164 THE ANALYST. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE, ON FOOD ADULTERATION AND ANALYSIS, HELD AT TEE INTERNATIONA,L ElEALTH EXHIBITION.- SECOND DAY. Mr. GROVBS, the Secretary, here read the following communication from Mr. BANNISTER:- Dr. Dupr6 and other analysts, who spoke yesterday, attempted to draw a great distinction between the limit of the public analyst and that of Somerset House. In this statement the fact is quite overlooked, that the methods of analysis are not the same, and, therefore, that the results are not accordant ; the method of ascertaining the amount of solids not fat, laid down by the public analyst, is to dry the residue for tihree hours, and then calculate the proportion. In our laboratory (that is, the laboratory of Somerset House), the solids not fatty are dried until the weight is constant, andfromexperienceweknowthat &5 of solids obtained by our way, are equal to 9 in the way followed by the public analyst.Many of them are alive to the unsatisfactory manner of the public analyst’s method, and Mr. Hehner says that much more concordant results are obtained by our way as compared with the method of drying for three hours. It has been said, that the result of our method is to lower the limit to 8‘6 per cent,, but it is not a lowering of the standard, but only a difference in the methods of working, and it is unfair to attempt to induce the public to believe otherwise, simply because we work in a way which gives constant results ; we gave the three hours’ method a good trial, but abandoned it many years ago.With regard to the assumption that milk varies in composition, it is pleasing to know that this fact is now conceded, for I remember very well when many analysts held that milk only varied according to different cows, and that it was childish to suppose that any cow gave below the minimum. In considering this Act you must bear in mind what was the distinct intention of the legislature, and this intention is still expressed by the Select Committee of 1874, which says, too high and ‘‘ rigid a standard has been fixed by some analysts, and no SnfEiOient allowance has been made for some natural variations in milk ; 10 per oent. of milk solids may be more difficult to obtain under some conditions than 12 or 14 per cent. under more favourable conditions. Allowance Bhould, therefore, be made for these actual variations, which some purely scientific chemists seem to have overlooked.” It is evident from this that the legislature could not agree with the views of the analysts, and it is equally evident to me, that if some stringent regulations are to be enforced, we must get further powers under the Adulteration Act.The SECRETARY also read the following communication from Dr. WALLACE :- With regard to the possibility of having a standard, I think it would ao very well to have a standard not too low, say 8.6 per cent. of solids not fatty, and 2% fat, or 8.76 and 2.76, and that in any case when the quantities came below these standards, the milkman should have the opportunity of proving his innocence by having the cow milked in the presence of the analyst. In the case of a man having a dozen cows, it should be no defence that one of his cows gave milk of unusually low quality ; in any new Act both ought to be considered.The analyst should be paid not by fees, but by fixed salary, at not less than dG1 per 1,000 of the population, and not fewer than 1 sample for every 500 inhabitants. There should also be a provision for employing an under-inspector, working in his everyday apparel, because it is usual to take samples by employing inspectors who are frequently police-sergeants, and who, at all events, are well-known to the dairymen and shopkeepers, which of course results in good samples. Nr. BARHAM : I am not used to speaking from a public platform, and I must, therefore, claim your indulgence.I am sure we were very much delighted yesterday, and very much instructed by Dr. Bell’s very able paper. I take it that, at an International Health Exhibition a discussion as to the Adulteration Act is of the very first importance, and it is very pleasant to see so many public analysts present, but I must say I see with regret that the other side are not present, I take it what we want is not to hear one man’s ideas, but to endeavour as far as we are able, to insure a supply of pure food to the inhabitants of this country. Now, I think that instead of public analysts Betting themselves apart from the traders, and looking upon them as a separate class, they would do better to call the traders in, and to tell them how to assist them in carrying this Act into force.I may say, that I had no wish to intrude myself upon you to-day, but a friend had left my name, and requestedme to address you, and perhaps having given evidence before the Royal Commission, some seven or eight years ago, and as representing some 800 dairy farmers, and being deputed by the metropolitan dairy farmers, I have perhaps some right in appearing here. 1 think I ought to say a t fiat, that I have the greatest respect for public analysts 1 buc I dare say all will admit, that just as there are dairy farmers and dairy farmers, so there are public analysts and public analysts, Those gentlemen who are members of the Society of Public Analysts know very much better where to draw the definition than I do. Now, Professor de Chaumont, yesterday, spoke about commercial morality, and he said we should never ge* rid of adulteration until the scale of public morality was higher, Now, as a dairyman, I think that some years ago trade was conducted by barter-it was before my time I admit, but still it existed, and then people bartered one artide for another, and both were satisfied.Now, I ask you, Why should I sell my milk without water when beer has 50 per cent. or more 2 What as to drugs, about which, I confess, I am anything but sure ? What about the lawyers, do they skim their milk, or rather, don’t they cream it regularly once in a while? If I go into a horse repository and buy a horse, is the horse-dealer prosecuted if I am foolish enough to pay a big price for a horse which isn’t worth a pound for each leg he stands upon ?--no, if I know so little about it and get hold of a spavined old animal,THE AXALYST.155 -- -._ - ~ I have myself to thank ; and yet they say that many dairymen are worse than horse-dealers. Then I go into a furniture shop-if I ask, Is this real Spanish mahogany ? 6c Oh yes, sir,” says the furniture dealer, “ the finest mahogany ever brought into the country, I can guarantee it ; ’’ but it is Honduras, it is veneer, and yet no one would think of prosecuting the f urniture-dealer. If I go into a linendraper’s, the cloth I look at is warranted the best Welsh flannel, but it turns out to be half cotton. What can I do 2 can 1 have it analysed, and proceed against the linendraper for adulterating his cloth 1 No, it is absurd on the face of it. Then, are dairymen to be the only pure people in the world? I don’t see why they should be the scapegoats of the community.Now, I should like Dr. Voelcker to be apprenticed to R dairyman-I won’t say for seven years, for he would probably commit suicide before then: but only for seven weeks, and try ta get off the cream during the strawberry season t o which allusion has been made, and see if it is possible, and still keep the milk. Then with reference to the boracic acid and bisulphate of lime, it was a question whether that 9should be permitted or whether it ought to be forbidden-perhaps you will value my opinion for what it is worth, and I say emphatically, that it should be forbidden. I have no right to have my children dosed with boracic acid to save