A Manual of Practical Chemistry: The Analysis of Foods and the Detection of Poisons

Abstract

THIS work of 468 pages consists of two divisions, the first treating of the analysis of the principal articles of diet in daily use, the second of the detection and estimation of certain organic and inorganic poisons. The matter pertaining to the first division is further divided into seven parts, in which the different articles of diet are considered in their proper groups. These chapters are well and pleasantly written, bringing the information as much as possible up to date, and introducing where necessary modern methods of analysis. This may be seen in the chapter on sugars, where a full description of the optical method for the estimation of these bodies by the polariscope is given, with an accompanying diagram of the various parts, lenses, &c., of Soleil's saccharimeter. The remaining portions of the first division contain the matter concerning bread and flour; milk, butter, tea, coffee, cocoa, &c.; the chapter on tea and coffee containing a large number of analyses which no doubt will prove of great use. A considerable part of the book is devoted to the examination of alcohols, wines, and beers, in which instructions are laid down for the examination of such substances. In connection with this part the author gives a reprint of the tables introduced by M. A, Gautier for the systematic detection of colouring matters likely to be met with in wines, and gives an abstract of Gautier's paper containing the necessary instructions for the preparation of the sample, &c., to be examined.

A Manual of Practical Chemistry: The Analysis of Foods and the Detection of Poisons.

By Alexander Wynter Blyth, &c. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., 1879.)