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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 h,ttp://www.archive.org/details/foodfraudssimpleOOthom 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FRAUDS. 
 
 SIMPLE METHODS OF DETECTING ADULTERA- 
 TIONS IN WHAT WE CONSUME. 
 
 ''Adulteration is a wide-spread evil, which has invaded every branch of 
 commerce; everything which can be mixed or adulterated or debased in any 
 way is debased "—Dr. NORMANDY. 
 
 COMPILED BY THOS. 0. THOMPSON, 
 
 PRICE 25 CENTS. 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 Russell & Thompson, 182 & 184 Dearborn St. 
 
 1882. 
 
FOOD FRAUDS. 
 
 SIMPLE METHODS OF DETECTING- ADULTERA- 
 TIONS IN WHAT -WE CONSUME. 
 
 "Adulteration Is a wide-spread evil, which has invaded every branch of 
 commerce ; everything which can be mixed or adulterated or debased in 
 any way is debased."— Dr. Normandy. 
 
 COMPILED BY THOS. O. THOMPSON. 
 
 PRICE! 35 CENTS. 
 
 
 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 Russell & Thompson, 182 and 184 Dearborn St. 
 
 1882 . 
 

 
 Copyright 1882, 
 By Russell & Thompson. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Our object in publishing this work is two-fold. First, to 
 benefit mankind, and, second, to make money. Allowing 
 five persons to each family, there are 10,000,000 families in 
 the United States, according to the last census: and if the 
 head of each buys a copy of this work, our object will most 
 assuredly have been fully accomplished. 
 
 It would be difficult to compute in how many of these 
 domestic circles there are sufferings arising from the con- 
 sumption of adulterated food, but if the number were known, 
 the figures would be startling. Dyspepsia and other dis- 
 orders of the stomach may be found in almost every family, 
 and people are being gradually poisoned by adulterations of 
 a very dangerous character. The worst feature of the case 
 is that people have only a very slight idea of the extent to 
 which their health is being impaired by food frauds. Bodily 
 disorders are almost invariabty attributed to other than the 
 right causes. If the truth were known, the derangements 
 are due and traceable to the poisonous stuffs that are mixed 
 with the food we eat and the liquids we consume. 
 
 Pure articles are produced, but they are like two grains 
 of wheat in a bushel of chaff — fgw and limited in comparison 
 with the multitudinous trash thrown upon the market. 
 
 This work is issued with a view of calling attention to 
 these adulterations and placing within the knowledge of 
 everybody simple, unscientific methods of determining 
 whether tne articles used in every household are pure as 
 represented by a seller. It is designed to arouse the atten- 
 tion of the public to the enormity of the practice of adultera- 
 tions, and enabling the learned, as well as the unlearned, to 
 ascertain at any time when they are not only being swindled, 
 but swallowing articles that are subtle and sure in their 
 poisonous character. The question is not only merely of 
 health, but also of commercial integrity. The purchaser 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 should have what he calls for. If he pays for coffee, for 
 instance, he should receive pure coffee for his money, and 
 not an article in which some foreign substance is almost the 
 leading ingredient. 
 
 In the presentation of the facts and methods of ascertain- 
 ing adulterations we claim no originality. Most of the 
 work is simply a compilation of facts from the most authen- 
 tic and reliable sources and its presentation in a condensed 
 and convenient form. The tests given are easy and simple, 
 and hereafter people need not be blindly mislead in their 
 purchases. 
 
 To know a swindle is to avoid it. 'To avoid a swindle is 
 to annihilate it, and to annihilate a swindle in the form of 
 food adulterations is to annihilate disease and premature 
 death. 
 
 THOMAS O. THOMPSON. 
 
 Chicago, 111,, January, 1882. 
 
SUGAR. 
 
 IT SWEETENS LIFE, BUT DOES NOT REMOVE ITS ASPERITIES. 
 