the dairyman a few quarts of milk ; no doubt it would entail a certain amount of waste, but the public must, I suppose, pay for it in the shape of increased price for the article, I will not be personal baay, but were I inclined to be so, I should take exception to a public analyst writing sensational articles to papers, saying that milk bought by this official was very generally adulterated, and then writing a testimonial to a particular dairg-farm, saying their milk was uniformly of good quality-indeed, all that could be desired.I think, if I belonged to a body of public analysts, this state of things should not be permitted to exist. Now, Dr. Dupr6 who spoke yesterday, spoke with reference to the adulteration of milk, and as to the quantity of water he found in the Sunday morning samples ; but he named his own remedy ; he said, when the inspectors had been round one Sunday, the Sunday following all the samples were excellent; he need, therefore, only send an inspector round once a fortnight, and Sunday adulteration will be a thing of the past.Mr. Hehner said that the Adulteration Act had worked great benefit generally, and that whereas milk used to be adulterated to the extent of 60 per cent. or more of water, that he really now only found 20 per cent., and frequently only 10 ; but what did Nr. Yigner say 1 he said it had increased instead of diminished during the last few years, I am sorry he is absent, for he might have explained the difference of opinion; but, however, I will take what he says, I do not see why what he said should not be accepted as true, and he said the percentage had increased during the last five years.The only inference that I can draw is, that the analysts and inspectors are;no earthly use, and that we should be better without them altogether. Well, then, some gentleman, whose name I forget, referred to the Paris arrangement, It has often been said that we English are, more than others, anxious and willing $0 disparage ourselves, and to say, Oh, these things are done much better abroad. I heard the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society say the other day, that he wouqd not drink half a pint of English milk, or allow half a pound of English butter to be brought into his house, because he found all these things so-much better managed abroad. Now, is this true ? and, in any oase, I must say 1 think it is an extraordinary assertion on the part of the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society, He said it in very good faith no doubt.and if so. why is it 1 Why. because he went abroad as the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and of course everything was got ready in consequence; he was taken t o model farms, and tasted model products, just the same as we should do if we received a letter to say the Secretary of a French Agricultural Society was coming to visit us. Well, now, I have made the supply of milk to Paris my study, in and all round Paris, and I have seen the whole process from beginning to end. I peeped in at every stage of the process; I don% know whether I asked too many questions, or whethey they thought that I wanted to know too much ; but at last I had the door shut, so to speak, in my face.Now, the milk there is boiled-it is cooked milk;, the cow is milked over night and the milk is boiled ; it is mixed with the next morning’s milk, and off the mixture goes to the market, for there is only one delivery of milk in Paris per day, and not two as you have in London-a double service. The consequence is that in the hot weather, after 1 or 2 o’olock, not a drop of fresh milk is t o be had. One day I went round to twenty or thirty milk dealers in company with a friend, who spoke Parisian French, and tried to get some fresh milk, saying it was for a sick baby, and not a drop could I get. They said, well, it is not quite fresh, it is beginning to turn, but they offered me some bicarbonate of soda to sweeten it with, and that is all I could get for my alleged sick baby; it is dreadful 1 And yet the Paris supply of milk is said to be so much ahead of ours.Depend upon it there is no city in the world where the milk supply is so abundant and so good as in London-my remarks are not alone applicable to Paris, I have studied this question in many cities abroad. I repeat, without fear of contradiction, that nowhere is the service so well organised as here. Now, as to the standards, I was very pleased to hear Dr. Muter’s speech on this subject. Now, what is my idea ? certainly I would stop water being added to milk, not a single drop would I allow ; but this is my difficult point, and this is what I cannot reconcile with my morality, khat an analyst goes into court and swears that a given ‘specimen of milk contains so much water-has he found the water 1 No, he has only found the solids remaining after all the water has been evaporated, and he goes deliberately and swears that he finds a certain amount of water.Dear me 1 Where did he h d it ? It may be a correct inference, but it is only an inference ; that is a point which I strongly object to. Another gentleman compared dairymen to pickpockets, and said that there were some dairymen who would scorn t o put their hands into your pockets and take out sixpence ; but this is the offenae an analyst canvicts a man of when he charges him with watering his milk. A man who1 ti6 THE ANALYST, waters his milk is as bad as the man who puts stones in his coals, ar any other form of fraud ; it is a very grave offence.You know that Shakespeare says- u He who takes my purse, takes trash ; But he who robs me of my good name Takes something which enriches not himself, And makes me poor indeed; ’’ and I can assure you many traders fall under that impression, and great bitterness of heart is the result ; and I think great care should be exercised before a possibly innocent man is convicted of such an offence. Now that is what I want analysts to do, By-the-bye, some years ago, when the first Act was brought in, our Societyinvited the Societyof Public Analysts to meet us and work up to a standard with us ; but this they declined. What we want them to do is to give us a right means of detecting added water ; we want something to do that, and if they will give us that you will do more to stop adulteration than all the fines in the world.Now, as regards working up to the standard, aa we have heard nearly twelve analysts and only one dairyman, perhaps I may venture to take up this point, although 1 have already taken up a good deal of your time and attention, Now, you must know that the cow has often been called a machine for making milk, but, unfortumtely, we cannot control her as we should control a steam-engine ; we cannot turn on the steam just as we want to ; and with the best food the same cow may produce a certain class of milk; we sell that milk and we are convicted of adding water to the milk. Well, now, with reference to when you send in the certificate of adulteration : well, what do you do ? You take, I will suppose, your standard of non-fatty solids at 9, and a t that point you do not give a certificate of adulteration, but if it should come down to 8.6 or even 8.76, what do you do 1 do you say that the difference between 8.7 and 9 represents the amount of adulteration 1 No ; you take 9.3 as the standard, you raise your limit, and you say there is so much water, not the original difference, but the difference between the actual and the raised standards. Now, is that right or proper ? Very well now, there is suoh a thing as a Dairy Show held in London every year, and, perhaps, one of the most useful classes is the class for the milk prize, Now, that prize is given to the owner