ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
701 
cells, such as the husk of seeds, epidermis, and even hairs retain their 
appearance after combustion and treatment with mineral acids, it is 
possible to detect their presence even under low powers. The author’s 
method is to put a teaspoonful of the meal to be examined in a flask of 
hard glass, together with 20 ccm. of strong sulphuric acid, and a tea- 
spoonful of anhydrous copper sulphate. Energetic oxidation takes 
place on boiling, and after complete reduction, a colourless fluid is 
obtained. The fluid is poured slowly into 250 ccm. of water in a conical 
glass, and after having been stirred with a glass rod, is allowed to stand 
for some hours. Some of the sediment may then be pipetted off and 
examined under the Microscope. This method is said to be quite certain 
for the detection of barley-meal when mixed with flour and other meals. 
Of course it can be used for baked articles. 
Detection of Starch in Meat Preparations.* — For determining the 
presence and amount of starch in sausages, Herr J. Mayrhofer follows 
the method devised by Dragendorff who treated the material with 
alcoholic solution of potash, in which sugar, albumen, fat, &c., are 
soluble, the starch being left as residuum on the filter. Finely minced 
sausage is digested in 8 per cent, alcoholic solution of caustic potash in 
a water-bath until the meat is quite dissolved. The insoluble residue, 
placed in a paper or asbestos filter, is then treated with hot alcohol and 
washed therewith until the reaction is no longer alkaline. The residuum 
is then dissolved in aqueous solution of caustic potash, and the starch 
afterwards precipitated by the addition of alcohol. The precipitate is 
separated by filtration and then washed in turn with alcohol and ether. 
The starch thus obtained is nearly always mixed with a greater or 
less amount of carbonate of potash, to get rid of which it is necessary 
to treat the mass with dilute acetic acid, for acetate of potash is easily 
soluble in alcohol. Though the method is satisfactory as far as ascer- 
taining the quantity of starch in the sample used, it gives no idea of 
the total quantity of meal in the sausage from which it was taken, as 
the distribution of the meal in the sausage is very irregular. 
Microscopical Examination of Jams-t — Herr G. Marpmann con- 
tributes some practical though lengthy observations on the adulterations 
of jams and the means of detecting them partly by chemical and partly 
by microscopical investigation. It seems that conserves manufactured 
in Germany are adulterated with gelatin, agar, algrn, arabinose, &c., 
coloured with anilin pigments and preserved by means of salicylic acid, 
boric acid, &c. Instead of cane-sugar, starch-sugar is used, saccharin 
or dulcin being employed to impart the wanting sweetness. 
* Forschungs-Bcrichte, 1896, p. 141. See Zeitachr. f. ang. Mikr., ii. (1896) 
pp. 112-3. See Zeitschr. f. ang. Mikr., ii. (1896) pp. 112-3. 
f Zeitschr. f. ang. Mikr., ii. (1896) pp. 97-107 (11 figs.). 
