The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-01 00:00:00

TILE SUN,

ON TOBACCO ADULTERATION

AND COMMERCIAL lELING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Slll,—l cannot refrain from addressing you with
regard to the recent " Excise prosecutions and the
fi,cal chemists." The question at issue appears to be
—ls the fermentive or cupreous test for sugar the
best ? I affirm, after having perforined a series of
experiments, there is no infallible test whereby the
presence of sugar can he proved. 111 y friend Pro-
fessor Graham justly remarks, " sugar is not the
only substance from which alcohol can be produced by
fermentation ;" moreover, sugar is not the only veget-
able compound capable of reducing salts of the oxide
of copper to the state of suboxide. A solution con-
taining the 4500,000 th part of grape sugar, when
treated with a drop of solution of potassa, and two or
three drps of solution of sulphate of copper, gives, on
boiling, a y ellow, subsequently red precipitate of
suboxide of copper. The liquid, after the addition ol
the sulphate of copper, mug possess a fine blue colour
to ensure the success of the process. The above re-
action being obtained, we may infer that sugar is pre-
sent in a sample under investigation ; but as the detec-
tion of sugar, when present in minute
quantities, is a most difficult task, the re-
duction of oxide of copper merely proves the
presence of an organic compound capable of extract-
ing oxygen from the oxide of ci pper. If there is
much of the substance suspected to be adulterated at
hand, the best mode of procedure is to ferment a
large portion of it, distil and rectify repeatedly over
chloride of calcium and calcia. If alcohol be ob-
tained after this concentration and purification, it
cannot be mistaken for any other liquid, especially it
a person possesses an acute organ of smell like my-
self. Should any uncertainty arise regarding the
smell of the rectified fluid, let it he heated with ace-
tate of potassa and sulphuric acid : acetic ether is by
this means disengaged, and is easily recognised by its
flagrant characteristic odour. A few days since a
sample of tobacco was sent to me by Mr. Samuel-
son. It had a sweetish smell, and no doubt was
adulterated with sugar. When digested with water,
filtered through pure animal charcoal, and then sub-
mitted to the cupreous test, a dense red precipitate of
suboxide of copper was obtained. This reaction
was witnessed by several of our leading medical men.
A cigar submitted to the same process gave only faint
indications of sugar. Cane sugar is readily con-
verted, by diluted sulphuric acid, into grape sugar.
Although there are no accurate means of determining
many organic substances and poisons, the inorganic
chemist cannot have the same excuse.

Professor Graham speaks, in the conclusion of
his final letter in the Daily News, of "commercial
chemistry," on which I beg to offer a few remarks.
Numerous samples of silver, cobalt, nickel, copper,
Sec ,ores are sent frequently to London and Liverpool,
and sold upon the reports of "analytical chemists,"
and judging from what has come under my own
notice, their results have been invariably incorrect,
particularly with ores of cobalt. The determination
of cobalt and nickel is the most difficult in mineral
chemistry. Mr. C. E. Rawlins, jun., and others who
are large purchasers of cobalt and nickel ores, are
well aware of the necessity of accurate analysis, for a
difference of four or five per cent. in an article worth
Bd. or 9d. per pound might be a loss of hundreds of
pounds to the purchaser. I believe that, in some
instances, mistakes are not made intentionally, the
fault being in the method. Some time since a firm
in this town sent me a cobalt ore for analysis, the
