194 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Of course there is nothing new in its pages, but the facts of entomology are 
pleasantly put, and the introduction on the anatomy of the animals is not 
by any means a bad sketch of insect structure. As a book on entomology, 
we think it a very excellent work to place in the hands of a beginner. 
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.* 
W ITHIN the past ten years the subject of adulteration of food has 
acquired an immense importance, from the fact that it has been 
during that time possible to detect any infringement of the law, and equally 
possible to punish — and that most severely — those who have been guilty of 
the act of adulteration. During that period various books on the subject 
of the detection of impurities in food have been published, among the first of 
which we should certainly place the work on hygiene of the late Dr. Parkes, 
of Netley. Indeed, we know of no other writer who treated generally on the 
subject, with the exception of the author of the present volume, who pub- 
lished, eighteen years ago, a work entitled “ Adulterations Detected in Food 
and Medicine.” Now, however, Dr. Hassall has again come to our assistance, 
and has brought out a new edition of this essay ; and he has so modified his 
original remarks, and has added so largely to the contents, that we think he 
is perfectly justified in issuing the work under a new title, that of “ Food : 
its Adulterations and the Methods of their Detection.” To do anything like a 
fair review of this work would be impossible in anything less than a couple 
of sheets of matter. And that this is so will be at once evident when we 
state that it consists of nearly 900 8vo. pages of closely-printed matter. We 
shall therefore only touch on some two or three points, after giving a 
sketch of the book’s general plan. Dr. Hassall’s work is divided among 
fifty different chapters, as follows : — Firstly, we are treated to some observa- 
tions on the subject of food in regard to its functions and quantity, and then 
we have a chapter devoted to the different modes of preserving food. After 
this come the following chapters, in each of which the author deals fully 
with his subject, showing us the characters of both the normal and 
adulterated article, and offers illustrations most of which are reliable, 
though in one or two instances they are ideal — that is to say, that one 
illustration represents every conceivable form of abnormal variation : water, 
tea, coffee, chicory, cocoa, sugar, honey, flour, bread, oatmeal, arrowroot, 
sago, tapioca, proprietary alimentary preparations, milk, butter, cheese, 
lard, isinglass, gelatine, unwholesome and diseased meat, potted meats and 
fish, anchovies, bottled fruits and vegetables, tinned vegetables, jellies and 
preserves, mustard, pepper, cayenne, spices, curry-powders, turmeric, liquo- 
rice, annatto, vinegar, pickles, lemon and lime-juice, sauces, aerated waters, 
malt beverages, cider and perry, wine, and, lastly, spirituous liquors. Then, 
* u Food : Its Adulterations and the Methods for their Detection.” By 
Arthur Hill Hassall, M.D., M.R.C.P., &c. &c. Illustrated by upwards of 
200 wood engravings. London : Longmans. 1876. 
