The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-08-22

sages-How to Detect BOric Acid in
 Meat Products.
 It is a matter of common informa- tion that oIeomagarine is sometimes substituted for butter and that rancid and badly made butter is frequently melted, washed with soda and churned with milk for the preparation of reno- vated or process butter.
 Methods are available which, with a little practice, may be employed to dis tinguish between fresh butter, renovat- ed of process butter and oleomargarine. The spoon" test has been suggested as a huosehold test and is commonly used by analytical chemists for distin- gushing fresh butter from renovated 1 butter or oleomargarine. A ump or 1 butter two or three times the s.ze pea is placed in a large spoon and it is then heated over an alcohol burner. If more convenient, the spoon may be i held above the chimney of an ordinary kerosene lamp, or it may even be held over an ordinary Illuminating gas l puI II k4lC 0c1llApS AAA ANNSNAS"A fresh butter it will boil quietly with | the evolution of a large number of small bubbles throughout the mass 1 which produce large amount of foam. | Oleomargarine and process butter, on the other hand, sputter and crackle, making a noise similar to that heard when a green stick is placed in a fire. Another point of distinction is noted | if small portion of the sample is placed in a small bottle and set in a vessel of water sufficiently warm to melt the sample. The sample is kept melted from half an hour to an hour | when it is examined. If renovated but ter of oleomargarine, the fat will be \ turbid, while if genuine fresh butter the fat will almost certainly clear.
 To manipulate what is known as the | Warehouse, or milk, test about two ounces of sweet milk is placed in a wide mouthed bottle, which is set in a vessel of boiling water. When the milk is thoroughly heated a teaspoon 1 full of butter is added and the mixture stirred with splinter of wood until the fat is melted. The bottle is then | placed in a dish of ice water and the stirring continued until the fat solidi- fies Now, if the sample be butter, either fresh or renovated, it will be | solidiffed in a granular condition and | distributed through the milk in small | particles. If, on the other hand, the sample consists of oleomargarine it so- | lidifies in one piece and may be | e,f; 41,oh 1 Many persons believe that the great mass of the fresh meat sold on the market is preserved chemically. This impression is entirely unfounded. The cold storage facilities of tn prsnt day make the use of conservatives with fresh meat unnecessary, and the larger | packing houses do not employ them. It sometimes happens that local butch CTS sprinkle conservatives over a cut of meat in order that they may keep it exposed on the block or hanging in a show window as an advertisement. The use of chemical conservatives with fresh meat is confined to this practice alone.
 Preservatives are very commonly used with chopped meats and sausages, especially fresh sausage. They are all ways employed with canned Vienna and Frankfurter sausages inclosed in casing with the ends tied. Where the ends are cut presrvatives may be ab- sent. The reason for this is that the temperature required for the complete sterilization of sausages will either burst or distort the skins when the ends are tied, whereas sausages with cut ends afford an opportunity for the escape of the water and steam.
 1 With many varieties Of sausages both fresh and smoked, and with chop ped meats of all descriptions, coloring matter Is sometimes employed. This is done partly for the purpose of satisfy ing an unnatural demand for a high colored article and partly sometimes to conceal the grayisn color characteristic of old meat, which should not be used at all.
 The preservatives employed with meat products are boric acid, borax and sulphites. To detect boric acid about 8 tablespoonful of the chopped meat is thoroughly macerated with a little water, pressed through bag and two or three tablesspoonfuls of the liquid placed in a sauce dish with fifteen or twenty drops of strong hydrochloric acid for each spoonful. The liquod is then filtered through filter paper and a piece of tumerie paper dipped into il and dried near a lamp or stove. If boric acid or borax were used for pre- serving the sample the tumeric paper should be changed to a bright Sherry fred color. If too much hydrochloric acid has been employed a dirty brown. ish red color is obtained, which inter- feres with the color due to the pre- sence of borie acid. Now, if a drop of household ammonia be added to the colored tumeric paper and 1t turns a dark green, almost black color, then boric acid is present. If the reddish color, however, was caused by the use of too much hydrochioric acid, this green color does not form.
 CAPER AND INTELLIGENCE OF
 THE CROW.
 By this title to an article in a re. Ecent issue by Charles Hallock, I am reminded of many of the doings of tome crows that have known.
 I wonder how many know that by getting a young crow, before 1t is able
 to fly, and by patience and persever. ance for few days, or perhaps weeks