 Sugar is an article found in every household. So ex- 
 tensive is its use that it may be said to be one of prime 
 necessity and wisely considered out of the category of lux- 
 uries as tea and coffee. It is estimated by that distinguished 
 economist, David A. Wells, that the present (1881) an- 
 nual production of the world is 5,500,000 tons. Of this 
 amount, the United States and Great Britain together con- 
 sume one-third. The United States produce a large quantity, 
 but still it is obliged to import every year large amounts, 
 the extent of which may be judged from the statement that 
 the value of our sugar importations in 1880 was $79,153,000. 
 Great Britain produces no sugar, and in 1878 her importa- 
 tions amounted to $101, 234, 000. Where so large quantities 
 are consumed, the temptations for adulterations and ex- 
 cessive profits are strong, and importers as well as dealers 
 seem to vie with each other in foisting upon the market a 
 spurious article. The competition in this line has been so 
 strong that the producers and shippers in foreign climes 
 have resorted to tricks in order to take advantage of the 
 market, and imposed upon our government in running into 
 this market sugars falsely colored to evade the high tariff 
 rates. In the inspection of sugar, color is the legal test, and 
 yet in Cuba and Demarara methods have been devised for so 
 coloring the high grade sugars as to practically get them 
 here under a very small duty. 
 
 The adulterations that are most commonly known are 
 with glucose, starch, sand, chalk or whiting, bone-dust, 
 potato sugar, gum, dextrin, finely-powdered marble and 
 common salt. These various articles are quite cheap, and 
 used more or less extensively according to the greed of the 
 seller. Weight is a great desideratum where fraud is 
 
6 SITUAR. 
 
 practiced, and so the heaviest material is most generally 
 used with the mixture. If large-grained sugars were pro- 
 duced altogether, the perpetration of fraud would be exceed- 
 ingly difficult. The detection could then be easily made by the 
 consumer, but the small-grained sugars are mostly produced, 
 and they mix easily with the glucose and other spurious sub- 
 stances. "A large-grained sugar on the other hand is a most 
 refractory material for these little manipulations; its crys- 
 tals, no matter how mingled with contaminating agents, 
 never ceasing to manifest their native brilliancy, and thus 
 proclaiming the fraud. It is the most easy, then, to under- 
 stand why the grocer, as a rule, does not encourage these 
 large-grained sugars . He cannot 'handle' them, and there- 
 fore brands them with fault. He says they are deficient in 
 saccharine matter — that they will not sweeten. 11 
 
 'Handling 1 consists not only in mixing with sugar the 
 foreign bodies already named, but in mixing together in va- 
 rious proportions, "sugar of different qualities and prices- 
 as moist sugars with dry ones, very brown sugars with those 
 of light color — the resulting article presenting a tolerable 
 appearance to the eye, but being rarely what it professes to 
 be — real Jamaica or Demerara sugar. 11 
 
 Raw sugar should never be used. Its impurities consist 
 of live animalculse, sporules of fungus, grit, woody fiber, 
 etc., and hence the brown sugars of commerce are in a state 
 wholly unfit for consumption — organic and inorganic filth 
 abounding in them. In some samples, there have been 
 found no less than 40,000 living insects per pound! 
 
 The chemist of the city of Chicago, Dr. Paton, recently 
 examined thirty samples of various brands of cane sugar 
 and found in some of them starch sugar, which he declares 
 decidedly objectionable owing to its purgative action, gum, 
 dextrin, marble, sand, and traces of salt; but in a number of 
 the specimens not such an amount of impurities as to render 
 the use of the sugars very dangerous. He declares, how- 
 ever, that he has "distinct objection against the use of 
 brown sugars. 11 In one sample he found a trace of poison- 
 ous copper, but its presence he attributed to the pan in 
 
SUGAR. 
 
 which it was manufactured. As to brown sugar of the in- 
 ferior sort all chemists agree. They would, banish them 
 from the market These sugars contain substances that are 
 not only disgusting to the feelings of those who know their 
 ingredients, but very injurious to the health when consumed. 
 Cheap grades of purified sugar are being yearly more ex- 
 tensively introduced, and as soon as people are more gen- 
 erally posted the lower sorts will largely pass out of the 
 market. Sugar insects, which abound so largely in all these 
 lower forms of saccharine matter, should be banished from 
 the larder of every household that values health. 
 
 Tests. — To determine the impurities in sugar is a simple 
 one. Of course the component parts can only be detected 
 by chemical processes. If foreign substances be present, 
 dissolve the §ugar in water. All the substances named, 
 except gum and salt, are insoluble; and hence, after allow- 
 ing a sufficient length of time for the sugar to thoroughly 
 dissolve, the foreign articles will subside to the bottom, and 
 can be easily detected with the eye. If there are no sedi- 
 ments, it can be taken for granted that there has been no 
 special "handling" of the sugar. If it be desired to know 
 if gum be present, proceed as follows: "Five grammes of 
 the sugar must be dissolved in boiling spirits of wine. The 
 greater part of the gum will remain undissolved and may be 
 identified by its general character of stickiness. 11 
 
TEA. 
 