of the cows who give the most milk of the best quality, allowing for the time since calving-it is the duty of every proprietor of a cow to feed his cow, as well as ever he can, so as to get the most and the best milk.Well, I don’t know whether you gentlemen read anything besides THE ANALYST or not, but if you read the reports of the Dairy Farmers’ Association you will find these figures you will find in the breed of shorthorns-and these figures are taken by five judges, so there can be no doubt arc to their accuracy and impartiality-now, the non-fatty solids were 8.8, These were the shorthorn breed, in good condition, well fed-not one of those a gentleman said was to be taken to the knaoker’s yard, I imagine; the fat was 4 per cent. The next cow gave 8*8 non-fatty, and 3.7 fatty solids ; the next, non-fatty 804, fatty 4 ; the next, 8.8 non-fatty, and 3.1 fatty; another, 8.4 non-fatty, and 8 1 fatty ; but we got one where the non-fatty solids were only 7.8-a healthy cow, well fed, and in the best possible con- dition, gave the fat 3.4 per cent.and non-fatty as 7 8 per cent. Now, of twenty-three cow8 of this breed, twelve gave less than 9 per cent. of non-fatty solids, the average 8 9 of non-fatty, and 3-7 of fatty solids : why, the milk of half these cows would have been condemned by an analyst I Now, for the Jerseys ; these cows give the riohest milk in the world, and yet one gave 8.8, another 8.6, and another 8 of non-fatty solids ; this is four out of twenty whose milk would have passed for being adulterated with water. I will not trouble you any further with this, except to say of the Dutch cows here, their average of all the cows is 11.8, and the fat is very near 8, so that the average of allof them is less than 9 per cent.Well, now, I will tell you the remedy apart from analysis-a remedy which will give you pure milk independently of public analysts. Give orders in your house never to pay less than fivepence a quart for ,pour milk ; you milk dealer will not cheat you, he won’t water Ms milk, he will tremble at the idea of losing your custom. NOW, if we were working like the brewers, if our results were to be obtained a3 Dr. Richardson once said, 66 that drawing milk was a barbarism, that we ought to mix it in its component parts a t the chemist’s,” then I acknowledge that the position would be different ; when we can prepare milk like that then we can give you any standard you like to ask.Well now, is it at all likely that you would go into a butcher’s shop and say you wanted a joint of meat with a certain percentage of fatty and non-fat@ constituents, and would you be likely to get it 1 and yet milk is always to have a certain amount of solids. It is allmost impossible to do this, unless you make your standard sufficiently low, and I think that Is really what you ought to do, and then leave people to rely upon tibe reputation of the firm they deal with as to the quality of the milk above that standard. Well now, with regard to butter fats-well, that is very difflcult ; if you ask me what you ought to have I will readily agree with you a t 3 per cent. : but I say this, that if you insist upon having 3 per cent, there is not a firm who will not be fined sooner or later, You know that alteration is constantly going on in milk ; it is not still five minutes ; you know perfectly well that the oonstituents change rapidly, and that to-morrow morning the lighter portions will be on the top and the heavier at the bottom ; why, the change is going on not only in the shop but in the cow’s very udder 1 What is the result if you take too high a line ? Some Sunday morning when Dr.Dupre’s man is out (Dr. Dupe rose to protest against any suggestion that the inspectors were acting under his direction)-when his, the dairy- keeper’s, mail has over-slept himself, and, instead of properly milking his cow, he scamps it; and this is obviously not to the advantage of the dairykeepr-who is probably also in bed, being Sunday morning-and not having the right quantity of milk, he brings it up to it by means of the pump, and his employer is fined,THE ANALYST.157 Then, again, when the milk comes by rail some hundreds of miles, of course, a cerfaia amount of churning goes on; everybody has seen that. I have frequently seen the globules of fat floating on the top on the arrival of the cans, and in this way Q per cent, may easily be lost ; and when the milk stands in the shop the cream collects on the top; if the inspector comes in early he gets a good specimen, and then he says, of course, we knew he was coming, and perhaps a month after he goes in later and gets a bad specimen from the bottom of the can. Well now, as to alterations in the Act, I certainly should like the Acts aitered myself.What will I suggest 1 Well, we are at a good deal of trouble : dairymen are not orators, and cannot speak at public meetings, and the consequence is, they have a good many things said against them which they do not deserve ; but two or three years ago they asked the House that the Adulteration Act should be altered, and, oxtraordinary to say, it was altered : a little Act was brought forward saying that the milk should be sampled at the railway stations (clause 3, chapter 30), and it gave power to the inspectors to go to the stations to take samples of the milk. Well, I don’t think it is carried out in three stations in London (Dr, Muter rose to state that it was carried out ip Lambeth). Then, clause 14 of the previous Act, in which it says that inspectors shall ofm to divide the article into three por- tions.We think this should be altered into, “the inspector shall divide,” etc., for it frequently happens that a dealer, confident in his honesty, says No, I don’t want a sample ; and then he is at the mercy of the inspector. Then there is another point, and that is m.l.ttea wm~an;t.ies. We have heard that when one of these fraudulent traders says it is no fault of his, thac he sold the milk just as he received it, he is told he should buy his milk with a written warranty. Well now, you know he purchases his milk twice a day: you would think that if he agreed with a wholesale man to be supplied by him with pure milk, warranted pure for twelve months at a good price, and that under a warranty, that if the milk was found to be under the limit he could proceed against the wholesale man, but it is nothing of the kind : our judges say, You must have a warranty with every consignment. You see it is impossi- ble to do this ; no farmer is going to get up at four o’clook in the morning to sign a separate warranty for every can of milk he sends up to London, Then, again, a mention was made of the Act providing that the analysts, where the milk has undergone any change, have to make special note to that effect.Well, I think a summons ought to be issued within-say-a week, and then analysis on the other side could be conducted with some chance of getting a just idea of the actual state of the case ; but there is one thing with reference to the Adulteration Acts, and that is this, if you want the Act carried out, you must make it the people’s interest to carry it out ; there is more heart-burning over one honest man who is convicted unjustly-there is more annoyance and bitterness against the Acts among his fellow-traders, than there is in 800 just convictiorp Owing to the time gctting near when the room would be required for another conference, the president requested the gentlemen who intended to speak to restrict their remarks to ten minutes, Dr.STEVENSON : I have no intention whatever of replying to my friend, Mr. Barhm; he of course represents a large and important interest, and I have listened with the greatest respect to any- thing