1821.] 
part being- not less than' 7 . I find that this 
observation was made about 9 o’clock in 
the evening*, when the moon was not quite 
two days old ; and from the situation of 
the spot described by Sir William Herschel, 
I have no doubt of its being- the same that I 
have noticed.” 
Mr. Mackenzie, in his Thousand Ex - 
periments in Chemistry , states the follow¬ 
ing facts relative to the criminal adul¬ 
teration of bread in London :—“ Leavened 
bread is chiefly made from wheaten flour, 
of various degrees of fineness, though pota¬ 
toes and rice flour are frequently, and with 
advantage, used in its preparation. In Lon¬ 
don the quantity of potatoes used in the best 
baker’s bread, is from ten to fifteen pounds 
to every sack of flour. The finest flower is 
seldom, or never, used in making loaf 
bread ; it is always employed in making 
biscuits and pastry. A tradesman who 
deals in salt, alum, &c. and who is in the 
habit of furnishing bakers with these arti¬ 
cles, informed me that he supplies each 
of his customers, every night, with two 
pounds of alum, and six pounds of com¬ 
mon salt. These quantities they use for 
each sack of flour. The employment of 
salt in bread is attended with great advan¬ 
tages to health, but that of alum is truly 
pernicious; and what is worse, it yet re¬ 
255 
mains to be proved whether even the very 
appearance of bread (as to colour) is im¬ 
proved by the use of this astringent salt. 
Even bakers, themselves, acknowledge 
that it hinders fermentation, by killing the 
yeast. They say, likewise, that to coun¬ 
teract its effects, they use the potatoes ; 
that is, to promote the fermentation which 
has been checked by the alum. But, in 
order to demonstrate that the quantity of 
alum, above specified, is actually swal¬ 
lowed by bread eaters, we need only re¬ 
duce the two pounds of alum to g*rains; 
and supposing that a quartern loaf is eaten 
(on an average) at eight meals, first, multiply 
the number of quartern-loaves produced 
from a sack of flour, by 8 5 and, secondly, 
divide the number of grains of alum by the 
product, thus :—A sack of flour generally 
produces 86 quartern-loaves ; which, mul¬ 
tiplied by eight meals, produces 688 por¬ 
tions :—2 pounds of alum being multiplied 
by 16, become 32 ounces ; these, multi¬ 
plied by 8, become 256 drams ; and this 
product again multiplied by 60 is converti¬ 
ble into 15,360 grains. If, then, we-divide 
the latter of these numbers by the former, 
the quotient will be 22 and a fraction of 
grains of alum in the composition of an 8th 
part of a quartern-loaf. 
British Legislation. 
BRITISH LEGISLATION. 
ACTS PASSED in the FIRST YEAR of the REIGN of GEORGE THE FOURTH, Or in 
the SECOND SESSION of the SEVENTH PARLIAMENT of the UNITED KINGDOM. 
C AP. XLVIII. To amend the several 
Acts for the Regulation of Attor- 
nies and Solicitors .—-June 8th, 1821. 
I. Any person who has taken a Degree 
of Bachelor of Arts or of Law at Oxford, 
Cambridge, or Dublin, may act as an At¬ 
torney or Solicitor, after having served a 
Clerkship of Three Years, and during the 
said Term of Three Years shall coutinue 
in such Service, and during the whole Time 
of such Three Years Service, shall con¬ 
tinue and be actually employed by such 
Attorney or Solicitor, or Six Clerk, or his 
or their Agent or Agents, in the proper 
Business, Practice, or Employment of an 
Attorney or Solicitor, and shall also cause 
an Affidavit of himself, or of such Attorney 
or Solicitor or Six Clerk, to whom he was 
bound as aforesaid, to be duly made and 
filed, that he hath actually and really so 
served and been employed during the said 
whole Term of Three Years. 
II. Persons bound for Five Years, and 
serving Part of that Time, not exceeding 
One Year, with a Barrister or Special Plead¬ 
er, may be admitted, on applying to a 
Judge or other sufficient Authority. 
Nothing in this Act contained shall ex¬ 
tend, or be construed to extend, to any 
Person who shall have taken or shall take 
such Degree of Bachelor of Arts, unless 
such Person shall have taken or shall take 
such Degree within Six Years next after the 
Day when such Person shall have been or 
shall be first matriculated in the said Univer¬ 
sities respectively; nor to any Person who 
shall take or shall have taken such Degree 
of Bachelor of Law within Eight Years after 
such Matriculation; nor to any person who 
shall be bound, by Contract in Writing, to 
serve as a Clerk to any Attorney, Solicitor, 
or Six Clerk, under the Provisions of this 
Act, unless such Person shall be so bound 
within Four Years next after the Day when 
such Person shall have taken such Degree^ 
CAP. XLIX. For making further 
Regulations in respect to the Payment 
by Remittance Bill of the Wages of 
Petty Officers , Seamen , and Marines , 
in the Royal Navy ; and for extending 
the Provisions of an Act made in the 
Fifty-fifth Year of His late Majesty , 
relating to the Execution of Letters of 
Attorney and Wills of Petty Officers. 
Seamen , and Marines , in His Majesty’’s 
Navy .—June Sth, 1821. 
CAP. L. To alter and amend an Act 
made in the Fifty-ninth Year of the 
Reign of His late Majesty King George 
the 