 "THE CUP THAT CHEERS, BUT DOES NOT INEBRIATE." 
 
 Tea has properly been classed among the luxuries. It is 
 in no sense a necessity, except at ladies' gatherings, or as 
 habit may have made its us© second nature, as a pleasant 
 and harmless stimulant. Only the best qualities are to be 
 found on the tables of the rich and prosperous. The hum- 
 ble dwellings of the poor rarely contain it, unless it be the 
 lower and almost valuless grades. 
 
 It is an article foreign to our soil, and once ranked among 
 the dutiable articles of commerce. The duty imposed prac- 
 tically inhibited the use of it among the poorer classes. If 
 they ever sipped of the tea infusion, they drank simply a de- 
 coction of exhausted tea leaves or foreign leaves mixed with 
 "lie-tea.' 1 
 
 Some years ago, a cargo of tea was recovered from the 
 ocean, after it had lain for a long period, and after being 
 duly "doctored" bv experts it was placed upon the market in 
 Chicago. Its value was almost nil, but it was sold at a low 
 but still a very profitable figure, and taken almost entirely 
 by poor people. One lot was sold to a contractor, and he in 
 turn proceeded to sell it, to the county at the rate of $1.25 
 per pound! 
 
 Genuine, finely flavored tea is too expensive for general 
 consumption. Even then, where the "best" quality is se- 
 cured, there is no assurance that it is the best tea produced. 
 A story is told at Washington that the Chinese minister, 
 with his interpeter, called at the house of the Secretary of 
 State, when the latter' s daughter offered him a cup of tea. The 
 minister drank the tea and remarked very coolly: "It is of 
 medium quality; I will send you some that is really fine." 
 The next day she received, with his compliments, two pret- 
 ty boxes of tea and a pair of vases of exquisitely carved 
 white wood. The diplomat afterwa»d explained that only 
 
TEA. 9 
 
 the Chinese grandees get the best quality of tea. Foreign- 
 ers niay pay what they choose, but they cannot get anything 
 above second grade. 
 
 Of this fact no stronger proof need be given than that of 
 the total value of tea importations in 1880, which amounted 
 to $18,917,705, a very large portion was from the average 
 crop. Hence the desire of dealers not only to produce a 
 spurious article for the lower as well as the upper classes, 
 but so produce the mixture as to realize handsome profits. 
 Their wants, to a certain extent, are met by the ingenious de- 
 vices of the Chinese and Japanese. They ship various kinds, 
 as may be desired, but what they have failed to adulterate, 
 the dealers here "doctor,' 1 to meet requirements in business. 
 They know that only connosseurs can detect the fraud, and 
 between tricksters in the Orient and sharpers in the Occident, 
 the general consumer of tea falls an easy victim. The ex- 
 periment of Le Due, in South Carolina, was in the direction 
 of cheapening eventually the plant to the people, and sup- 
 plying a pure article, but, after a large and reckless expense 
 to the government, he succeeded in fully demonstrating that 
 tea cannot be successfully raised in America. 
 
 The teas known to commerce are black and green. The 
 former is grown upon the "slopes of hills and ledges of moun- 
 tains, while the latter is raised in manured soils. The dif- 
 ferent varieties are produced by processes in the prepara- 
 tion and roasting of the leaves and by methods of mixing 
 pure leaves with foreign leaves. The principal kinds of 
 pure black tea are Pekoe, which is the best quality, consisting 
 of the unexpanded leaves and buds, Congou, Souchong, 
 Caper and Bohea, the commonest description. The chief 
 varieties of green tea are Twankay, Hyson, Young Hyson, 
 Hyson Skin, Imperial and Gunpowder, which last corre- 
 sponds in black tea with Flowery Pekoe. 
 
 The adulterations of these teas are made with — 
 
 Foreign leaves, as those of ash, plum, sloe, beech, box, 
 elm, horse chestnut, plane, bastard plane, fancy oak, willow, 
 poplar, hawthorn and sycamore. 
 
