78 
Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
Jalap  ( Exogonium  purga)  gets  its  name  from 
Xalapa  or  Jalapa  in  Mexico,  the  principal  market 
for  the  drug.  Dill  ( Anethum  graveolens)  is  deriv- 
ed from  an  old  Norse  word  dill  a,  to  dull,  in  allusion 
to  the  carminative  properties  of  the  seeds. 
Can  the  addition  of  water  to  milk  be  detected  ? 
The  chemists  have  been  saying  positively  that 
it  can  ; but  Professor  Primrose  McConnell,  who 
is  described  as  one  of  the  most  practical  exponents 
of  dairy  science  in  Great  Britain  today,  laughs 
the  pretensions  of  the  chemists  to  scorn,  lie 
argues  that  a dozen  samples  of  unadulterated 
milk,  drawn  from  as  many  cows,  may  all  differ 
from  each  other  in  regard  to  the  proportion  of 
water  that  they  contain  naturally,  and  that 
therefore  it  is  impossible  for  the  chemist,  who 
is  ignorant  of  their  origin,  to  pronounce  a 
certain  opinion  as  to  whether  they  contain  added 
water.  “ I deliberately  say,  therefore,”  he  con- 
cludes, “ that  the  chemist  who  goes  into  the 
witness-box  and  swears  that  a farmer  has  put 
5 or  10  per  cent  of  water  into  his  milk,  or 
extracted  2 or  3 per  cent  of  the  cream  there- 
form,  is  going  beyond  what  he  knows,  and  is 
committing  a great  error — let  me  be  charitable, 
and  say  unintentionally.” 
