slightly acted upon; but we are very certain that the more the state of the public houses in Scotland is inquired into, the more reason will there be seen for restricting them, as in the sister kingdom; and the Justices of Peace there should not be deterred from the full exercise of their legal powers, by the fear of inflicting any injury on the community. The refusing of a license may be an individual injury, but it ought rather to be submitted to as the lesser evil. If this course is steadily persisted in, the community may hope to have the benefit of comfortable inns and good accommodation throughout all the various districts of Scotland, instead of those miserable hovels which now disgrace it. We have been induced to dwell a little longer on the licensing system than is, perhaps, altogether consistent with our present inquiry, though, at the same time, we have not gone into the subject so fully as we should have done, had we had it alone under consideration. But we think we have said

are, at least, less than have

enough to show that the evils of it been generally represented; and that, to attempt to ascribe any consequences from its abolition, to agriculture, is really an effort to enlist those in a cause who have very little to do with it. Our friends, the agriculturists, it is generally thought, make demands enough of the Legislature; and it is really too much to endea vour to bring them forward to plead for householders, and for competitors for a share of the beer and spirit trades. We hope they will rather direct their attention to matters in which they have a real and substantial interest.

In concluding these remarks, we have to observe, that we are well aware that there are various collateral considerations connected with the general question; though none of them, so far as we can judge, can be said to interest the agriculturist otherwise than as a general member of the community. In considering a subject of this nature, the first object of the inquirer should be to obtain a knowledge of facts; but we regret to observe, that, in the public debates to which the question has given rise, the feelings of parties seem to have been more appealed to, than sober business-like calculation. Not only in the casual discussions which have arisen, but in the Resolutions of large bodies of men, we find propositions laid down and maintained, which receive no support from the facts of the case, as shown by existing documents. In the very last production of this kind, under the

form of resolutions, which has come under our notice, we find it gravely announced, that the tax on beer is 200 per cent. Now we need not revert to what has already been observed by us on this subject, to show, that the averment in question overrates the real tax on beer by nearly 400 per cent., and that the tax on beer is greatly less than that on other commodities of daily consumption, and in universal use in the country. But, in the public discussion of this whole question, as of many others that might be cited, it is obvious that the existing state of things has been represented as fraught with evils which do not exist, and that the little defects which must necessarily accompany all regulations in trade with a view to revenue, have been heightened by gross exaggeration. As to the total repeal of the malt and beer duties, we have seen that it is what, in the present state of the finances of this country, cannot be effected, and ought not to be demanded. The duties are of that nature, that even if they could be spared in respect of the revenue, we hardly think it would be expedient to abolish them entirely, for although we may now be in a state of peace, it is plain that the moment we are involved in a war, it will be indispensable to have recourse to them. As to the repeal of the beer-duties alone, we have endeavoured to estimate, upon what we consider good data, the extent of the benefit likely to be derived from the measure. We have seen that this benefit is, under the most favourable view, likely to be but trivial, if any thing at all, but with the certainty of a great diminution of revenue being produced-and surely no thinking man will assert, that a great diminution of revenue would not be a public evil. In the course of our remarks, too, we have taken occasion to recommend an increase of the duties on spirits, and this on two grounds. First, Because such a measure would be cal culated to preserve the demand for barley in the brewery, which, as affecting the interests of agriculture, is more important than the distillery; and, second, Because a low price of spirits is prejudicial to the morals and happiness of the people. As regards the question of the licensing system, we trust our agricultural readers will see, from the statements which have been submitted to them, that it is one, in the agitation of which they have greatly less concern, than the parties really interested would lead them to believe.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