he had to say.I cannot help feeling, however, that if one could get at his own private opinions he would be inclined to fix a higher standard for milk than he admitted in his speech. I am rather unwilling to fix upon any absolute standard for this most important commodity. I thoroughly agreed with Dr, Muter that when a milk is rich in cream or butter fat, we must make allowance for the solids not fatty, but I must object to any such standard as that proposed by Dr. Voelcker, for although X believe our milk supply in London is much improved, it is not what it ought to be. I believe if this standard were adopted we should have a depression in the quality of our milk supply by ten or twelve per cent,, and I think that the standard should be fixed at the lowest limit compatible with natural milk of a healthy oow.There is one other point, and that is, that the analysts, speaking u before God and man,” as a certain speaker somewhat rhetorically described it, say, in their certificate, that a given specimen contains so much water : now I have signed some 10,000 certificates under the Act, and I have never signed anything of that kind. You will find that the analyst only expresses his opinion that there is so much water. I have observed that a good many of the general public are present, and 1 should like to impress upon them that we wish to have more of ‘the articles supplied to us by the general public, and I would espeoially impress upon those who are connected with public institutions-such as hospitals, infirmaries, etc., to have their milk, drugs, etc,, examined frequently.It is astonishing how few samples we get from such institutions of that sort. I have had the oppor- tunity from time to time of examining supplies from hospitals, infirmaries, etc., and I have been sur- prised to see whah adulterations in the article of drugs they get ; it is said, of course, in defence of the very inferior article supplied, that the managers contract at a figure at which the articles cannot be supplied, but it still does not exonerate the tradjer from the breaoh of commercial morality : if he contracts to supply an article at a price at which he knows it cannot be legitimately supplied, it does not justify him in passing a spurious or adulterated article. I think public analysts would do well to direct their attention to drugs.I say this because I see many reports of the pharmacists, and I can vouch for a great, many that they are supplied with all purity and precision ; but there are a certain class of men who supply medical men, hospitals, etc., at cheap rates, and with inferior articles. In one instance, a compound senna mixture-a preparation familiar to most of you, I expect, and the efficacy of which depends on sulphate of magnesia and senna, but as the first is very less expensive than the latter, the senna was conspicuous by its absence, with disastrous effects upon the aged poor and sick, for whom i t was intended, There is still one other class of adulteration to which I wish to refer, and that is the kind of fraud which lis perpetrated when articles of inferior character are sophisticated by something which gives them a good appearanoe, for instance, alum in bread j fortu-THE ANALYST.nately this is in a great measure a thing of the past, but I think I should have liked to have heard this discussed, as t o how far it is legitimate to utilize inferior articles in this way. It is well known to you, sir, that there are certain classes of food products, such as flours, which are in an unsound state, and a good sound loaf cannot be prepared from them, and yet by the addition of alum, a very good presentable loaf may be produced. My opinion is, that if we make a good loaf with the addition of alum from inferior flour, we are presenting the public with a more wholesome substance than if the alum had not been added, but this does not cover the question.If the opinion of the customer were asked about it, and his consent were obtained, I could understand the morality ; but I do not see it when the inferior article is made to look like a good article, which it is not, and the price of the better article charged for it. I repeat, I should have liked to have heard the question disoussed from this point of view, as it is one of immense importance. Mr, EASTON: I must admit that yesterday I sat like a steam-engine under pressure, and it was^ very interesting to hear the reply of Mr. Barham. I feel it an impossibility to continue a discussion which has been so exhaustively touched upon by Mr. Barham ; one point, however, he did not allude to, and that is that dairymen have no antipathy to public analysts as a class, but against certain individuals who are not quite fit for the position they occupy, whose certificates have been the means of ruining many honest traders.The statement has been made, that out of 1,000 samples certified as adulterated, only one had been lost when the certificates were brought into court. Now does it ever occur to the public how many of these cases in which convictions ensue are ever contested 1 There are hundreds of samples of milk taken from dealers, where convictions ensue, where the man does not attempt any opposition to the case-he does not take a contrary opinion, I should like to know in how many of these 1,000 cases was there any contestation. I have known cases where four per cent. of water was certified to, and on application to Somerset House, a certificate was returned different entirely from that of the analyst.A gentleman who spoke yesterday, Mr. 0. Hehner (it may possibly have been with a feeling akin to superior knowledge), stated that he had analysed more samples than Somerset House ; now is Nr. Hehner aware of the fact that Somerset House have taken 600 various samples, and yet Nr. Hehner has 6,000 samples of the same sort : have you had cows kept especially for this purpose 1 or have you been taking indiscriminately from a general source, and as a general average of analysts. It was my good fortune some two years ago to be dining with Dr. Tidy, and upon that occasion Dr. Tidy was rather Vicious against a large number of medical men who assembled a t that banquet. He said, the poor you have always with you, and so have you the doctors ; and he went on to say that the ills of men were mainly imaginary, and so long as they continued to exist the medical man would thrive ; but I do not imagine the truth of the inference.As to the statement that the adulteration of milk has dropped from fifty per cent., the Adulteration Act only having been in force since 1872, it is quite within the limits of possibility that within a few years adulteration itself may come to an end, and then I hope me.shall dispense with the public analysts. Mr. HELM ; In the course of the speeches of yesterday a very serious charge was made against Dr. Bell and his colleagues in their capacity of referees. Two gentlemen in a very high position as public analysts made a very serious charge for adopting the standard they had at Somerset House, and that they had taken diseased or improperly fed cows to judge from ; but what in the world could be the motive for doing anything of the sort? and they did nothing of the kind-they sought all round London, and even as far away as Somerset and Derby, to get fair samples, These two gentlemen told you that the limits adopted by the Society of Public Analysts were 9 per cent, non-fatty and 2 6 fatty, but today I have been perfectly bewildered by the figures brought forward by different speakers, for the past President of the Society has said he would pass milk at 8% per cent.; but because we at Somerset House have agreed to pass it at 8‘6 per cent. we are told