 Lie-tea, which consists in part of dust of tea leaves in 
 
10 TEA. 
 
 some cases, but more frequently foreign leaves, sand, quartz 
 and magnetic oxide of iron, being made by means of a so- 
 lution of starch into little sizes in imitation of different kinds 
 of tea. 
 
 Mineral substances, chiefly sand, quartz, turmeric, mag- 
 netic oxide of iron, while china clay, soapstone, Prussian 
 blue, chromate of lead, carbonate of copper, sulphate of 
 iron to increase the astringency, and other mineral matter 
 are employed in artificial coloration or painting of teas 
 both black and green. 
 
 A traveler through China says: "The Chinese in the 
 neighborhood of Canton are able to prepare a tea which can 
 be colored and made up to imitate various qualities of green 
 tea;" and this and similar practices prevail not only in 
 China but also in this country. Green tea is extensively 
 manufactured from damaged black leaves. Twankay tea is 
 often mixed with false leaves, which are colored with indigo, 
 and calcined foliated gypsum. Instances are known where 
 persons have bsen employed to secure exhausted leaves of 
 the genuine at hotels, restaurants, boarding houses and other 
 places, and these leaves so obtained have been thoroughly 
 rinsed with a solution of gum and re-dried. After drying the 
 leaves were mixed— if for black tea, with rose pink and 
 black lead to face them. Of eighteen samples secured from 
 tea dealers in Chicago, the city chemist found that ash pre- 
 dominated in all, and there was noticeable the presence of 
 foreign, exhausted or re-dried tea leaves and mineral mat- 
 ters used for coloring. 
 
 Tests. — Chemical analysis only can best determine the 
 kinds of substances used in the adulterations. A simple 
 test, however, which will easily disclose the purity of the 
 tea, according to Dr. Hassall, of England, is to boil the tea 
 for some time, and then closely examine the leaves. If 
 foreign leaves be present, they easily separate and show by 
 their general nature their difference from the genuine. A 
 comparison with a true leaf will always reveal the foreign 
 one. If the leaves are exhausted ones, one can determine it 
 with the eye, by the fact that the fold or roll of leaves is less 
 
TEA. 11 
 
 regular and uniform than that of the unused tea, and many 
 flat pieces of leaves occur, the surfaces being often aggluti- 
 nated together. 
 
 Lie-tea will reveal itself by pouring upon the masses a lit- 
 tle boiling water, when, if they consist of leaves, they will 
 quickly unfold and expand, whereas, if of lie-tea, they will 
 break down and become disintegrated, leaving a dirty resi- 
 due in which minute particles of the tea-leaf are visible. If 
 it be mixed with quartz or sand and magnetic oxide of iron, 
 place one of the little masses between the teeth and it will 
 feel gritty, and if the finger be pressed upon them when ren- 
 dered soft by the action of hot water, the sand or other min- 
 eral matter will be at once felt. If iron be present, spread 
 the powder on paper and a magnet drawn across it will 
 bring the particles to the edge of the paper; or plunge the 
 magnet into the powdered tea and it will bring up the min- 
 eral particles. 
 
 To determine if the tea has been faced, a portion of it may 
 be washed with cold water, the washings being set aside for 
 a time, when the substances removed from the surface of the 
 leaves will gradually subside to the bottom of the glass. 
 
 If Prussian blue has been used for coloring, it may be 
 recognized under the microscope by the angular form of the 
 fragments, their brilliant and transparent blue color. If 
 turmeric has been used, it will be noticed under the micro- 
 scope, as of characteristic yellow cells, of a rounded form, 
 which are filled with starch granules of a peculiar shape. If 
 black lead is present, the jet black, glossy and metallic lus- 
 tre imparted to the tea coated with it will serve in most 
 cases for identification. To determine precisely, remove a 
 thin slice from the surface of one of the leaves and place it 
 under the microscope; if there is black lead, the sample will 
 appear thickly studded with numerous black particles. 
 
COFFEE. 
 
 THE POWDERED PRODUCT PERVERTED. 
 
