312 THE ANALYST. ANALYSTS’ REPORTS. At the Somerset Quarter Sessions, Mr. W. W. Stoddart, the county analyst, presented his quarterly report. The document set forth that during the last quarter 147 samples had been submitted to him for analysis-two by the general public, and the rest by police superintendents ; and, before giving the full details, Mr. Stoddart said the result was satisfactory, as only twenty six of the samples were found to have been adulterated. Mr.Welman (magistrate) remarked that the remuneration of the analyst was much in excess of that given in Devonshire, where the population was about the same. Mr. Speke, another magistrate, said he had looked through the list of articlee analysed, and they all seemed to be pepper, mustard, and tea. While no end of pepper, mustard, and tea appeared to have been analyeed, there was only one sample of beer.Mustard, pepper, and tea were only used to a limited extent, and would hurt nobody ; but, considering the injurious forms of adulterated beer and spirits, it would be far more usefnl to the poor if examination were directed by the county analyst to those liquids, The Chairman said he had no doubt the Chief Constable would see to this.The Chief Constable intimated hiB readiness to fall in with any suggestion of the Court. Mr. J. Carter Bell, Public Analyst for Cheshire, reported to the Court of Quarter Session for that county, that during the past quarter he had examined 44 samples of whiskies, 30 gins, 1 rum, 34 milks, 31 violet powders, 5 eoffees! 5 peppers, 4 mustards, 4 teas, 1 vinegar, and 1 lard.He found 69 of them were adulterated. 9 violet powders, which should have been made of pure starch, were almost entirely composed of sulphate of lime, and, as violet powder was chiefly used as a Eoothing agent for infants’ excoriated skin, the sulphate of lime, being in a fine crystallised state, would act as an irritant instead of a sedative.At the Warwickshire Sessions, Dr. lIill, the county analyst, reported having had 23 samples of food and drink sent for analysis during the quarter. Of these 17 were sent by the inspector of the notorious Meriden district, and 6 from the Aston district. Of these samples 11 from Meriden were adulterated, and all from Aston, namely, 4 of coffee, 1 of milk, and 1 of rum. Dr.Campbell Brown, the analyst for Lancashire, reports, that during the year 678 samples had been analysed, of which 152 were found to be such as constituted offences against the Act, and 18 were doubtful. Milk was found to be mixed with water in proportions varying from 5 to 60 parts to 100 parts of milk, or was deprived of a very large proportion of its cream ; butter contained a fraudulent quantity of water ; bread contained alum ; and spirits were mixed with an excessive proportion of water, and were frequently raw spirits coloured.Ale contained excess of salt ; tea was weighted and coloured with mineral matter, but not to a great extent ; coffee was mixed with chicory ; preserved peas were coloured with a poisonous salt of copper ; cheese was badly prepared and unwholesome ; mustard contained flour ; and the 2 samples of drugs (1 of which was made up from the prescription of R medical man) were entirely wanting in the principal constituents.The total number of prosecutions was 92 ; convictions followed in 87, 4 were dismissed, and 1 was withdrawn. The penalties amounted to €235 19s., or within f S of the previous year ; and the costs amounted to €100.Although the number of offences detected was only 7 more than those of last year, and the number of prosecutions and convictions the same, a greater number of samples had been analysed to furnish those cases, so that the percentage of offences had fallen from 27.35 last year to 23.62 this year, and the percentage of convictions from 16 tb 134. It was ordered that this report be printed with the proceedings of the Court.Mr. E. W. T. Jones, Analyst for the County of Stafford, reports having analysed 231 samples, of which only 31 were adulterated. These consisted of 1 alumed bread, 5 coffees containing chicory, 2 diuted gins, 5 mustards containing flour, 16 watered and skimmed milks, and 1 tea containing lie tea. Dr. S wete, the public analyst for Worcester, reports :-“ During the last quarter I have received 28 articlesforanalysis ; of these 19 were samples of milk, of which 6 were rich good milk; 6 were wretchedly poor, but being within the very low standard I am obliged to consider them genuine.Beer, 3 samples : 1 from Upton-on-Severn, genuine ; 1 from Malvern contained a large quantity of salt, the presence of a considerable quantity of sulphate of lime as well led me to consider the mineral nature of the water used to be the source of the chloriw found. One from Stourport is in my opinion salted, but as the chemists of Somerset House having recently declared a sample of beer with 68-5 grains of salt to the galion genuine, 1 am a280 bound to give the benefit of the doubt to the vendor. The samples of pepper, oatmeal, and tea were all genuine.Violet powder : Considerable anxiety having arisen from arsenic being added to violet powder, I have received 2 samples fram Stourport, which do not contain any poisonous ingredients. 1 think the arsenical violet powders will be limited to the east of England, one manufacturer having (probably unintentionally) permitted arsenic to be mixed with the cosmetic at Chelmsford.Violet powder has no fixed composition, each manufacturer having his own receipts for the ingredients, but I do not think arsenic would be added as a common adulteration. Four samples of mustard, 1 of mustard condiment, and 1 of coffee, are still under examination.” The report was adopted, Mr, Heiscb reports as follows i--Lewijham, 20 sampled rcceived, 16 milk, of which 13 were genuine,TEE ANALYST.313 1 contained 30 per cent. added water ; 1-22 per cent. ; and 1-20 per cent., this last was also skimmed ; 2 butter, genuine ; 2 violet powder, 1 contained 29 per cent. gypsum ; 1-54 per cest. ditto, the rest being starch. Parish of St. John’s, Hampstead, during quarter ending July 25th, 17 samples were analysed, milk 8, of which 1 was evidently derived from a diseased cow, and contained blood, pus, and pieces of skin, and Blyth‘s bodies, and 1 contained only 1.2 fat, the rest were genuine ; 9 violet powder, of which 5 were either all starch or contained only 4 or 6 per cent, of Fuller’s earth ; 2 were entirely gypsum, 1-45 per cent.gypsum, the rest starch ; 1-47 per cent.gypsum, and the rest starch. A correspondent writes to the Chemist and Druggist to point out that some time since a number of oysters sent from Oran to Orleans were observed to possess a marked green coloration, the taste mas peculiar, tart, and somewhat bitter ; on being placed for some time in contact with a polished iron surface a thin layer of metallic copper was deposited. M. Balland ascertained by electrolysis the amount of copper present, and found it to average three milligrammes in each oyster without the shell. Many persons partook of these oysters without any injurious effects. He adds : ‘6 of course the addition of copper to food merely for improving the colour of the same must be kept in check, and I do not write with a view of defending such practice.” We should think not.