walls and allowed to circulate very imperfectly. Yet the condition of our social life almost requires this, and few reflect how much they are doing to impair their vigor and shorten their lives when they meet in halls or salons for mutual enjoyment and social intercourse. This, however, is a circumstance which the influence of those who are appointed to watch over the public health might do much to modify. But what power can reach the unscrupulous manufacturer of bread, liquors, tea, coffee, mustard, pickles, preserves, confections, &c., &c.? Ever since Accum wrote his now almost forgotten book "There's Death in the Pot" the public have been aware that the most fraudulent practices are resorted to by manufacturers to deteriorate the quality of their respective wares and so swell their ill-gotten gains. Some years ago a commission was appointed in London to report on the adulterations practised, and the result is truly astounding. It shows that there is scarcely an article we consume which does not contain some poisonous admixture. In Paris the same task was undertaken by M. Chevallier and with the same result. In vain will writers on hygiene demonstrate the necessity of employing certain articles of diet to the exclusion of others when the shops offer for sale this same article envenomed with a ranker poison than the most unhygienic or indigestible trash.

If coffee contained nothing but a little infusion of chicory we should have no reason to complain; but when we find this chicory adulterated with the most disgusting ingredients, we almost feel that the fragrance of our Mocha comes to us laden with poison. Roasted wheat, ground acorns, roasted carrots, scorched beans, roasted parsnips, mangold-wurzel, lupin seeds, red earth, roasted horsechestnuts,and, horribile dictu, baked horses' and bullocks' livers -these are, as we are informed by competent authorities, the ingredients which have been detected in different samples of coffee. "In various parts of London," says Mr. P. G. Simmonds, in a work entitled 'Coffee as it is and as it Ought to be,' "but more especially in the east, are to be found 'liver bakers.' These men take the livers of oxen and horses, bakę them, and grind them into a powder which they sell to the low-priced coffee-shop keepers at from 4d. to 6d. per pound, horses' liver coffee being the highest priced. It may be known by allowing the coffee to stand until cold, when a thick pellicle, or skin, would be found on the top. It goes farther than coffee and is generally mixed with chicory and other vegetable imitations of coffee."

We give this as a specimen of the nefarious practices in vogue, though we might fill a volume with half the facts. Tea is a still more common article of consumption than coffee, and so the devices by which substitutions and falsifications are procured are more numerous and ingenious. Of fifty samples of green tea analyzed by Dr. Hassall, all were adulterated. He found in all sand, tea-dust, broken-down portions of other leaves, black-lead, Prussian blue, turmeric, and French chalk. Of this tea about 750,000 pounds are annually imported.

Bakers' bread is the fruitful source of dyspepsia, owing to the astringent properties of the alum, which it contains in excessive quantity. The alum absorbs water freely, and the weight of the bread is thereby much increased. Anyone acquainted with the action of alum on the coats of the stomach will comprehend the pernicious effects which are likely to follow from the ingestion of bread impregnated with this substance. If the truth were known, many cases of chronic dyspepsia might be attributed to this cause.

But it is in pickles and preserves especially that these adulterations have assumed a truly alarming shape. The brightly tinted green of pickled fruits is the result of the free use of verdigris or sulphate of copper, ten grains of which suffice to produce the most violent emesis. This Dr. Hassall proved to the entire satisfaction of those who have looked over the pages of his books. Indeed, anyone may test the matter for himself by taking a bright knitting-needle and allowing it to rest for a short time in the vinegar, and on withdrawing it he will find it coated with a layer of verdigris, thick or thin, according to the amount of the metal present.

Sugar is no freer from the manipulations of unconscientious dealers, and we will briefly give the analysis of some specimens tested by ourselves. Brown sugar contains a very appreciable quantity of wheat flour, slighty embrowned by fire; and, under the microscope, miriads of sugar insects were seen to crowd the field of view. White sugar is clarified by means of the albumen of bullock's blood, and though in the process of manufacture this substance may be closely incorporated with the sugar, it is easily separated by chemical means.

We do no more here than merely advert to a subject which it would require a volume to exhaust, and this for the purpose of showing the many difficulties which on every side beset the efforts of those who wish to rescue the remote and immediate preparation of food from the hands of ignorant em

pirics and bring it within the domain of science. If this desirable consummation be reached the world will have reason to congratulate itself, and those who would asperse the character of a science which labors for the good of the race will disappear from the army of croakers who are ever ready to predict discomfiture to those who undertake beneficial reforms.

ART. V.-1. Geschichte der Magyaren (History of the Magyars). Von JOHANN GRAFEN MAILATH. 5 vols. Wien.

2. Handbuch der Ungar-Poesie (Handbook of Hungarian Poetry). FENIERYET TOLDY. 2 vols. Pesth.

3. Dissertatio de origine Hungrorum (Dissertation on the Origin of the Hungarians). FISHER.

4. Poetry of the Magyars, preceded by a Commentary on the Language and Literature of Hungury and Transylvania. By JOHN BOWRING. London.