 A cup of coffee is an almost indispensable adjunct at every 
 breakfast table. As Lord Beaconsfield lias said: "A cup of 
 good coffee is the rarest and most delicious beverage in the 
 world." At whatever sacrifice of other luxuries, the hum- 
 blest and poorest person demands his coffee to round off and 
 give tone to his simple repast. Since it enters so gener- 
 ally and extensively into tne requirements of a family, there 
 is every reason why it should be of at least a good quality, 
 but the very fact of its being in general demand has lead to 
 very extensive and wholesale adulterations. The importa- 
 tions during 1880 were valued at $56,777,625, and once in 
 the hands of some of our unscrupulous dealers, a large por- 
 tion of the coffee has been subjected to legerdemain, which 
 other substances so nearly allied in taste has rendered easy. 
 Where the seeds or berries are purchased by the consumer 
 and closely examined, the chances for fraud are nearly out 
 of question, except where an inferior grade is mixed with a 
 still lower grade. Arabian or Mocha coffee are distinguished 
 by their yellow color and comparative smallness and round- 
 ness. Martinique are larger than Arabian seeds, rounded on 
 the ends, of greenish color, and retain the thin skin, which 
 comes off by roasting. The seeds of San Domingo coffee 
 have their two extremities pointed. Those of Java or East 
 Indian coffee are larger and of a paler yellow, while those of 
 Ceylon, West Indian and Brazilian coffee possess a blue- 
 ish or greenish grey tint. 
 
 Of course the mixing together of the lower and higher 
 grades produces an inferior article, but it is in the ground 
 or powdered product where adulteration is most practiced. 
 The most common practice of adulteration is with cheap 
 chicory. In most cases it forms the largest proportion of 
 the mixture, and is easily disguised with coffee. Its flavor 
 
COFFEE. 1.3 
 
 is imperceptible and the fraud readily passes for the genu- 
 ine. Some dealers, with an air of innocence, grind the cof- 
 fee in the presence of purchasers, but such a procedure is no 
 guarantee that the product is genuine, as they manage to ad- 
 roitly slip into it such quantities of chicory as they deem ex- 
 pedient. Some have chicory apartments in their coffee mills, 
 and while the genuine berry is ostensibly being reduced to a 
 powder the chicory is also being ground with it. Even 
 though there are no secret apartments and the berries them- 
 selves are examined, the purchaser is liable to be deceived, 
 as it has been stated that a patent has been taken out to 
 mould chicory into the form of coffee berries. 
 
 Sometimes rye, roasted peas, wheat, corn and beans and 
 roasted carrots, parsnips and mangold wurzel are ground 
 and mixed with coffee. Occasionally acorns, sawdust, oak 
 bark tan, Croats and baked liver are used. In order to 
 give color and taste to the adulterations, burnt sugar, lamp- 
 black and Venetian red are employed. 
 
 Tests. — It is an easy matter to ascertain whether the sus- 
 pected article is adulterated. If the ground coffee, says Dr. 
 Hassall, cakes in the paper in which it is folded, or when 
 pressed between the fingers, there is good reason to believe 
 that it is adulterated, most likely with chicory. If a 
 few pinches of the suspected coffee are placed upon some 
 water in a wine glass, the coffee floats on the surface and 
 the other substances gradually fall to the bottom to a greater 
 or less extent. The coffee does not rapidly imbibe the wa- 
 ter, while the other particles being more porous absorb it. 
 If the cold water, to which a portion of ground coffee has 
 been added quickly, becomes deeply colored, it is an evi- 
 dence of the presence of some roasted vegetable substance 
 or burnt sugar, for when coffee is only added to water, it 
 becomes scarcely colored for some time. Not only does the 
 solution become dark colored, but if a boiling water solution 
 be made, it will be thick and mucilaginous if it be adulterat- 
 ed with any substance containing much gum and starch, but 
 the infusion of coffee will be found thin and limpid. Chicory 
 has more than three times the coloring power of highly- 
 
14 COFFEE. 
 
 roasted coffee; maize double that of coffee, while peas and 
 beans have only half the coloring power. 
 
 Again, spread a few grains on a piece of glass with a few 
 drops of water, and if you can pick out with a needle small 
 soft pieces, the coffee is adulterated. When by any of these 
 processes the results follow as stated, there is no. doubt of 
 adulterations. The character of the adulterations can only 
 be determined by the microscope. 
 
HONEY . 
 
 THE SWEETEST OF ALL SWEETS. 
 
