The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-16 00:00:00

CHEMISTRY IN RELATION TO
THE EXCISE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,-.lt is a singular and somewhat melancholy
fact, that in an age of progress like the present, the
interests of science should be so often prejudiced and
its value compromised in popular estimation,, by
exhibiting the absurd spectacle of contradictory, and
occasionally the most conflicting results. Truth
being always the same, this apparent anomaly can
only be explained by the want of sufficient accuracy
on the part of tl-e investigator, and an error resulting
from such a cause is the more inexcusable when its
consequences have a wide and baneful sphere of
action. These remarks apply more especially to
analytical chemistry, a science which is daily becoming
more important and with v►hich the interests of
numerous and influential classes of the community
are essentially interwoven. The records of criminal
trials furnish numberless instances in which the
lives of individuals have depended on the statement
of the toxicologist, whose infallibility could only be
guaranteed by the minutest accuracy in his operations,
and it is but too true that in many cases innocence
has been victimized, or the ends of justice otherwise
frustrated by inaccurate and unscientific manipu-
lation.

In its civil relations, however, the consequences of
error on the part of the commercial tester are scarcely
less important or detrimental, inasmuch as the fortunes
and reputation of individuals are placed at the mercy
of a soi disant chemist. My attention has been at-
tracted to this subject in consequence of the recent
trials for the supposed infraction of the laws regu-
lating the manufacture of tobacco, a question which
a leading metropolitan journal emphatically desig-
nates as affecting "the honour of Government, the
interests of trade, and the credit of science." Most
persons are aware that the manufacture of tobacco
is regulated by the Excise, and that a strict surveil-
lance is kept with a view to prevent adulteration.
One of the chief substances employed for this pur-
pose being sugar, the presence of the smallest quan-
tity of this article on the premises of the manufacturer
has been deemed sufficient ground for seizure. The
chemists to the Excise (men of hitherto unques-
tioned infallibility in this department) having posi-
tively stated that genuine tobacco contains no ap-
preciable quantity of sugar, the most trivial amount
thereof has teen accordingly regarded as a proof of
adulteration. On this hypothesis numerous convic-
tions have been obtained. In 1845, a Committee of
the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into
the operation of the tobacco duties. In reply to a
question from the Chairman (Mr. Hume) Professor
Graham and the other Excise chemists, Mr. G. and
R. Phillips declared that there was no appreciable
sugar in tobacco • and having further stated that the
only test employed was fermentation and the produc-
tion of alcohol, Mr. Hume remarked that " this was
a sorry account of chemistry." Mr. Hume was pro-
bably aware of the utter inadequacy of such a test,
and that the German chemists had long before din :-
vexed one, by means of which the hundredth-thoufs id
part of indigenous sugar may be readily detected in a
plant. The committee, in consequence, ordered an
investigation by other chemists, which soon led to
most important results. Pending this analytical in-
quiry, the Excise continued their prosecutions ; seizures
were made, and convictions obtained against large and
influential houses at Leeds, Norwich, and Devizes, all
on the evidence affbrded by the Excise chemists. In
the mean time the chemists employed by the

House of Commons' Committee published the results
of their investigations, which were made on samples
of leaf tobacco procured from different casks of leaf
tobacco in the Queen's warehouse, at the London
Docks. They, one and all, ascertained the presence
of fermentable sugar, both in different hogsheads and
in different samples taken from the same hogshead.
Such was the utter discomfiture of the Excise chemists;
but already a vast amount of mischief had been done,
and some of the first houses in the trade had been un-
justly fined on a false assumption. The question then
may naturally be asked—Will the Government com-
pensate those firms for the injury sustained ? and if
they do not feel themselves called on to perform
an act of retrospective justice (of which,
doubtless, they have no intention), will they
at least guard against prospective evil, by
appointing men possessing adequate scientific
acquirements ? It is well known to those
acquainted with the state of science in this

country that organic chemistry is comparatively in
its infancy, white in the chemical schools of the con-
tinent investigations of this nature are commenced by
students of the first year. My memory especially
recals to me this fact in the case of the Royal Labo-
ratory at Munich, so far back as 1839, over which
Professor Vogel, the elder, then presided. It is
further well known that all the more recent dis-
coveries, with very few exceptions, have originated in
either France or Germany.. There is at the present
moment, wasting his energies in an obscure town in
a petty principality of the latter country, a man,
whose researches in this walk of science, accurate as
profound, and successful as they have, been accurate,
have gained for him immortal fame—Baron Liebig.
Would it not be to the interest of the Government to

. ._
employ the intellect of such a man in the fiscal de-

paitment of the country at some pecuniary sacrifice ?
Or, if the national prejudice would be opposed to the
introduction of foreigners, are there not some native

