though it had just been plucked from the branch. Out of the many cases of all kinds of provisions opened and examined by Dr. Hassall, scarcely any have been found to be bad. When we remember that the graves of so many of our soldiers in the Crimea may be justly inscribed, "Died of salt pork," we cannot forbear to call attention to a neglected means of feeding our troops with good and nutritious food, instead of with the tough fibre called meat, from which half the blood-making qualities have been extracted by the process of boiling, whilst the remaining half is rendered indigestible by the action of salt, and poisonous by the extraction of one of its most important constituents. It would seem as if we were living in the days of Anson, who lost 626 men of scurvy, out of a crew of 961, before he could reach the island of Juan Fernandez, or of the still later cruise of Sir C. Hardy, who sent 3,500 to hospital with this fatal disease, after a six weeks' sail with the Channel fleet. It may be urged that the sailors in the late war did not sicken on salt pork; but while they had the necessary amount of potass, which the stomach requires to make blood, in the lime-juice served out to them, our troops were without this indispensable accompaniment, and consequently died. In the preserved meats, which are made up with potatoes and other vegetables, the needful potass exists, and such food may be purchased as cheaply as the pernicious salt junk which is patronized by the Government. Bread, the great blood-producer, claims particular attention. It often surprises persons who walk about the metropolis to find that prices vary according to the locality; thus the loaf that costs in the Borough or the New Cut 7_d._ a quartern, is 10-1/2_d._ at the West End. Can plate-glass windows and rent cause all this difference? Certainly not. We are glad, however, to find that many of the adulterations mentioned by our older writers have vanished with free trade. Prince and Accum mention plaster of Paris, bone-dust, the meal of other cereal grains, white clay, alum, sulphate of copper, potatoes, &c. All of these sophistications have disappeared, with the exception of potatoes, which are occasionally employed when the difference between their value and that of flour makes it worth while for the baker or miller to introduce them. When we see a loaf marked under the market price, we may rest assured that it is made of flour ground from inferior and damaged wheat. In order to bring this up to the required colour, and to destroy the sour taste which often belongs to it, bakers are in the habit of introducing a mixture called in the trade "hards" and "stuff," which is nothing more than alum and salt, kept prepared in large quantities by the druggists. The quantity of alum necessary to render bread white is certainly not great--Mitchell found that it ranged from 116 grains to 34-1/2 grains in the four-pound loaf; but the great advantage the baker derives from it, in addition to