result of which was that the mineral contained eight
per cent. of oxide of cobalt. A few days after their
manager called upon me and stated that another pro-
fessor had found seventeen per cent. I would not
repeat my analysis, being convinced of its accuracy.
The sample, however, was forwarded to the Royal
College of Chemistry, London, over which one
of the most accurate chemists of Europe
presides. The result, thence, corresponded with my
own. By Liebig's or Rose's process, the quantity of
cobalt or nickel in ores can be accurately ascertained
by any chemist possessed of ordinary capability. The
following five determinations were obtained from an
ore recently sent to my laboratory by Joshua Hegan
and Co. It was analysed by three different chemists.
Oxide of cobalt :-7.97-7.82-7.01-7.61-8.18.
These results are sufficient evidence of the above
statement. An eminent chemist in London writes me
the following with regard to cobalt and nickel ores :
—" I am convinced that the separation of nickel from
cobalt is a task of great difficulty, as proof of which I
have heard of a difference of fifteen per cent. having
been obtained by two London chemists in an analysis
of impure cobalt obtained from the works at Kes-
wick.' This letter is written solely with the view of
proving to merchants the errors oftentimes resulting
from commercial testing. I have published gratui-
tously, in my numerous investigations in England
and Germany, hundreds of analyses in organic and
inorganic chernisty, which have been repeated by emi
neat professors in both countries ; and I ft el proud
in stating that in not a single instance has their ac-
curacy been questioned. Moreover, the immortal
Berzelius, with whom I had not the honour of being
personally acquainted, incorporrted many of them in
his recent work on chemistry.
I cannot conclude this communication better than
in the words of a celebrated philosopher :—" No one
who has ever been engaged in quantitative analysis
can deny that cases will sometimes happen in which
doubts may be entertained as to whether the results
of the operation are correct, or even where the ope
rator is positively convinced that the result of his
process cannot be correct. Thus, for instance, a
small portion of the substance under investigation
may be spilled, or some of it lost by decrepitation, or
he may justly doubt the accuracy of his weighing,
or it may happen that two analyses of the same sub.
stance do not exactly agree. In all such cases it is
indispensable that the operator should be con-
scientious enough to repeat immediately his whole
process. He who is not animated with this
sincere devotion to science, and is afraid of
encountering labour and difficulties in the
pursuit of truth—he who would be satisfied
with mere assumption and suppositions, and other
guess work, when the attainment of positive certainty
is the object, is just as deficient in the necessary
qualifications for quantitative analytical researches, as
he who is wanting in theoretical knowledge or in
practical skill. He, therefore, who cannot himself
firmly and fully rely upon the accuracy of his ope-
rations and labours—he who cannot swear to the
accuracy of his results, may, indeed, occupy himself
with quantitative analysis for his own private amuse-
ment and practice, but he ought never to publish as
correct and positive the results of his operations and
researches, nor ought he to apply these results to
practical purposes of his own. In the latter case it
would prove very little advantageous to himself; in
the former, his error would be greatly detrimental to
the interests of science, and might be eminently in-
jurious to others." Yours, Sec.,
SHE RIDAN MUSPRATT,
Professor of Chemistry.
College of Chemistry, Liverpool, Oct. 25.