5. Essai historique sur l'origine des Hongrois. Par AUGUSTE DE GERANDO. Paris.

6. A' Magyar Literatura esmérete (Knowledge of the Magyar Literature). IRTA PAPAY SAMUEL. Westprim.

7. Analytica Institutiones Linguæ Hungarica. Budæ.

THE results already accomplished by the recent war between Austria and Prussia are more important than either of the belligerents themselves had anticipated. Prussia was both confident and sanguine, but she admits herself that she has gained much more than she had expected. Austria saw no reason why she should fear Prussia; she thought it possible, indeed, that a portion of her army might not prove faithful in the hour of peril; but she did not regard it as probable in view of certain concessions she had lately made. But she had not fought many battles when she was undeceived on this point, and heuce her readiness not only to accede to the most important demands of Prussia, but also to surrender all she had left of Italy.

It was natural enough that Prussia should claim all the honor for herself; it was due, she said, to her needle-gun and to the superior discipline of her troops. Austria thought it as prudent not to dispute the point; and, accordingly, such has been the explanation generally adopted both in Europe and America. It is not the true one, however. As the excitement of the war is passing away and the statis

tics are bringing the real facts to light it is found that Hungary has had much more to do with the humiliation of Austria than the needle-gun or any superiority on the part of the Prussian troops. For obvious reasons both the belligerents would rather conceal this. Be it remembered that Prussia retains a considerable portion of Poland; she has now parts of other nationalities under her control; and it is clearly not her interest to point out even to the most thoughtless of them what a severe blow they could inflict on her when she was most in need of their aid.

Thus it is that we hear so little either from the Austrians or the Prussians of the course pursued by the Hungarian contingent in all the principal battles. But the occurrences which took place were far too important to be concealed. The reporters of the press might be deceived easily enough as to the result of two or three battles; but there were French, English, and Belgian officers in both armies. These agree almost unanimously in the statement that whole regiments of Hungarians were captured without making any serious effort to defend themselves or their colors; and their testimony is fully confirmed by the official reports on both sides.

As an illustration of this we need only mention that in instances in which the loss of Austria was estimated at from 50,000 to 60,000 in killed, wounded, and missing, a little investigation showed that the missing amounted to more than half the entire number, and that four-fifths of this half were Hungarians. The question is not now whether or not it was right or wrong on the part of the Magyars to desert in this way; suffice it to remark, in passing, that if they voluntarily entered the service of Austria and swore without any compulsion or coercion that they would faithfully aid her against her enemies, no political motives could justify them in acting in the manner indicated. It is but justice to the Magyars, however, to say that, far from volunteering into the Austrian service, three-fourths of them were conscripted; even those who enlisted voluntarily were induced to do so because they were poor and needed what they were offered for their services. There is yet another fact which must not be forgotten. When the Magyars were overpowered and crushed in 1849, they solemnly declared before the world that they would avenge themselves at another time, and do so perhaps before they were entirely in a condition to establish their independence. Further than this we have to

do only with the fact, whether the Magyars deserted in large numbers from the Austrian army; it is estimated that not fewer than 75,000 thus withdrew, in one form or other, when they were most needed, and it is understood that in several instances they did far more mischief than their mere retirement would have caused.

This conduct on the part of the Hungarians and its effect on Austria teach valuable lessons. Russia and England as well as Austria and Prussia may learn from them that irreparable injury may be inflicted upon them, by those on whom they force their yoke, without any insurrection. All know that Hungary has seldom been more "tranquil" than it was during the late war; but it is not the less true that in the midst of this tranquillity she has inflicted a more severe blow on Austria than she did when in open and successful rebellion, threatening to capture Vienna and forcing the Emperor to retire to a place where his person might be more secure.

We do not take up the subject now, however, on account of the moral influence of the Austro-Prussian war on the different Powers mentioned; we do so because the results of that war have revived the hopes and brightened the prospects of the Magyars, and at the same time revived the interest which for various reasons every intelligent person must ever feel in the destinies of that brave and spirited people. If it be urged that the Magyars are not likely to have such an opportunity of securing their independence again for a quarter of a century as they had in 1849, when they were able to bring into the field one of the finest armies that Europe could produce, we think it is a sufficient reply that although Austria was much stronger then than she is now she found herself utterly unable to suppress the rebellion, and that if it was suppressed finally it was only with the aid of a large Russian army. Even with the assistance of the latter she would have found it a difficult task to subdue the Magyars had they not been betrayed by some of their own generals

The object of the present article, however, is not to discuss the political condition or history of the Magyars; this we have done on a former occasion.* What we chiefly propose to ourselves now is to show that the Magyars have stronger claims on our sympathy and esteem than their being an oppressed people celebrated for their valor and other noble qualities. There are but few, especially in this country, who are aware that they possess an interesting and copious literature as well as a rich and peculiar language.

*See Nat. Q. Rev. for Sept., 1860, art. Hungary Past and Present.