410 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions, 
to joui'Dcymen in various trades in this country when they remove 
from toMTi to town. Perhaps, owing to the operation of om* Poor-laws, 
which give urgent reasons for employing all workmen, good, bad, 
or indili'erent, and therefore paying them all at the same rate, the 
importance of good character to the agi'icultm-al labourer, and the 
additional value which ought to attach to his services, if he be really 
a responsible, trustworthy man, has been too much overlooked. In our 
more advanced state of agi-iculturo it would be a gain if the English 
workman, instead of being hired annually, with or without a character, 
at a statute fair, were passed on from one neighbourhood to another 
with that kind of character which would be implied in the existence of 
these livrets, or pass-books. There is yet another point in which we 
have also a lesson to learn, viz.. What is the practical effect of dry- 
ing corn upon its bulk? When corn is dried, what is the rela- 
tion between the loss in volume or bulk, and the increase of weight per 
bushel, or in specific gravity ? Practically the question often arises 
whether we should sell oiu- wheat in a somewhat damp condition, in 
August, or wait a week or two, imtil it had become dry, when it would 
weigh 1 or 2 lbs. per bushel more, and perhaps realise an additional 
2s. per quarter, but with a loss of bulk. 
Meeting of Weekly Council, March \2th. Mr. Eatmond Baekbb, 
Vice-President, in the Chair. 
' Lecture by Professor Voelcker on Milk. 
Professor Voelcker said : Milk is essentially an emulsion of fatty 
particles in a solution of casein and milk-sugar. The fatty matter is 
not contained in it in a free condition, but enclosed in a little cell, 
consisting of casein, a substance which exists also in a state of solution 
in milk, and is precipitated when milk gets sour ; in other words, the 
butter is encased in ciu-d. These milk-globules are of different sizes 
in different animals ; and even in animals of the same kind they vary 
from the l-2000th to the l-4000th part of an inch. They are gene- 
rally round, but sometimes egg-shaped. Certain yellow spots, called 
epithelium cells, are generally found in minute quantities even in 
sound milk. Besides the substances just mentioned, milk invariably 
contains a certain proportion of mineral matter, which is essentially 
the same as the incombustible part of bone. The ash of milk is rich 
in phosphate of lime and phosphate of magnesia, or bone-earth. 
Butter, cm-d, milk-sugar, and mineral substances arc then the normal 
constituents of milk. In diseased milk we find a number of accidental 
substances which, although they cannot always be identified by chemical 
tests, may generally be recognised by the microscope. This is the case 
with pus, or corrupt matter ; but even the microscope is not able in 
all cases to decide whether the milk is wholesome or not. 
In many instances food contains substances which have a decidedly 
medicinal effect, and which, passing rapidly into the milk, convey to 
it the same medicinal properties which the substances themselves 