A step has been taken by a leading firm in the
Stock-Exchange which is likely to have a powerful
affect in checking the reckless speculation in railway
shares which has been so long prevalent. A seller
being unable to deliver a certain number of Great
Western shares which he had disposed of on specula-
tion for the account, the brokers by whom they had
been purchased resolved to exercise their right of
rebuying them publicly, according to the rules of the
Stock Exchange, thus rendering him liable for any
difference in price they might be compelled to pay.
The dealers, aware of what was to take place (the pur-
chase being made by parties specifically employed by
the committee of the house), generally forbore to
accept the biddings, and hence the price, which was
nominally about 60, was driven up to 73 before the
transaction could be completed. It is evident that if
all the respectable brokers will henceforth, without
favour or exception, act in this way, such gambling
fluctuations will, fur the future, far less frequently be
recorded.— Times.

DEATH OE AN ORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN SETTLER.
—The last arrivals from the South Seas announce the
death of Mr. George Leake, of Perth, Western Aus-
tralia, at the age of 64. This gentleman was one of the
first settlers on the banks of the River Swan, in the year
1829, when he literally pitched his tent on the soil of his
newly-adopted country in the primative patriarchal
style, and so roughed it until something like a house was
erected. Mr. Leake soon reaped the reward of his exer-
tions, he having realised a large fortune as an agricul-
turist and a store-keeper, and attained the highest offices
under the colonial government of the district. He was
a member of the council and a magistrate. In considera-
tion of his valuable services, and the respect generally
entertained towards Mr. Leake, the governor honoured
his remains with a public funeral. Mr. Leake has left a
young wife to lament his loss. He was formerly a mem-
ber of the London Stuck Exchange, which he aban-
doned for the antipodes soon after the disastrous com-
mercial crisis of 1825.
CAPTURE 01' A STAG.—On Friday morning, the
farm servants of Mr. Richard Vincent, of Chaffcombe,
near Chard, di.-covered a fine stag on his farm. They
surrounded and attacked him with a large sheep dog,
which the noble animal several times sent into the air
with great fore-. The dog, however, invariably re-
turned to the attack, and eventually enabled them to
capture it, but not before one of the men had received
severe laceration of his baud by one of the animal's
short horns. On examination it appeared to have been
hunted, but had got out of the chase without sustaining
any material injury. It is still in the safe keeping of
Mr. Vincent, who, some fine morning, intends placing it
before the Cotley harriers.—Exeter Gazette.
FREEMEN OCCUPIERS IN THE CITY OF LONDCN.
—This day (Thursday), and for a fortnight afterwards,
there will be kept for public inspection, without fee, a
list of all freemen occupiers, at each ward in the City,
entitled to vote in the forthcoming election for aldermen,
common-councilmen. or other ward officers. Before the
Ist of August last only householders could vote, but now
joint-occupiers to 101. are privileged by virtue of the
new Act, 12 and 13 Vic., cap. 94 local.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MAN-
CHESTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Gentlenwn,—lt is as one who has not been alto-
gether unconnected with the honourable interests you
are associated to protect, that I take the liberty of
addressing you on your meritorious resistance to the
great stalking-horse of the party of the Extinguisher
in the present day.
I will not for a moment doubt, that if your com-
mercial interests were found at variance with the in-
junctions of the religion which, with exceptions
inconsiderable in point of number if any, you
profess, you would with the greatest readiness set
the example of sacrificing either prat or con-
venience, on the altar of what you acknowledge to
be duty.
But why are you to sacrifice either your profit or
your convenience, for the sake of gratifying those
who demand of you the breach of the injunctions you
profess to obey, and writing yourselves down the
victims of any sacerdotal falsehood set up in opposi-
tion to the rule of the New Testament, which as
Christians you follow ?
In the time of your forefathers a contest of the
same nature took place. An encroaching hierarchy
advanced the right of a bishop of Rome to depose
kings, and to sell the forgiveness of sins for money ;
which I adduce with a perfect knowledge that in
so saying I am not wounding the feelings
of the intelligent followers of an ancient
church, some of whom are probably members
of your body, and whose liberation from impolitic
restrictions we all hail as the pledge of our common
freedom. But an encroaching hierarchy fell into
these errors, and added invasions of political, com-
mercial, and domestic liberty, which but for the
necessary reaction they brought on, would by the
acknowledgment of all but a very small and extreme
class, have been destructive to everything in which
the most liberal and energetic nations of Europe differ
from the most supine.
And how did the stout-hearted merchant-princes of
that day apply themselves to the abatement of the
evil ? They did not sit down under the cry of infi-
delity raised against them by the authors of the mis-
chief. They did not allow the perverters of a written
rule to hold the interpretation and the letter as a
property of their own. They did as you will do ;
they went manfully to the examination of the rule,
and when they found both the statement and the in-
terpretation contradictory to the written authority
affected to be produced, they kept no further terms
with the imposture, and the bubble burst.
Do then as your predecessors did. Before you
bend to the demand to stop your posts, shut up your
railroads, confine your ships to port, regulate the
meat upon your tables, forbid the harp and viol in
your dwellings, ask yourselves the simple question,
whether this is according to the directions of the New
Testament you profess to obey, or is against them. If
any quack with the blister of intended fraud upon his
tongue, tells you it is written in the Old Testament
that God said " Let the Sabbath be kept, and he that
gathered sticks on it shall die," reply to him that it is
also written that God said "The uncircumcised man
child shall be cut off from his people" (Gen. xvi. 14),
and " Ye shall eat no manner of fat ; for whosoever
eateth, shall be cut off from his people" (Lev. vii. 23).
Take then the impostor aside, and see whether himself
is circumcised or not; and if he tells you he is not
because the Apostles have forbidden it, ask whether
in the self-same passages the Great Apostle (See
Coloss. ii. 16) has not included the sabbaths by name,
in the list of what he forbids his followers to allow
to be enforced. There is no shuffling like the
shuffling of a theologian ; but it is because plain men
in all countries have kept theologians in order, that
plain men have anything left out of the good which
heaven bestows.

