Annual Report for 1894 of the Consulting Chemist. 771 
and may even be harmful. The following is an analysis of such a 
sample : — 
Moisture 389 
Nitrate of soda "39 
Potash . . . . . . . . . 203 
Insoluble siliceous matter 3-79 
Sulphate of soda, &c. 89 90 
10000 
Another sample examined gave the following results : — 
Moisture ’25 
Common salt -29 
Nitrate of soda -05 
Free sulphuric acid 14'05 
Sulphate of soda, &c 85-36 
100-00 
Milk. 
Two cases were brought to my notice in which there had been 
great complaints as to the milk becoming tainted by some means 
which could not be discovered. In all such cases the best plan is 
to draw some milk from each cow separately into glass vessels, and 
set the milk aside. In this way it can be ascertained if the evil 
attaches to one cow alone or to all equally. It can also be found 
out whether the fault may not lie with the pails or other vessels 
employed. In the first case under notice it was, at my suggestion, 
ultimately ascertained that the tin lining was worn off the pipes 
inside the refrigerator through which the milk passed, thus exposing 
the copper and tainting the milk. 
In the second case the “ mystery ” of the bad taste imparted to 
the milk was not solved until I had one of the pails used sent up to 
me, when I found that, though it had been thoroughly scalded before 
use, yet, being an ordinary tinned-iron one, the tinning had in time 
worn away at the bottom of the pail, and not merely milk but even 
water, after standing in it for only a few minutes, acquired a decidedly 
ferruginous taste, iron being quickly dissolved out and tainting the 
liquid. Water became, after a short time, quite reddish-coloured 
(owing to iron), and the bottom of the pail rapidly rusted. 
Action op a Lime Soil on Lead Pipes. 
A member of the Society complained to me that a mile length 
of lead waterpipes, which he had laid down six years previously, 
constantly leaked, and that the lead seemed to be perishing. On 
sending me a part of the piping I found it to be spotted in places 
and being gradually eaten into. There were on it white scales, 
which examination proved to consist of carbonate of lead, and on 
analysing the soil in which the pipes lay I found it to contain lime 
equal to more than 10 per cent, of carbonate of lime, and to be 
alkaline. To this was due the action upon the lead pipes. 