our cows are ill ! Well, now, as Mr.Barham has said, it is not usual to accept bad or diseased cows at Dairy Shows, but these cows have given Dr. ‘Dupr6 another grievance. Dr. Dupr6 has abused the authorities at Somerset House on the ground of the lowness of their standards, and says they have lowered the standard of milk by taking too low a standard. Yesterday Dr. Dupr6 was rather more moderate, and said that occasionally a single cow might give below 9 per cent., but a whole dairy never. Well, now, I have the results pointed out by Mr. Barham of these cows’ milks, and accepted a t Islington, which were not analysed at Somerset House but by Professor Voelcker, that out of a total of 79 COWS 33 gave below the standard, and that out of 23 short-horns 13 have the audacity to give below the Society’s limits, of the Jerseys 3, andiout of the Guernseys 4, and out of 6 Dutch cows 4 were below ; and as to the fact of a dairy never coming below, the mixed milk of the entire lot would be pronounced adulterated according to their standard-so much for these cows.Well, what do we do we send round inspectors, and out of 238 samples 134 were adulterated according to the Society’s standards, How then, in all reason, could we adopt it standard of that .kind? out of four dairies 3 came below the Society’s standard. NOW these gentlemen, at a recent case at Nanchester, have told US they always report a sample below 9 per cent. What must we think then of Dr. Muter, who will pass milk at 8’5 per cent. if the fat be good? and Dr. Stevenson, if he does the same thing ? Well, sir, the time is very limited, and I know Dr.Bell will reply to many of the statements which have been made, and I am sorry I have not the opportunity of making this mention yesterday, Well, now, you all noticed that Dr. Bell very studiously avoided anything which might bring him into collision with the public analyst, but Dr. Dupre stated that he was glad to air his grievance against Somerset House, and I can assure you Somerset House is equally glad to have the opportunity of explaining themselves. The paper of Mr. Bannister took away part of what 1 intended t o say vith regard to it, but you all know thst the Society of Public Analyst5 adopted their standard on aTEE ANALYST. 159 ~ ~-~~ ~ ~~~ basis suggested by Mr.Wanklyn, that was to dry the milk for three hours, take the fat out of it, and the difference was the non-fatty solids. Of course, if you leave any water in the milk it swells the amount of the non-fatty solids, and it has been shown that by drying the non-fatty solids to dryness, that is until the result is constant, 8.8 per cent, is equal to 9, which is the standard adopted by the public analyst. Why, then, are our cows diseased, if our 8.5 per cent. is equal to Four 9 per cent. ? Well, now, coming to what can be done to make the Act more effective, we are all agreed, for we all agree to get the best article we can, we have a bias against fraud, and we have been trying all we can do to get a utandard. I can tell you there is no work which causes us so much anxiety at Somerset House as one of those referred certificates. 1 can assure you it is quite a cloud off Dr.Bell’s head when the oertifioate can be approved, First, the Act is very inefficiently worked throughout the country, and I should be very glad t o see some means of getting it more effectually carried out. Dr. Muter has suggested that an inspeotor should be compulsorily appointed, and a very fair number of samples purchased; but what is the use of compelling a man to purchase samples if he does it in a police- man’s uniform ? I think something further is required, and that the Local Government Board, where they suspect that the Act is not properly worked, ought to work it themselves in one way or another; but unless local tradesmen and local councils can be overridden in some respect, I fear the Act will never be thoroughly efflcient.Mr. ANGELL : I think the position I stand in here is unique, because it is the Erst time that a public analyst has had the opportunity of speaking in just such:a meeting as this. For the first time we have the representatives of the upper house who have come down amongst us-the gentlemen in power and authority set over us as referees, I my we haveznever had an opportunity of speaking before these gentlemen, and it was one of our first grievances that we could never approach them. Now the day has come, and we are exceedingly glad to have met face to face with them, and with those people who regard public analysts as people to be objected to. Now for the remarks of a gentleman who spoke on behalf of the dairymen ; he made a brilliant and interesting speech, but he spoke of it as though it were a game with two sides, and then he seemed to try t o prove that two blacks were white.After that, some misunderstanding on his part was made with regard to what was said yesterday, He seems to have got mixed up between a statement made by one gentleman that the percentage of cases of milk adulteration had increased, and the statement of the other gentlemen that the proportion of added water had decreased. This mme gentleman told us something about the fact that we could not tell added water from other water. Now, it makes me think of one instance which has occurred to me when I was lecturing to the Botley Agricultural Association, and after some pains to show them why we should believe in a comparative standard of such a supply as milk ; that nature, if she gives the animal this secretion for the nourishment qf the young, it would, from the most abstract point of view, be expected to be somewhat constant, a6d also attempted to prove it to be the case by experiment. Now, after all my pains, one of the farmers present got up and said : “Now, just look here, Mr.,,Angell ; I have listened to you and all that, but can you distinguish the added water from the other 1 Of course I admitted I could not. (6 \Vel$” said the farmer, (‘ then you can sit down, for if you can% do that you are not; much good anyway.And we were told much the same thing to-day. Milk ‘takes up a good deal of our time now, and it is not aItogether undesirable that it should be so, seeing the great importance of the subject.Turning for a moment as t o beer. It was said by one speaker yesterday that there is a very great difflculty in establishing the composition of what is sold to US as beer. It frequently happens to US in my district that question arises as to the quality of the beer which is sold, and they send me a great number of samples, but owing to the fact that there is no absolute criterion we are obliged to certify that they are sound,unless we find something deleterious. Now, I see a way out of this difficulty; all the multifarious compounds of sugar, and more or less edible bitters, should be sold under the name of Ale ; but if a man mks for a glass of Beer he should have nothing else : a product of malt, flavoured with hops, Let a2e be anything wholesome in the shape of what is now known as beer, and the word Zmr be restricted, as I have said, to a product of malt and hops alone, This would meet the difficulty, and I don’t see that it would interfere with the trade at all.Yesterday, Professor Attfield was clevei enough to give us some very astounding allegations, but I regret to see he is absent to-day, though I asked him to be present. For that reason I shall not go so indignantly to work as I had intended; but I think when such statements are made they should be made with very great caution. The very first thing he said was to give you a caution that you should not be led away by exparte statements, but I claim for public analysts a very much more independent position