You will say this is a great deal of divinity for the
factory or the counting-house. But when teachers
with a falsehood in their hands force themselves upon
your factories and counting-houses, you must be
divines as your fathers were, to the extent of resisting
the impending wrong. There is an outcry against
irreligion that is abroad, and strange evils are fore-
told from the disinclination of the public to submit to
its religious instructors. And how should it be other-
wise when the instructors are thus found deceivers by
the book, and the least learned artizan who can read the
Bible which is in his hand, can convict them of a
fraud and breach of vulgar veracity in the matter
they pretend to teach ?
And now to see the modesty of the request put
forward by the antichristian plotters. They pray you
to allow the freedom of commercial and domestic com-
munication to be restricted to four days in the week.
During three they desire you to permit it to be
hindered, by way of trampling on the Christian
Apostle. Shall I tell you to what extent the evil as
it stood, has fallen upon myself; and I have not been
more exposed than every other man in the commu-
nity. Some years ago I was informed on a Saturday
afternoon, that a brother in-law in the suburbs of the
metropolis was dangerously ill. Before I could see him
it was too late for post. His sister was in Paris, and the
rest of his family in Yorkshire; and the lying bigots
had decreed that there should be no post to either till
Monday night. On Monday morning his children
were fatherless, and I had to communicate the news
to his relatives without the chance of a word of pre-
paration. If I took a deep inward pledge
.to wage.
fuatnicaetaicsiisnmg ,
am I withn ot
goingthe b r
tuht
ea 1 rae ando
naanht
ec h7rtasyt at no
fulfil my engagement when I submit the subject in
its nakedness to you ?
Smaller things too have befallen me. A failure
affecting the totality of my life, and therefore work -
ing.to eternity,—the evil of which I could not have
estimated by thousands,—proceeded from the same
source, the closing of the public means of
communication by the Tartuffes who take our
earth on false pretences of giving us their heaven.
To commercial men it is unnecessary to dwell on
the interests important to yourselves and to humanity,
which are involved in your not allowing yourselves
to be sacrificed to a falsehood. If it were to a truth,
you would stick at nothing; but that it shall be to a
falsehood, is the sting. You know or may know, that
the Great Apostle of Christianity forbids by name
the keeping of sabbaths (See Coloss. ii. 16) ; that the
Protestant Reformers enumerate the attempt to
enforce the keeping of the first day of the week as a
sabbath, among the grievances they complain of (See
Confession of Augsburg) ; that the Church of
England ignores the Fourth Commandment in her
Catechism and Articles, and thereby declares it to be
among the " Ceremonies and Rites which do not bind
Christian men," and not the " Commandments which
are called Moral ;" and that the Protestant Dissenters
without exception, acknowledge the rule of the
Apostle on what is and is not to be observed by
Christians, though in deeds they deny it the moment
a paltry temptation of power to their ruling elders is
thrown across their way.
One thing more let me impress upon you. This
question is nothing like a single one. It hangs by all
manner of mischief, and all manner of mischief hangs
by it. To check commercial and domestic communi-
cation, as a thing not necessary to a Puseyite clergy,
was the object most prominent on the present occasion.
A revenue from the Post Office and a Fixed Duty on
Corn, are the things which would have been heard of
in the next session of Parliament, as they were heard
in the last. To train up the working classes, as they
are trained in Spain and Naples, to be the ready tools
of anything that is servile and illiberal, is only a
little in the rear. The attempt bas been boldly made ;
and, thanks to you, as boldly met.
That you may continue to make head against false-
hoods in theology as successfully as in political
economy, believing firmly that the enslaving of mind
and of body are the common object of both, is the
earnest desire of
ONE WHO BELIEVES SABBATICAL OBSER-
VANCE PROHIBITED TO CHRISTIANS.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.
CAMBRIDGE, OCT. 31.—SEATONIAN PRIZE —Tile
Seatouian prize for the best English poem on a sacred
subject has been adjudged to the Rev. J. M. Neale,
M. A., of Trinity College.
GEOLOGY.--The Woodwardian Professor com-
menced his course of lectures on Monday last, in the
Geological Museum. They will be continued five
days a week to the end of the course.
MEDICINE.—The Downing Professor commenced
a course of lectures on Tuesday, the 30th, at Down-
ing College, on the preservation of health. The lectures
will be continued every Tuesday. Thursday, and
Saturday to the end of term.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.—The Professor of Political
Economy commenced a course of lectures on the
above• named science on Monday last, at the Pitt Press ;
he has continued them daily since, and will do so to
the end of the course.

CONGRFUATION.-At a Congregation holden this
day the following graces passed the Senate :-
1. To confirm the report of the Syndicate ap-
pointed April 25, 1849, to consider whether any, and
what, alterations may be made in the regulations for
the classical examination after admission ad respon-
dendum queestioni.
2. To appoint Mr. A. M. Hoare, of St. John's
College, an examiner at the previous examinations in
the Lent and Michaelmas Terms of the year 1850,
in the place of Mr. Clark, of Trinity College, who
has resigned.
3. To appoint the Vice-Chancellor, the Master of
Trinity College, the Master of Catherine Hall, the
Regius Professor of Laws ; Dr. Woodham, of Jesus
College; Dr. Paget, of Caius College; the Downing
Professor of Laws; Mr. Marsh, the Junior Proctor ;
Mr. Clark, of Trinity College ; and Mr. Adams, of
St. John's College, a Syndicate, to consider whether
any, and what, regulations may be made with advan-
tage for conducting the examinations of candidates
for the degree of LL.B. ; and whether any, and what,
other measures may be devised for bringing the law
faculty more closely into connexion with the present
university system; and to report to the Senate before
the division of the Lent Tern, 1850.