39G 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 11,1871. 
ration of a madder known as garancine, pure alizarine is 
volatilized, and may be easily collected. 
Pure crystallized alizarine was discovered, in 1S24, by 
MM. Robiquet and Colin, by treating madder with strong 
sulphuric acid, when they produced a black mass, which 
they called “charbon de garance,” and which, on being 
heated at a moderate temperature, yielded crystals of 
alizarine. 
In 1851, Dr. Schunck succeeded in isolating from 
madder a substance to which he gave the name of rubian. 
This he effected by filtering a hot decoction of madder 
on pure animal black, which is washed with cold water 
to remove chlorogenine. The washed charcoal is boiled 
repeatedly with alcohol, and the alcohol solution evapo¬ 
rated to dryness. The dry mass is dissolved in water, 
and acetate of lead added, which gives rise to a precipi¬ 
tate. This precipitate, when acted on by sulphuretted 
hydrogen, gives pure rubian in solution. When rubian 
is acted on, either by erythrozym or weak acids, it is de¬ 
composed, yielding, according, to Dr. Schunck’s paper, 
alizarine and water; according to M. Schutzenberger, 
alizarine and glucose, or grape-sugar. 
(To be continued.) 
MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 
Mourn ay . Medical Society, at 9 p.m. 
Nov. 13. London Institution, at 4 p.m. —“ Nervous 
Matter: its Structure and Properties.” By 
Professor Huxley. (Educational Course.) 
Wednesday. ..$oc?efj/ of Arts, at 8 p.m. —Opening Address 
Nov. 15. by Lord Henry G. Lennox, Chairman of 
the Council, and Distribution of Medals. 
Thursday. Chemical Society, at 8 p.m. 
Nov. 16. London Institution, 7.30 p.m. —“The Influ¬ 
ence of Geological Phenomena on the 
Social Life of the People.” By Harry G. 
Seeley, E.G.S. 
Adulteration of Bread in Melbourne, and the 
Scientific Evidence thereon. 
"W e have been favoured by a Melbourne correspon¬ 
dent with the subjoined report of an appeal case before 
the Judge of a County Court by a baker convicted of 
adulterating his bread, w'hich may prove interesting to 
English readers. The whole of the bakers in Melbourne 
had had their bread seized by the police, and in every 
instance the Government analytical chemist found alum 
present. The bakers, as a rule, denied the practice, and 
protested against the correctness of the analysis. 
William Johnson, Government analytical chemist, 
was sworn, and deposed that he examined a loaf of bread 
from Mr. Black’s establishment, handed to him by the 
police. 
How much alum did you find ? 
Alum itself is not usually found in bread, because in 
the process of baking alum gets decomposed. When it 
is mixed with bread, it is not possible to dissolve it out 
with water, and the only way is to ignite the bread, and 
recover it in the form of alumina, which is the base of 
alum. It was alumina I recovered from this bread, and 
I recovered a quantity equal to four grains of alum to 
the pound of“ bread. This was the smallest quantity in 
any of the eighteen loaves handed to me by the police. 
I only operated on four ounces of this loaf. In those 
four ounces I found three-tenths of a grain of phosphate 
of alumina, which equals four grains of alum. 
Cross-examined by Mr. Billing as follows 
\\ hen did you cut those four ounces out F—The next 
day after receiving the loaf. 
How long did your analysing operations occupy you 
after that ?—About six weeks. I was very busy, and 
could not devote my whole attention to it. 
Where did you keep this piece of bread P—In my pri¬ 
vate room, locked up. It was wrapped in the same 
piece of paper the loaf came in. It was not possible for 
dust to get on it. 
When did you burn it ?—Not for some little time. 
How did you proceed ?—I first digested a small slice 
of the loaf in water mixed with logwood. 
As a chemist, can you say that an infusion of logwood 
is considered a safe test ?—No; but it will always indi¬ 
cate alum when it is present. 
If there were other woods in the infusion as well as 
logwood, would not the same violet colour be produced ? 
—Yes, as logwood would continue to act in the same 
way in the presence of other woods. But I may say 
that this was only a preliminary test, and that I aban¬ 
doned it as not being satisfactory. For instance, there 
were some samples of bread that logwood did not affect, 
and I thought there was no alum in them ; but they 
turned out the worst when I applied the next test. 
YY>u do not, then, consider logwood a safe test F— 
No. 
You have changed your views on this since you gave 
evidence a week ago at the District Court F—Yes. I 
said it was a useful test then. 
Did you not say it was an infallible test F—I might 
have done so, but do not think I did. 
Does common salt contain alumina F—I will not swear 
it does not, as salt is of various qualities. 
Well, then, take table salt or Liverpool fine salt.— 
That is quite pure. There is no alumina in it. 
Do you know Hassall’s work on ‘Adulteration of 
Food ’ F —Yes ; it is a good authority. 
Do you difi'er from this passage, where it states that 
salt contains minute quantities of alumina F—No. 
In the passage, he says that in two samples of salt 
there was alumina amounting to 0-05 and 0'06. What 
does that mean F —It means that in the first there was 
one-twentieth of a grain of alumina in one hundred 
grains of the salt. 
How much alum would this be equal to F—One-ninth 
of a grain of alumina equals one grain of alum, or about 
this. 
Taking the figures in Dr. Hassall’s book as correct, 
how much alum would there be in a quarter-ounce of 
salt F —About nine-twentieths of a grain of alum in 
about one hundred grains, or nearly half an ounce of 
salt,—a fraction less than half a grain in fact. 
How much alumina did you find in this bread F—One- 
thirty-ninth of a grain. What I found was in the con¬ 
dition of phosphate of alumina. Making the calculation 
from it, and allowing one-fifth for error, I worked it out 
to four grains of alum to the pound of bread. 
Were you sure it was all phosphate of alumina, and 
not other salts F —Yes, quite sure. 
You know Muspratt’s ‘Analysis of Salts’ F—No. He 
is no authority. 
Supposing that he is no authority, would you think it 
impossible for salt to contain alum if in his work he 
gives instances F —No. He is a great compiler, and 
would be likely to be correct. 
Do you know if potatoes contain alumina F—Yes 
they do. 
Have you ever found alumina in salt F—No. 
How much alumina is there in potatoes F—Since the 
case at the District Court, I have found a quantity equal 
to eight grains of alum to the pound of potatoes. 
Have you ever analysed the Yan Yean water the 
bakers use F—Yes. 
Any alumina in it F—About one grain of silicate of 
alumina in a gallon ; sometimes more. 
Would there not be more in the winter time, when 
this loaf was made, owing to the muddiness F—Yes. 
There would be considerably more clay, or silicate of 
alumina, in the water then. 