than that of Professor Attfield in connection with the prosecutions.In several of these cases which he quoted I was the analyst, and I ask you which of the two is likely to make an ex parts statement-myself, or the man who is intimately connected with a very powerful Trade Union-which comes down with counsel and chemical adviser, and that adviser it is an open secret is the man in question 1 They bring down parts of pharmacopceias, and strive to prove their case from one or other of them, and if by means of a quotation from some antiquated, worm-eaten old pharmacopeia, they can manage to elicit something in their favour they exult, and would scek to convey the impression that when a case is dismissed you must look upon it as though an error on the part of the analyst had been detected.There are such things as differences in opinion, and therefore it is objectionable ,we should speak of the andyst’s certificates being dismissed when, if we should inquire into the matter, it would prove to be something outside of, and independent of it. I will say in aonclusion, with regard to Professor Attfield’s statement, that I was160 THE ANALYST. about to refer to certain special cases where he is known to have said that citrate of magnesia need contain no citric acid and no magnesia ; and in one case where, by a process best known to himself, he really found a very faint trace of soda carbonate in the bulk of sulphate of lime-a process by the way which he has kept secret to the present time; but in his absenae I rJhall not go into these matters .Dr. REDWOOD : I may say in tbe first place that I have listened with very considerable interest to the discussion which has taken place here to-day, and that the effect of what has been stated by some of the gentlemen who have appeared here has rendered unnecessary my saying much upon the subject. At first the observations made by Dr. Muter I must entirely and completely agree with, and I may say also with reference to the very spirited and talented remarks which have been made by Mr, Barham, that I feel quite sure you will all have been greatly delighted in having had the opportunity of hearing the very able defence on behalf of the dairymen. Now, there are just two points I intended to refer to-two points which have not been so thoroughly disposed of, which I wish to make a few remarks upon ; the first, with reference to the statement which was made yesterday to the effect that the AduIteration Act has not accomplished all that was anticipated from it, or even much that could be satisfactorily referred to it, especially because it is found on reference to statistias that the proportion of adulterated articles still continues t o be so much what they were in the first instance.Now, that is an argument which will have, I conceive, weight with many persons, unless some mutual explanation is given as to the cause of that persistency in the percentage of adulterated articles appearing on the annual reports. It appears to me that that has arisen mostly from the circumstance that a very considerable change has taken place in the nature of the substances collected by inspectors for analysis recently, as compared with what was the case some years ago.I have been a public analyst almost from the commencement of these operations, and I have had a very considerable experience, being the analyst for the metropolitan county and for many of the large districts, and I can say from my experience that when we began this work the inspectors were in the habit of collecting a very large number of samples of different kinds and of different materials, which were submitted to analysis, and that in the process of time it was ascertained by these inspectors and others that a large number of the substances which they had been in the habit of collecting never practically were found t o be adulterated.Latterly the inspectors have confined themselves within my experience to a very limited number of articles, and those me the kind of articles which are most liable to adulteration, as, for instance, milk and butter, coffee and mustard, and a few more articles of that description ; in point of fact, the very articles which are referred to by Dr. Bell in his paper are those which alone are now found to be to any general extent subjected to adulteration : and seeing that these articles are of the special nature of those liable to adulteration, it would naturally follow that the proportion of adulterated specimens among them should be in relation t o what occurred when a much larger class, a much larger number of different olssses of articles were collected, all of which were submitted to analysis, but & of which mere never found to be adulterated, It appears to me this is the principal cause of the continuance of the percentage of adulterations which is almost identical with what it was years ago.There are some other causes certainly, but not as influential as that I have mentioned. Many of the causes also of the increased high percentage of adulteration is the imperfect manner in which the Act is carried out, I can speak from my own experience within those districts where the Act has been most regularly, systematically, and consistently carried out, that there has been a very considerable reduction in the amount of adulteration. There are one or two of the metropolitan districts of which I am analyst where there has been a very marked indication of improvement in this respect, whereas in some others of which I also have experience the case has been quite otherwise.In districts, for instance, in which the inspectors only nGw and then bring samples by impulse, or when they have been accidentally prompted to bring samples, in those cases where they often remain for many months without collecting any samples at all, and the result of that is that certain traders get into a habit of supplying articles which when analysed are found to be adulterated. Now, that is one point which I wish specially to call your attention to, and another point is that referred t o by Dr. Bell at the end of his paper ; and I shall be glad to hear what he has to say in his reply on this point, namely, whether he considers that the addition of flour or starch to mustard is an adulteration, or sugar and starch to cocoa-an opinion which I myself have entertained and acted upon.I certainly consider that the substance sold to the public under the name of cocoa is well understood in this country t o be mixed with starch and sugar ; but nevertheless, if I were t o find an undue propor- tion of these materials, then I should look upon it as an adulteration, and so likewise with reference to mustard. I consider that a little flour added to the mtlstard contributes to its value, but if I found more than five or ten per cent., I should look upon i t as an adulteration. Of course I should make an exception of mustard for medicinal purposes, as this ought to be pure ; but the conclusion I have arrived at is that in the general run of mustard not much flour is added, Nr.CHESIIII~B: I had made a few notes yesterday on some points on which I wanted to speak, but the greater part have been dealt with, so I will only allude to a few of them, I will begin my remarks by saying how glad I am I came up from Bastings t o attend this conference. The first point is the question of the percentage as mentioned in Dr. Bell’s paper, It is stated that the percentage of adnlteration is probably very much higher than the Reports give, on account of the traders often bowing the inspector, especially in uniform, There is, however, the other side, as, for instance, a t Bastings, The inspector only comes where he expects to find bad specimens, and yet