1. On the Adulteration of Milk.—The subject of the adulteration of milk has been lately investigated with great care, by M. Barruel of Paris. Although his observations are intended to apply only to the milk of that city, yet there is little doubt that they will also be found applicable in a greater or less degree to all great towns. He sets out with stating that all instruments for ascertaining the purity of milk, which are calculated to attain this end by pointing out differences in its density or specific gravity, are inaccurate and useless. For, on the one hand, pure milk differs much in density according to the fodder used by the dairy-man for his cows, the butyraceous matter which imparts lowness of density, being made to preponderate by some sorts of food, and the caseous part, which increases the density, being made preponderant by other sorts. And, on the other hand, although water, the ordinary substance with which milk is adulterated by the dealers in the French capital, would alone cause a great diminution of density, the dealers know very well how to prevent that effect, and so render the areometer useless. For this purpose, it is only necessary to dissolve in the milk a little sugar-candy, which is required at all events in order to correct the flat taste imparted to milk by diluting it with water. The result of M. Barruel's inquiries on the adulteration of milk in Paris, is, that no positively noxious substance is ever to be found in it; that a common practice is to remove a considerable portion of the cream, by allowing the milk to stand for a limited time, and then to dilute the remainder, or skimmed milk, with water, and to give it the apparent qualities of new milk in one or other of the manners now to be mentioned. The opacity of the milk being much diminished by the water, so that the milk acquired a bluish appearance, it was at one time usual to correct this defect, by previously mixing wheat-flour with the water with which the milk was diluted. But this adulteration was too obvious to the senses. Any person even of indifferent delicacy of palate, could detect the altered taste of the milk; and besides, after two hours' rest, the flour sank to the bottom, restoring the translucent blueness of the milk, and pointing out the nature of the fraud. To prevent this inconvenience, the dealers boiled the flour in the water before mixing it with the milk; and in this way an opaque mixture was procured, which retained its opacity on standing. As even with this addition the fabricated liquid had a flat taste, sugar or sugar-candy was dissolved in it, by which means the peculiar sweetness of the milk was partly restored. This adulteration, however, has become so easy of detection by means of iodine, which renders the mixture blue by its action on the fecula of the flour, that M. Barruel believes that the fraud now described is very little practised in the present day at Paris. In Britain, where the municipalities take no charge whatever of the purity of this most important article of food, it may be presumed that the adulteration with flour, sugar, and water is common enough, as it is a simple and cheap mode of accomplishing every purpose of the fraudulent dealer. The best mode of proving the presence of farinaceous matter in

such mixtures, is to heat the milk with a little sulphuric acid, to coagulate the casein, to filter the whey, and then to add to the latter the tincture of iodine; upon which a fine blue colour will be struck. Driven from this species of adulteration, the Parisian dealers have latterly resorted to another so ingenious, that M. Barruel conceives they could not have discovered it, without the aid of some scientific person. The method is simple, so cheap, that for tenpence the opacity and colour of milk may be imparted to thirty English pints of water, and so far secret that no disagreeable taste is communicated. This is nothing more than the employment of an emulsion of almonds, for which some dealers, more greedy and less cautious than the rest, have substituted hemp-seed, which, however, is apt to impart an acrid taste. By either of these means the milk may be diluted to an indefinite extent; and the only corrective required is a little sugar-candy to remove the flat taste. A peculiar advantage possessed by this mode of adulteration over every other, is, that the vegeto-animal matter, or vegetable albumen of the emulsion by which the oil of almond is held in suspension, is coagulated, or curdled, like casein, by acids. The method recommended by M. Barruel for detecting the fraud is founded on two circumstances,-the greatly inferior quantity of coagulum formed by acids in the mixture of milk and almond emulsion, compared with that formed in milk alone, and the facility with which, by kneading the coagulum with the fingers, oil may be squeezed out of the former, while none exists in the latter. On examining carefully four different specimens of pure milk, procured from different quarters in Paris, he found that 300 parts of each, coagulated by heating them with an equal volume of vinegar, gave each a quantity of curd, which, when well drained, and equally pressed between folds of bibulous paper, weighed 29 parts; and that the same quantity of milk taken from a cow in presence of a person sent to procure it, gave 30 parts of curd. He then found, that when the same milk was mixed with various proportions of water, the quantity of curd was exactly in the inverse ratio of the proportion of water added. The water, therefore, did not prevent any portion of the curd from being thrown down by the usual modes of curdling the milk. He next found, that, if a given quantity of sugar was added to the mixture of milk and water, the quantity added could be separated exactly by evaporating the whey to the consistence of an extract, heating this with alcohol, filtering the alcoholic solution, and evaporating to dryness. He then also found that, when equal parts of almond emulsion and milk were mixed together, 300 parts of the mixture, curdled by vinegar as above, gave 161 parts of curd; and that the same quantity of a mixture containing two parts of emulsion to one of milk, gave only 10 th parts of curd. So that although, as was to be expected, the adulteration with almond emulsion did not lessen the quantity of curd to the same extent as adulteration with water only, yet the decrease was very great, and very nearly in the ratio of the quantity of emulsion added. Lastly, on placing pure curd on white paper, no oily matter was thrown out; but the curd procured from the mixture of milk and almond emulsion, besides being less firm than the former, gave out in 24 or 48 hours a quantity of oil sufficient to stain the paper. Another adulteration to which milk is subjected in Paris, is with carbonate of potass or soda. The object of this variety of adul