,
professors who have acquired their knowledge of this
seience according to the accurate system of investi-
gation pursued in the German laboratories ? Amongst
others, I may select Sir Robert Kane, Drs. Blyth and
Muspratt, and Sir Benjamin Brodie's son. The
antagonism so often exhibited in the opinions of
medical men has long since passed into a proverb,
proving, as it does, that :medicine is as yet a very
imperfect science. Let chemistry redeem itself from
a similar reproach, and instead of the conflicting

statements hitherto advanced in medico-legal inquiries,
let the uniformity of truth mark the results of
analysis. The accomplishment of such an object rests
mainly with the Government, by employing men
whose industry and science qualify them for the duties
they are called upon to discharge.
I have the honour to be, Sir, yours, &c.,
T. M. O'DWYER, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng.
31, Hope-street, Liverpool.

CHOLERA.-THE _DWELLINGS OF
THE LABOURING CLASSES.

The following requisition, signed by 287 bankers,
merchants, and traders, was left with the Lord Mayor,
at the Mansion-house, on Saturday :
" TO THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD MAYOR.
"My Lord,—The undersigned householders, mer-
chants, bankers, and traders of or belonging to the city
of London, beg to express to your Lordship how deeply
they feel impressed with a sense of awe at the frightful
ravages of cholera in this metropolis.
" Whilst the undersigned are anxious to declare their
recognition of the hand of the Almighty in the visitation
with which Ile has deemed it expedient to OH ct the
metropolis and the entire nation, they feel deeply grate-
ful, through His infinite goodness and mercy, that the
pestilence, which has been so fatal among the poorer
classes, is now arrested in its direful career.

" The undersigned cannot but regard this visitation
as a warning of their long neglected duty towards their
humble fellow-creatures, and earnestly beseech of your
Lordship to cause a public meeting to be convened at the
Guildhall, or any other fitting edifice, in order that the
undersigned may give utterance to their gratitude for
the mercy which has been shown them in the depth of
their tribulation; at the same time to devise such mea-
sures as will improve the dwellings of the labouring
classes, whereby they shall be better enabled to resist,
is future, the ravages of sickness and disease—to be-
come a healthful, happy, and orderly people, and b©
surrounded by influences favourable to Inor '•
aaty and
religion."

BRITANNIA TUBULAR BRIDGE..—.Fast NN •
eek we
informed our readers of the progress of the lifting opera-
tions, which have since been favourable carried on at the
rate of six feet per twelve hours,
houras,vewhen the hydraulic
presses are worked—and
there remains only about twelve feet bueofworetothest
tub
be that
e will
have reached its permanent
elevation. With respect to
the floating of tube No. 2, which cannot to all appear-
ances be far distant, we have no
will interest our readers to kno‘lv)°stilitiaTte oanccoSualattus.rdalyt
morning lust the steamer Fairy, on her passage from
Beaumaris to Carnarvon, sailed'
under the t übe Mr.
Stephenson, Mr. Forster, the Messrs. Clark, and the
other principal managers, with a great number of work-
men, who stood on the top of the tube, greeted the
Fairy with three most hearty cheers, as she glided be-
neath—the first vessel to pass under the stupendous
structure. The passengers and crew returned the com-
pliment, and fired a salute. At two o'clock in the
afternoon she took the same course, on her return from
Carnarvon to Beaumaris, when a gun was fired from off
the tube—which was acknowledged on board by the
lowering of the flags, &c. The Fairy's mast-head is
about fifty-eight feet above the level of the water, and
at the time she passed under the tube, which had then
been lifted about 98 feet, there was nearly 40 feet to
spare. The passengers on the occasion were numerous,
comprising several distinguished strangers now t,ta3ing
at Carnarvon, Bangor, and Beaumaris.—Carnarvon and
Denbigh Herald, Oct. 13.

DEATH OF THE REY. WILLIAM AULD, GREENOCK.
—This venerable minister died on Tuesday night, a few
hours after Mr. Morton, his assistant and successor, was
ordained to the co-pastorate with hiw.—Caledonian
Morcury.

s"..assing througb London. At the same time, in all tb
country post offices, Sunday work is to be diminished'
There are some persons who wish to bring on the
question of closing every post-office in England
on Sundays, but this species of tyranny is not
likely to find much favour. Several gentlemen
of the Congregational Union at Sheffield protested
against it. Mr. Bevan, the rich banker, refers those
who would be aggrieved to the electric telegraph, rs
if it were an easy thing for a poor man to pay IN.
00 16s. for a message. Lord John Russell, at the
interview with the deputation which waited upon him
on Thursday, rebuked Mr. Bevan for his inconside-
rateness. The report of this interview will probably
tend to calm the fears of those who imagined that
very different measures were in contemplation.