we only get l b per cent,, and the common way is for the public to go and tell him where the bad specimens are to be found.He employs every means for preventing anybody knowing him, I had 8 small number ofTHE kNUY8T. I61 samples from the public, but, curiously enough, in the samples from the public I never had one fhat was adulterated. Then as regards the small fines, there is just one reason why the fines are is some cases small, and that is, that they do not fa11 on the really guilty party, The retail dealer often pleads that he has sold the articles just as he bought them from the wholesale man. Then as regards understating the results, I have always made a practice only to certify to so much as I could be certain about; but there is this, if you state the amount low, the magistrates say it is very small in quantity, and perhaps there might have been a mistake.They argue that it would not have been worth the tradesman’s while to adulterate in such small quantities. I do not believe in saying anything as to the quantify, when I do I always put “about ”-as in a case last week of a sample of strawberry jam, when I certified that there was abmt 50 per cent. of apple. With regard to improvement in samples, I heard of 8, curious circumstance at Rye. It is one of those places where they never take any samples for a, long time, and then go in with P rush. I had a, letter from the Town Clerk saying some samples were to be brought especially of milk. One-half of the specimens were adulterated, and when I met the inspector who had been to take samples of butter, he said, Sir, I cannot find any butter; it is all butterine.” Then as to beer, as there is no definition, one must be very careful.I take it, beer must be a liquid which must be fermented with some Torm of starch, with the addition of a bitter. As far as the use of chemical reagents is concerned, where preservative reagents are used with a good effect, and are innocent in themselves, f pass them ; but I think there is need for a generalagreement among pnblic analysts on this head. Then as regards milk and its standards. The majority of these low standards are those realised by Dr. Voelcker, and it is clear he adopts some peculiar plan of his own. In my own case I have always dried for three hours, and in every case where it has gone below nine I have reported it, and I have never had an appeal to Somerset House.It is not very often I get a, milk which runs below nine, and it is very difficult to understand why a series of analyses by Dr. Voelcker should all come below nine, seeing that his fat is very high. Mr. LLOYD : There are very few points for me to speak upon, and I shall only point out that I think the great object of the Food and Drugs Act is to ensure health, and that the public analyst is required more t o protect the public from any ill-effects than really that the food should come up to any definite standard. That is the great difficulty I find in coming to any conclusion 2,s to standards, especially with regard to milk, because we all know that milk has proved of all articles of food the one which has brought most disease.That reminds me of a point which I think is of importance, and I have not heard it remarked upon, that there is a large amount of condensed milk being sold as milk having had water added to it, Now, if there be one practice more than another that is likely to prove detrimental, it is that the liability to disease from the addition of water is very great, even in ordinary milk, but what will happen if condensed milk is to be made up to the strength of milk and sold as such 1 If the condensed milk has been condensed with sugar this couId be detected in the solution, but if unsweetened condensed milk bo employed, I do not know any way of ascertaining the fact, nor do I know that any action could be taken on such grounds, even if proved.One of the greatest difficulties that the public have to contend against is that their food shall be pure, although the Acts exist, because every one must know who has had any experience of the matter that under the present system it is very largely a failure-namely, that the inspectors are not able to obtain adulterated samples when those adulterated samples exist. The public are open to have analyses made, but they have to pay ten shillings, and no one will pay ten shillings to ascertain whether one shiuingsworth of food which he has purchased is genuine or not. It is the State which should protect the public. Eow tha6 can best be done I am not altogether prepared to say, but the method of people writing to the inspector and telling him he has reason to suspect such and such a material obtained a t auch and such a place is the most possible one that 1 can suggest, but the public require to be educated before they will under- stand the desirability of pare food.W e cannot expect the poor &an to pay one shilling and sixpence a pound for coffee without chicory in preference to one shilling a pound with chicory, and until we can teach them this the Act will never get that public support which after all is what i t mostly needs. One remark more as regards the application of the Act t o agricultural substances, I believe that that is totally nnnecessary; the reason why the public are abIe to obtain analyses of food at the expense of the State is that the food costs comparatively little, compared with the cost of the analysis ; but this does not hold good with respect to the agricultural substances, where the purchases are made in large quantities, and, besides, every farmer belongs to a society, attached to which there is an analyst who will analyse his specimens for him at a small cost, I say the farmer is able to protect himself, which the individual ostnnot.Dr. VIETH : Almost every speaker who has addressed this meeting has taken up one question as relating to an article of food upon whioh the young par6 of the population almost entirely subsists. As I have devoted eight; years to the analysis of milk in the laboratory under my charge, where fifty or sixty mixed samples are analysed every day, I may be allowed to speak on the subject.That there are some difficulties in connection with milk analysis and milk adulteration is, I think, sufficiently proved by the animated debates which occur whenever the subject is made a matter of discussion. The variations in the natural composition, and the alterations cawed by the tendency of the fat in milk to separate out in the form of cream make it difficult to ensure the supply of an article in no way tampered with to the general public, and at the same time not to do wrong to the honest dealer and the liability to speedy decomposition very often forms a difficulty to prove and confirm an alleged adulteration.162 THE ANALYST. In the case where a sample of milk is found or suspected to be adulterated, it will be very rarely possible to compare it with a sample as it was originally.This being so, and keeping in mind that milk naturally varies to a great extent, a prosecution for adulterated milk would be a t most impossibl.