If beer is defined as a product made from barley, malt, and hops with the aid of water and heat, it follows that all beers that are not of this composition are to that extent adulterated. Personally I am strongly persuaded that the term "beer" without qualification should be applied to a product made solely from malt and hops. In practice in this country the term "beer" has a wide application, though in no case, do I believe, is it ever used where at least a small quantity of barley malt is not employed, unless indeed a qualifying term is used. Beer may be made of other l By Act of Congress, approved Nov. 21, 1918, the sale of any alcoholic beverage is prohibited after June 30, 1919.

cereals altogether, and wheat beer is quite a common product in some parts of Europe, especially in Germany. Wheat beer may be made in this country, but it has not been brought to my notice.

Materials Used by Brewers in the Production of Fermented

Liquors in the United States, Years Ending

June 30, 1915 and 1916

(Compiled by the Bureau of Crop Estimates, U. S. Department of Agriculture from records of the Office of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department)

(a) "Other materials"in 1915 include 159,855 bushels of barley, 333,030 bushels of maizone, and smaller quantities of meal, frumentum, malt extract, salt, moss, isinglass, etc. " Other materials " in 1916 include about the same list of commodities, but amount in all to a relatively small total.

(b) The various reported units were reduced to pounds by the following equivalent 1 bushel of malt =34 pounds, 1 bushel of corn, cerealine, maizone, or grits = 56 pounds, 1 gallon of glucose or of "other materials" =8 pounds, 1 bushel of barley =48 pounds, 1 bushel of miscellaneous materials =40 pounds.

It is difficult to get accurate data in regard to the materials used in the manufacture of beer in the United States because the law forbids the data to be published. The table published above gives the only official data obtainable.

The principal adulterations of beer from the standard above given are the admixture of malt substitutes. These have already been enumerated. In earlier times hops also had a substitute to a certain extent in beer manufacture in the use of other bitter principles, such as quassia, but this practice I believe has entirely disappeared. According to the taste of connoisseurs the quality of a beer begins to deteriorate the very moment any part of the barley malt, which should be sole source of the alcohol, is substituted by any other product. The substitution least objectionable is that of unmalted barley; after that, unmalted hominy grits and rice. The most objectionable substitutes are the brewers' sugars.

Preservatives are rarely used at the present time in beer. In some imported beers is found more or less bisulphite of lime as a preservative, but this is not used to any extent, as far as I know, by domestic manufacturers. The use of sulphurous acid or sulphites is permitted by the Department of Agriculture, although my own investigations showed without question that these products were markedly injurious to the health of strong young men. The matter of the harmfulness of the fumes of burning sulphur and its compounds was appealed from my decision to that of a Referee Board of Consulting Scientific Experts. This Board of eminent chemists had this matter under consideration for a long while and I have been told that a report on the subject has been submitted. This report has never been published, nor has its contents ever been disclosed. The bad effects of sulphur dioxid as experimentally determined on 12 healthy young men are described in my report, Bulletin 84, Part III, of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, pages 761 to 1041. The decision I made was revoked in 1908 and at this date 1918, no intimation has been given by the persons who administer the laws that correction of this travesty of justice will ever be made. Meanwhile manufacturers who wish to use the fumes of burning sulphur in this food product, either directly or in combination in the form of sulphites, are permitted to do so without restriction. While imported beers, especially those from England, carry small quantities of sulphites, they were not usually present in imports from Germany prior to their discontinuance due to war. Our own domestic beers, as a rule, are free from sulphites. The beer which is packed in bottles, which forms quite a considerable part of the trade, is pasteurized and thus preserved, if kept in a cool place, for many weeks and even months without deterioration, though sooner or later a secondary fermentation takes place which spoils the flavor and character of the beer.