THE ANALYST. 33 AKALYSTS’ REPORTS. The County Analyst (Mr. J. H. Collins) having reported to the Cornwall Epiphany Sessions that no samples had been submitted to him for analysis, owing to several recent cases being dismissed on technical grounds, the Chairman said the Court would have to take this matter into consideration. The magistrates who dismissed the cases in question only upheld, as they were bound to do, the decision of a superior Court.The public analyst for the County of Durham (Mr. A. J. M. Edger of Newcastle) reports that he hae analysed 106 samples of food and drugs during the quarter ending December 31st, 1878, viz. :-67 of milk, 13 of butter, 8 of’ lard, 2 of oatmeal, 2 of cheese, 2 of flour, 3 of pepper, 1 of’ vinegar, 1 of sago, 7 of cream of tartar-and found 20 to be adulterated and 9 of inferior quality.The adulterated articles were- 9 of milk, with amomts of added water varying from 6 to 33 per cent. ; 2 of butter, one being composed entirely of fat other than butter, and 1 having an excessive quantity of water ; 1 of lard, with 8.63 per cent. of mater ; 1 of oatmeal, with 16 per cent. of barley ; 7 of cream of tartar, with sulphate of barytes, silica, bicarbonate of soda, and excessive quantities of tartrate of lime.to levy duty on spirits by a rough and ready process, called the proof, and conducted as follows :-A sma6 beap of gunpowder was wetted with the spirit to be tested, and the wet spirit was then set alight. If the spirit was strong the gunpowder became ignited and flashed off very soon after the spirit was lighted ; but if the spirit was weak, the water left behind it as it burned off wetted the gunpowder so that it did not explode.A careful investigation of the true constitution of the spirit showed that the weakest spirit capable of igniting the powder had the following composition by weight :-alcohol, 49.24 ; water, 50.76 ; specific gravity, 920. This is known as proof spirit. THE SALE OF FOOD Am.-& the Quarter Sessions held at Lancaster on the 30th December, the Chairman referred to the fact that in several cases of adulteration magistrates had declined to convict under the Food and Drugs’ Act, on the ground that they did not consider the sale to a police superirkendent was to the prejudice of the purchaser ; and, after drawing attention to an opinion recently expressed by the Local Government Board upon the subject, said he had no doubt the Act would be set right in the next session, and in the meantime he hoped that magistrates would convict in all such cases proved before them for, if they did not, guilty persons would escape, and the public would be imposed npon.Mr. Fell alluded to the difficulties often experienced by magistrates in dealing with cases of selling adulterated spirits, and he proposed--“ That in any Act which may be brought into Parliament in the next session to amend the Bale of Food and Drugg Act, this Court is of opinion that the standard of spirits should be actually defined, and that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the Secretary of State.” Mr.Stsrkie, M.P., seconded, and the motion waa carried. The recent decision of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn had virtually annulled the Act. ’‘ PROOF SPIRIT.”--“ Proof Spirit ” was 60 called because in the pre-scientific age it was Gustomar