 The production and accumulation of honey is a slow pro- 
 cess, but the encouragement given to it in the market in the 
 past has lead to the establishment of apiaries on all well- 
 regulated farms and elsewhere. The supply has always 
 been about equal to the demand. In view of such a state of 
 affairs, and the further fact that it leads all sweets, it would 
 be supposed that no attempts at adulteration would be made, 
 and that the cunning devices of men would be baffled. Not 
 so. Shrewd chemists and speculators have been equal to the 
 emergency. They have overcome all difficulties, and placed 
 upon the market a spurious article that defies detection with 
 the general purchaser. In fact it has been stated that even 
 the comb has been so well made by means of delicate ma- 
 chinery that when it is filled with the manuf actued honey, it 
 has all the appearance of the genuine, and that manufactories 
 are now in existence for the artificial manufacture of the en- 
 tire product. As to the truth of this, some doubts exist in 
 the minds of honey producers, but as to the honey part, it is 
 a well known fact that its manufacture has grown into very 
 large proportions. Glucose is the leading ingredient; in 
 some cases almost the sole ingredient. Prof. A. J. Cook, of 
 the Michigan Agricultural College, says: "It is said that all 
 our sugars, with the exception of the granulated, are largely 
 composed of this artificial glucose. Reputable authority as- 
 serts the same to be true of nearly all our table syrups; and 
 much of the so-called honey on the markets is largely com- 
 posed of this same grape sugar. Yet no sign of these wicked 
 frauds is to be seen on the labels. If not pronounced pure, 
 the purchaser is left to infer that such is the case. This state 
 of things is a disgrace to our civilization, and should be de- 
 nounced as base and corrupting by every honest man. 
 Laws, State and National, should be enacted and enforced, 
 so that all who practice these adulterations and thus sell 
 
16 HONEY 
 
 articles under a false trade mark, should receive condign 
 punishment." 
 
 This adulteration is not for the purpose of bettering the 
 condition of honey, but simply with a view of bringing the 
 dealers large profits. It is claimed that glucose is mixed 
 with honey, because it contains the same chemical proper- 
 ties as honey, and insures its durability, but experts hold 
 that such is not the case, for the reason that, if glucose has 
 any merits of its own, it would stand alone and compete 
 with other sweets, and not be used solely for adulterating 
 purposes. How largely glucose has come to be used as an 
 adulterating article may be judged from the statement that 
 the industry has grown from 1Q0 bushels of corn daily to the 
 present use of 6,000 bushels per day. The annual produc- 
 tion in 1881 was 600,000,000 pounds, and the amount of 
 money invested in the business is said to be about $20,- 
 000,000. 
 
 A building for its manufacture has now been nearly com- 
 pleted in this city, which stands the highest in point of stor- 
 ies, and almost the lagest in Chicago. When in operation it 
 will daily turn out thousands of pounds. A great deal of the 
 glucose produced in the United States has been sold to deal- 
 ers in honey, as well as in sugars and syrups, and the rest 
 has found its way to breweries and distilleries, to be used as 
 substitutes for more expensive articles, and to candy mak- 
 ers, fruit preservers, druggists and patent medicine dealers. 
 
 Tests. — Prof. Cook gives the following as a test of the 
 adulteration of honey: "It is a well known fact that most 
 kinds of honey will granulate or crystalize whenever the 
 temperature is reduced below freezing, or even a higher de- 
 gree than 32 deg. Fahrenheit. A few kinds of honey, like that 
 from the famous white sage of California, will not granulate, 
 but this is so exceptional that the candying test, as so often 
 urged by M, Dadant, is a pretty sure one, and is by far the 
 most practical one that has been suggested. Honey, that as 
 winter approaches, becomes solid, may be considered as 
 pure. If it remains fluid it may well be regarded as suspici- 
 ous. It is stated that the Thurbers first used glucose to pre- 
 
HONEY. 17 
 
 serve the fluid condition of the honey, as granulated honey- 
 was objected to by their customers. Of course they were not 
 slow to appreciate the further gain of selling glucose at 
 double its market value. Mr. Dadant, then, is right in urg- 
 ing people to purchase only granulated honey, unless they 
 purchase comb. Extracted honey, if granulated, may be re- 
 liquified by setting the vessel containing it into hot water, 
 that is not more than 180 deg. Fahrenheit for an hour or 
 more. Caution is required that the vessel containing the 
 noney shall be entirely surrounded by water, so that the 
 honey shall not be overheated at the bottom of the vessel. 
 In this way candied honey can be reliquified with no loss of 
 flavor or quality. If after reducing it, it is kept in a warm 
 place, it will not solidify again. 
 