teration is, in the hot summer months, to prevent the milk from becoming sour and curdling, or to break down the curd and correct ascescency when the milk has actually become spoiled. In this process, acetate of potass or soda is formed. Neither of these salts, in moderate quantity, is injurious to the health; indeed, acetate of potass exists naturally in milk, and is the source of some embarrassment in the detection of the present fraud. The mode of analysis adopted by M. Barruel is as follows: As the alkaline acetates are converted by incineration into carbonates, he endeavoured, by means of this property, to ascertain the quantity of alkali naturally contained in whey. He therefore evaporated a certain quantity of whey to dryness, incinerated the residue in a platinum crucible, and procured an alkaline ley from the remainder, which, by the process recommended by Decroisil for measuring the strength of alkaline fluids, indicated from one and a half to two degrees of alkalinity. Hence any increase of alkaline strength above the last of these points, must be considered as owing to the intentional addition of carbonate of potass or soda. This is evidently the most difficult of the processes recommended for detecting the various adulterations specified in M. Barruel's paper. Indeed, a chemist alone could conduct it. The others may be easily executed by any body.Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.

2. The Barberry. This tree is a native originally of the eastern countries, though it is now found in most parts of Europe, where it thrives best upon light and chalky soils. It grew formerly wild, in great quantities, in the hedgerows of England, but has been universally banished, from a general belief that its presence is injurious to the growth of corn. Duhamel, Broussonet, and other scientific writers, treat this belief as a vulgar prejudice. It should, however, be remarked, that the fructification of the barberry is incomplete, unless the stamens be irritated by insects, when the filaments suddenly contract, in a most remarkable manner, towards the germ. The flowers are, therefore, by a beautiful arrangement of nature, peculiarly attractive to insects; and thus the barberry may become injurious to neighbouring plants. Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. ii.

3. On the Food and Habits of the Common Rook.-Gesner has called the common rook (Corvus frugilegus) a corn-eating bird. Linnæus has somewhat lightened this epithet by considering it only as a gatherer of corn; to neither of which names do I believe it entitled, as it appears to live solely upon grubs, various insects, and worms. It has at times great difficulty to support its life; for, in a dry spring or summer, most of these are hidden in the earth beyond its reach, except at those uncertain periods, when the grub of the chaffer is to be found; and, in a hot day we see the poor birds perambulating the fields, and wandering by the sides of the highways, seeking for and feeding upon grasshoppers, or any casual nourishment that may be found. At those times, was it not for its breakfast of dew-worms, which it catches in the grey of the morning, as it is appointed the earliest of risers, it would commonly be famished. In the hot summer of 1825, many of the young brood of the season perished for want; the mornings were without dew, and consequently few or no worms were to be obtained; and we found them dead under the trees, having expired on their roostings. It was particularly