(_b_) A second portion is treated with a solution of cupric-ammonium sulphate; if picric acid be present, minute greenish crystals of cupric-ammonium picrate will be formed. (_c_) To a third portion, a little ammonium sulphide, containing free ammonium hydroxide, is added; in presence of picric acid, picramic acid is produced, the formation of which is accelerated by the application of heat, and is made evident by the appearance of an intensely red colour. The detection of _cocculus indicus_, or its poisonous alkaloid, _picrotoxine_, may be effected by first agitating the beer with plumbic acetate, filtering, removing the lead from the filtrate by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, and again filtering. The filtrate is first boiled, then carefully evaporated until it possesses a thickish consistency, when it is shaken up with animal charcoal, which is afterwards brought upon a filter, washed with a very little cold water, and dried at 100°. The picrotoxine possibly present is then extracted from the animal charcoal by boiling it with strong alcohol, from which the alkaloid separates on evaporating the solution, either in quadrilateral prisms or in feathery tufts. Again reverting to beer adulteration, Prof. H. B. Cornwall has lately made an interesting report in this regard.[82] Several years ago, in reply to a circular issued by the “Business Men’s Moderation Society of New York City,” the “Association of United Lager Beer Brewers” asserted that the only substitutes for barley malt employed were corn starch, corn meal, rice, glucose, and grape sugar, no artificial bitters being used. The addition of glucose and grape sugar, the association stated, was not necessarily on account of economy, but had for its object an increase in the strength of the wort, without resorting to concentration and the production of beer of desirable flavour and colour. Rüdlinger[83] denies that beer is subjected to injurious adulteration in Germany. He states substantially as follows: “Cases of sickness, frequently claimed to be caused by the beer, are due either to excess or to the consumption of the new and incompletely fermented beverage. It has been affirmed that brewers often economise in hops by the use of other and deleterious bitters, and that picric acid and strychnine have been employed for this purpose. Nonsense, once written, is frequently copied by hundreds, and in this way circulates among the masses. The maximum amount of hops used in beer is really inconsiderable, and, there exists no necessity for resorting to foreign substitutes, even in seasons when the price of hops is abnormally high, since the proportion of this ingredient could be slightly decreased without incurring the danger of detection which would follow the use of artificial bitters.” On the other hand, it is certain that, _in past years_, such injurious additions as cocculus indicus, picric acid, aloes, etc., have actually been discovered by chemists of high standing