826 
RECENT AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONS. 
Op the four works which form the subject of this notice, one is 
French, one is German, and the remaining two are English. They 
are reviewed in the following order : — 
1. Butter analysis. | 3. Cattle breeding. 
2. Seeds and seedlings. | 4. Agricultural entomology. 
BUTTER ANALYSIS.' 
This woi’k is a most complete record of investigations, carried out 
during recent years by the leading English, Continental, and 
American chemists, on the composition and properties of butter 
and its adulterants. As a compilation the work is a valuable one 
for reference, all recognised processes — both chemical and physical — 
used in the analysis of butter and for the detection of adulteration 
being elaborately and carefully described and criticised. A vast 
amount of labour must have been expended in the collection of the 
information here presented. It is, however, unfortunately over- 
burdened with a multiplicity of insignificant details — page after 
page being devoted to the description of trifling modifications of 
processes suggested by various experimenters — which have really no 
scientific or practical importance. 
The author in the opening chapters touches generally on the 
preparation of natural butter and of the various animal and vege- 
table fats Used for its sophistication. The physical properties and 
the chemical analysis of the fats are next dealt with, and tables of 
analyses of natural and artificial butters are given. The optical and 
microscopical examination of butter and other fats is very copiously 
gone into, and a large number of tables and plates are appended. The 
microscopical investigations are, however, more interesting than 
practically valuable. The comjDosition and characters of the various 
fats and of their products of decomposition are fully dealt with, and 
then the author proceeds to the question of the adulteration of 
butter. He considers that a butter should be taken as adulterated 
when it contains (1) matters foreign to its normal composition 
(colouring matters, antiseptics, &c.) ; (2) an unusual quantity of 
substances normal to butter (water, casein, .salt, <kc.) ; (3) foreign fats 
— natural or manufactured, — animal or vegetable oils, margarine. 
After alluding to the increase in the adulteration of butter and 
to the difficulty of its detection, owing to the state of perfection to 
which the manufacture of margarine has been brought, the author 
proceeds to the discussion of the various analytical processes adopted 
for the investigation of the purity of butter. Over seventy methods 
(with their modifications) of analysis are described, and the results 
* TraiU General d' Analyse des Beurres. Par A. J. Zune. Two vcls. Pages 
xii + 490 + 340, with 353 illustrations and 14 plates. Paper covers. Paris. 
1892. 
