February 15, 1873.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
617 
Cjie |1jOTmacfutitaI $<ranral. 
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 , 1873 . 
^ Communications for this Journal, and books for review,etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
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transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
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THE INLAND REVENUE RETURNS. 
Besides tlie numerous matters to which reference 
is made in the abstract from the Fifteenth Report of 
the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Inland Reve¬ 
nue which appears on the opposite page, there are 
one or two other points that are worth noting 
before they partake of the fate which too often be¬ 
falls valuable and interesting information contained 
in “ blue books.” And, first, we would observe 
that some of the details given must in one respect 
disabuse the minds of those who imagine beer 
is brewed only from malt and bittered with hops. 
As the law allows brewers to use any substitute for 
hops which is not a substitute for malt, and at the 
same time not injurious to health, the report 
passes over hops in silence. But it is recorded that 
in the year no less than 29,188,303 lb. of sugar were 
used by licensed brewers. The quantity is certainly 
very great; and as it is well known that large quan¬ 
tities of sugar are also used, which the Revenue 
authorities know nothing about, it must be apparent 
that the amount of sugar used in the brewing of 
beer is enormous. Nearly four million pounds of 
sugar were made in England and charged with duty 
during the year ; however, the greater part of this 
was made from starch for brewers’ use only. 
There is a very interesting paper in the report 
on the mode of charging with duty beet-root sugar 
made in Belgium. Our readers are doubtless aware 
that in 1864 this country entered into a convention 
respecting the sugar duties with France, Belgium, 
nnd the Netherlands; and as beet sugar is now 
made on a considerable scale by Mr. Duncan, at 
Eavenliam, in Suffolk, it is necessary that the mode 
•of assessing the duty should be within the terms of 
the convention. In passing, we may note that 
whilst Great Britain has but one beet-sugar manu¬ 
factory, Belgium has 131, France 458, and the Zoll- 
verein 284. Why they should flourish on the Conti¬ 
nent and not in this country it is difficult to under¬ 
stand, as the climate is favourable to beet cultiva¬ 
tion ; but of this we may be sure, that if the Laven- 
ham factory be a success, others will soon be started ; 
and thus the agricultural interests of the country 
may at no distant day be benefited. 
The before-named paper shows conclusively that 
the present method of charging duty on beet juice 
m Belgium is strongly in favour of the manufac¬ 
turer, who is able to produce much more refined 
sugar than the juice is estimated to yield ; and he is 
thus able to pocket the duty on the surplus quan¬ 
tity made, and which is in reality, though indirectly, 
a bounty from the Government. 
This mode of charging duty on the estimated 
quantity pioduced, and not on the actual quantity, 
carries us back to the time when in this country the 
Government used not to charge a distiller with duty 
on the actual quantity of spirits produced, but he 
was simply called on to pay a licence duty accord¬ 
ing to the size of the still. Of course the distiller 
took care never to let his still be idle, and the con¬ 
sequence was that the spirit duty was systemati¬ 
cally evaded. The Belgians are striving to find a 
way out of their present difficulties respecting the 
sugar duties, but class interests appear too strong to 
allow of the matter being speedily or easily settled ; 
and the amount received for sugar duties is suffi¬ 
ciently small to enable the Belgian Government to 
bear with patience the present inequalities of the 
sugar tax, as the duty lost by the present assess¬ 
ment is not so large as to cause the authorities to 
insist upon an equitable adjustment at any cost. 
The Commissioners of Inland Revenue also report 
they have been surprised to find that a trade in 
adulterated chicory exists; but this fact need occa¬ 
sion no surprise, for as long as there can be procured 
such cheap articles as mustard, husks, dog biscuits, 
roasted rye, locust beans, and other vegetable sub¬ 
stances which handily lend themselves to the adul¬ 
teration of chicory, so long will they be used for 
that purpose. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 
Mr. J. Eliot Howard, writing to the Gardeners 
Chronicle, says he has just received letters from Mr. 
MTvor stating that the harvest of Neilgherry bark 
may now be said to have begun with the year 1873. 
They are now preparing about 25,000 lb. of bark to 
be sent home from the Government plantations, as 
well as a small quantity of renewed bark, the whole 
being for sale in the London market, and in June or 
July it is expected that a further supply will be sent 
home. 
Other large importations may be expected from 
lirivate plantations in the course of this year. So 
that it appears a fair field for British skill and in¬ 
dustry is being opened out in a mountain climate 
well suited to our race. There is also an equally 
promising future for this enterprise in the mountain 
districts of Ceylon and Jamaica. 
The number of trees in the Neilgherry plantations 
of the Indian Government are estimated roughly at 
rather more than one million, nearly one-half of 
these being Cinchona officinalis and its varieties, the 
