stomach, especially in persons of weak constitution." Liebig condemns the use of alum in bread-making on this ground among others, that it combines with the soluble phosphates, forming insoluble salts, and thus the phosphorus of the grain is lost to the system. Dr. Mott's paper exhibits as follows the results of the analysis of four brands of baking-powder:
DOOLEY'S STANDARD BAKING-POWDER.
| Burnt alum | 26·45 | per cent. |
| Bicarbonate of soda | 24·17 | "" |
| Sesquicarbonate of ammonia | 2·31 | "" |
| Cream of tartar | None | |
| Starch | 47·07 | "" |
| 100·00 |
PATAPSCO BAKING-POWDER.
| Burnt alum | 20·03 | percent. |
| Bicarbonate of soda | 22·80 | "" |
| Cream of tartar | None | |
| Starch | 57·17 | "" |
| 100·00 |
CHARM BAKING-POWDER.
| Burnt alum | 30·06 | per cent. |
| Bicarbonate of soda | 31·82 | "" |
| Cream of tartar | None | |
| Starch | 38·12 | "" |
| 100·00 |
BAKING-POWDER MANUFACTURED BY C. E. ANDREWS & CO., MILWAUKEE, WIS.
| Burnt alum | 22·53 | per cent. |
| Bicarbonate of soda | 21·79 | "" |
| Cream of tartar | None | |
| Starch | 55·68 | "" |
| 100·00 |
Adulteration of Food and Drugs.—Some astounding facts with regard to the adulteration of articles of food and medicine are brought together by the "Medical and Surgical Reporter,"' being taken from various medical and pharmaceutical periodicals. Thus we are told that in New England several mills are engaged in grinding white stone into powder for purposes of adulteration, three grades of powder being ground at some of the mills, viz., a soda grade, a sugar grade, and a flour grade. A Boston chemist has found seventy-five per cent, of terra alba in a sample of cream-tartar; and most of our confectionery contains thirty-three per cent, or more of this substance. These and many other adulterations of materials used in the preparation of food have been pointed out in "The Sanitarian." The adulteration of drugs is practiced to such an extent that "in some localities a conscientious pharmacist is hardly able to earn a livelihood, owing to the mean and dishonest competition which surrounds him." "Salieine," writes a physician in a Louisville medical journal, "is heavily adulterated by mixing it with cinchonidia sulphate." Again, the editor of "The Pharmacist" sought in vain among the druggists of Chicago for black sulphuret of antimony. He obtained what purported to be that substance at seven wholesale drug-houses; but not a trace of antimony was to be found in any of the samples! Analysis showed it to be in most cases simply marble-dust blackened with soot.
Pinto's Trip across Southern Africa.—A telegram received at Lisbon, on March 11th, announced the arrival of Major Serpa Pinto on the eastern coast of Africa, after having traversed the continent from Benguela on the west coast. We take from "Das Ausland" the following account of Major Pinto's memorable journey: On November 12, 1877, he set out from Benguela, in Lower Guinea (about latitude 13° south), and on March 8, 1878, entered the negro kingdom of Bihé, where he had his first fight with the natives. He devoted himself particularly to the exploration of the upper and middle Zambesi, that grand stream which, lying some ten degrees of latitude south of the Congo, like that river traverses almost the entire breadth of the African Continent. If it is the purpose of Portugal to found in equatorial Africa another Brazil, the most accurate knowledge of the course of the Zambesi must be of the utmost importance to her. Portugal controls the coast on both sides, the western and the eastern, in equatorial South Africa, and, if she succeeds in establishing communication between these two coasts by means of the Zambesi, the new colonial empire would be a fact. This project is favored by the wealth of gold found in the lower Zambesi regions, and it is surely no mere accident that latterly the Government has been making large concessions to English and Portuguese companies. Incidentally Major Pinto appears to have revealed the mystery of the Cubango, a stream whose sources are not