% unless some standard or better limit be found ; where to fix it is another difficult question, which, 1n my opinion, cannot be solved satisfactorily, so long as milk of individual cows and dairy milk is treatedin the same manner, Milk of individual cows sometimes comes down very low as far as composition is concerned, and I can see no difficulty why dealers should not be compelled to sell a milk labelled accordingly. If the public choose to buy 5t milk which might be very rich or might be very poor, they may do so. With dairy milk, which is the mixed milk of a number of cows, the difficulty is diminished t o a great extent, Such a milk is much more uniform, although it still may vary a good deal.In the first place the specific gravity, which is so easily ascertained by the lactometer, falls always between 1029 and 1034, and if only every small milk dealer who has no other means of protecting himself, and every householder who likes to have pure milk for himself or his Off- spring, would use this instrument freely, a great deal of watered milk would be banished from the streets of London in a very short time, As it is impossible to detect adulteration in every case in this way, there will be still a great deal of the work left to the analyst. 1 have said already that in my opinion it is necessary t o fix a limit ; where to fix it is, in the first place, a question of analytical method.The total solids given, fat and solids not fat, compensate one another. a, by our method, the fat is exhausted to the last trace, the solids not fat will be proportionately low ; if, on the other hand, a particular method leaves about half one per cent. of fat in the non-fatty solids, the latter will be so much increased. How much fat or solids not fat may be expected must be found out by statistical investigation, and I think there exists plenty of material now-a-days to settle the question at once. If, say among 100 farmers, ninty-nine are able to produce a milk of a certain standard, the remaining one should be able t o do the seme; and if, through bad feeding or watering, the milk should be excluded from the market, I do not think any reasonable man could find fault with this.ln my opinion, the standard applied by the Society of Public Analysts at present is quite fair and just to both parties as far as fat solids are concerned; but with the analyticalmethods the limits for fat and solids not fat should be altered. The tendency of the fat to rise as cream must not be lost sight of, and I would think that it is only right that in the letter of thelaw milk falling below the fixed Iimit should not be returned as watered or skimmed, but as not of the nature, quality, and substance of the article demanded, and the public analyst should not be obliged to make a statement which he cannot prove, vb., that the addition or deprivation extends to so much per cent.As to the decision in case of disputed analyses, I think it is utterly impossible to put an analysis of an old and decomposed sample of milk against one made of the milk as long as it was sweet. As soon as decomposition has proceeded to a certain point, it is, in my opinion, almost waste of time to analyse it. There does not exist a general rule according to which one could calculate the progress by extent of decomposition of milk from day to day. Dr. BELL : Nay reply wiil be very short, for very few criticisms have been made upon the paper, or upon the statements made in it. First, I think, Dr. Dupr6 rather questioned the potency of fuse1 oil in whisky. I still adhere to the statement, and experience fully bears me out, I dare say we are all aware of the frequency that one hears said in Scotland, 66 You will not find a headache in a hogshead of that whisky,” because it is a pure and mature whisky ; the fusel oil has been changed into harmless ethers, Distillers might also entirely dispense with the trouble and expense of maturing spirits in bond if it were not for the deleterious character of the fusel oil, Then thenext gentleman has asked a question with reference to cocoa, for example.The only substances which are now found in cocoa are sugar and starch, and these are not considered as adulterations so long as the articles are not sold as pure. I have mentioned that they must be sold as mixed articles, Then with regard to the quantity, it is not the presence of a quantity of sugar or starch in cocoa or mustard which will constitute adulteration. This is a question for the justices.If it comes to us, we merely say how much it contains, and leave it to them to adjudicate upon the case. I think the only question really started, and upon which 1 should like to make a few remarks, is the question of milk. It seems to be a great bone of contention j and our position in reference to the questions seems to be largely misunder. stood, and I am pleased to have this opportunity of explaining my position in reference to it and to other articles. There was a paper read from Mr. Bannister, which gave a paragraph from the Report of the Committee met in 1874. Now that is the starting.point. They said that cows yield milk of different qualities, They clearly indicated that proper allowanae is sufficiently made for variations in the quality of milk.Parliament is aware of this ; they laid down no limits of quality nor any standard. They leave it to the public an$yst. Now Mr, Hehner said last evening that he sent two specimens of milk to Somerset House. They say that they cannot a@rm that water has been added, but they cannot affirm that water has not been added, and we say neither e m they ! Now if there is one thing which we value more than another, it is the principle that everybody is presumed innocent until he is proved guilty, and if there be a doubt whatsoever, the defendant bas the benefit of that doubt, I am not opposed at all to the fixing of limits of quality or standards : it is not a matter at all for me; it is a matter between the analysts and the trade. I am simply placed to do justice between the two parties, and I have no objection, provided it has been laid down legally j but I cannot lay it down, nor can the public anaIyst lay it down. We can only give an opinion, unless we come down to a very low limit; so that, as I say, we have no desire a t all that limits of quality should not be laid down. We are quite prepared to accept any limit which may be laid down, It is pretty well admitted that milk does vary very considerably in quality. I was very pleased to hear Dr, Muter state soTHE ANALYST. 163 honestly and fairly his views upon the subject, and I hope that every public analyst will follow hi in the same line. It is, I believe, the first time that a public analyst has appeared in public, and stated so clearly and honestly the case, as Dr. Muter has done to-day. I do not say that we are not prepared to say that milk with eight per cent, was adulterated if we obtained evidence from ether data which would lead us to that conclusion, but if we have not sufficient evidence from the data which we have obtained, then we cannot conscientiously pronounce it adulteration, and we give the benefit of the doubt to the defendant. I am not prepared to come down either to a low limit. I think I agree largely with a statement of Dr, Wallace, that when it comes low down, the defendant should be called upon for an explanation, and if he cannot furnish an explanation, he should be called upon to satisfy the justices that his milk is genuine ; and t h i t is the fair and proper way in which an Act of this kind should be applied to an article which varies so much in composition. The desire of the anaIysts should be to avoid the infliction of an injury to a tradesman. As Mr. Barham pointed out, it is a most serious thing for him to be convicted for his milk when he is innocent, I thank you very much for your reception of my paper, and for your kindness altogether ; and now I will propose a vote of thanks to our worthy President for the able, liberal, and fair way in which he has conducted this meeting, The success of any meeting depends upon the management of it by the chairman, and I think that on this occasion our President has managed the meeting moat successfully, and contributed largely to the success of the discussion. The motion was seconded by Dr. Nuter, and carried unanimously,