United States. Whether 

 the acid is added in the breweries where the beer is made, or by 

 the local bottlers, could not be determined. The acid is added to 

 prevent fermentation, and as has been shown by Dr. Hartley, for- 

 merly chief chemist to the Brooklyn Board of Health, the amount 

 which beers contain is sufficient to be injurious to health. Of seventy 

 samples of wine examined by Mr. Crampton, including champagne, 

 burgundy, claret, sherry, sauterne, and other wines in common use, 

 eighteen contained salicylic acid, and thirteen sulphurous acid, 

 which had been added as such or in the form of a sulphite. One 

 sample in forty contained one aniline dye-stuff, probably fuchsine : 

 this was a California claret. In the analyses which were made of 

 cider, some were found to contain as much as 8.09 per cent of 

 alcohol by weight, the average being 5.17 per cent. These were 

 all well-fermented ciders, and all bottled but one. In the ' sweet ' 

 or incompletely fermented ciders, the percentage of alcohol aver- 

 aged 1.40, the lowest being 0.20, and the highest 3.46. No salicylic 

 acid was detected in any of the ciders examined, and but one was 

 adulterated. This was a bottled ' sparkling cider,' handsomely 

 put up in neatly capped bottles, and of a clear, bright color. In it 

 were found both bicarbonate of soda and a sulphite. This report 

 is in its entirety a most valuable one, replete with information which 

 is interesting to. the general reader, as well as instructive to the 

 scientist. 



The State Board of Health of Illinois has been the pioneer 

 in the movement to restrict the practice of medicine to those who 

 are qualified. This policy has been based on a law passed by the 

 Legislature of that State, giving to the board the sole power to 

 grant licenses to physicians, without which the practice of medicine 

 is illegal, and the offenders subject to a severe penalty. The law 

 grants to the board the additional power of revoking licenses which 

 they have previously granted. It has been hitherto supposed that 

 there was no restriction on this power of revocation, but a recent 

 decision of the courts in that State would seem to indicate that this 

 power cannot be exercised without limitations. An Illinois physician 

 having advertised in the newspapers, the State board revoked his 

 license. The court maintains that the right to advertise one's 

 business is a right to which every citizen is entitled, and that to 

 deprive him of this right is unconstitutional, and that members of 