 As already stated, the adulteration is done by the dealers. 
 Once started, as suggested above, the excessive gains to the 
 wholesale dealer secured its continuance until the sharp de- 
 tectives over the sea brought the iniquitous practice to light. 
 Yet the evil is by no means abated by the dealers. Hence 
 another way to detect the pure from the spurious. If honey 
 i3 offered for sale in a neat glass jar, with the trade mark of 
 a New York or Chicago dealer, it may well be tested, especi- 
 ally if it shows no tendency to granulate upon exposure to 
 the cold. On the other hand, if in tin pails or common fruit 
 cans or jelly cups, with the name of the producer on the ves- 
 sel, it may be regarded safely as honey. This will readily 
 granulate, and very likely will be solid when purchased. 
 This should be considered as a recommendation and not as 
 an objection." 
 
MILK. 
 
 THE NECTAR OF THE GODS. 
 
 The sale of milk has grown into an immense industry. In 
 the case of people living within a radius of forty or sixty 
 miles of Chicago, or of any large city, the shipments they 
 make realize them a considerable portion of the income upon 
 which they depend for their support. Chicago consumes 
 millions of gallons of milk annually, and the supply comes 
 mainly from the country. Within the city there is a consider- 
 able production of milk, but as the cows are fed in filthy 
 barns, in a majority of cases, upon distillery swills, only the 
 poorer classes buy it. 
 
 The best quality and largest quantity, however, comes 
 from verdant pastures, and the ease with which it can be 
 adulterated is too strong a temptation not only to the grang- 
 ers themselves but also to the city vendors. The close rela- 
 tion between milk and the "town pump" has frequently 
 evoked criticism, and sometimes to such a degree has the 
 lacteal fluid been diluted that it has been a question whether 
 water or milk preponderated. But it is not the only adul- 
 teration to which milk is liable. Where a large quantity of 
 water has been used it is often necessary to have recourse to 
 other adulterating ingredients, as for instance, sugar to 
 sweeten it, salt to bring out the flavor and annatto to 
 color it. 
 
 Milk is also sometimes adulterated with chalk, starch, 
 cerebral matter, such as calves' brains, etc., whipped into it, 
 gum, dextrin and a decoction of boiled white carrots. 
 
 Tests. — On the detection of water, two methods may be 
 employed: As milk is much heavier than water, the specific 
 gravity of the mixed or impure article is consequently much 
 less than that of the genuine article. Place, therefore, the 
 pure and the watered or mixed article side by side, and then 
 float a cork with a thick wire or a darning needle through 
 
MILK. 19 
 
 its center, in each sample. In the pure liquid the cork will 
 not sink as deep as in the adulterated article. 
 
 Again, dip a darning or knitting needle or some polished 
 rounded steel into the suspected article, and if it be pure, 
 the milk will adhere evenly on all sides on being withdrawn. 
 The microscope will reveal the kinds of substances used, as 
 pure milk is homogeneous and contains myriads of beauti- 
 fully formed globules of fatty matter of various size, reflect- 
 ing the light strongly and readily soluble in caustic potash. 
 The globules are coated with an envelope formed of some 
 albuminous substance, and any particles foreign to milk can 
 be easily distinguished from them. "Swill milk" can be 
 discovered by the pale blue color it presents on standing for 
 some time. 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 "WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS, 'TIS FOLLY TO BE WISE." 
 
 In no article of commerce is fraud practiced in so unblush- 
 ing a manner as in the sale of butter. Adulteration of butter 
 has been practiced from time immemorial, but it is only 
 within recent years that factories have been established for 
 the exclusive purpose of manufacturing the spurious article. 
 These factories have been established in the vicinity of the 
 Stock Yards of Chicago, where the adulterating material re- 
 quired can be the more readily and conveniently obtained, 
 and in the very heart of the city, where commission dealers 
 are accessible. It would be thought that with these factories 
 the market would be fully supplied, but so great is the greed 
 for gain, that establishments are found in full blast in Wis- 
 consin, Iowa and Indiana. These country manufacturers 
 take the creamery of their neighborhoods, and, to adulterate 
 it, have agents in the city to send them the necessary material. 
 Chicago and its surrounding country, however, are not alone 
 in the nefarious business. Manufactories abound all over 
 the country. In New York City and State alone, 20,000,000 
 pounds of the spurious article are annually manufactured. 
 The entire pure butter product of the State has reached in a 
 single year, 111,018,413 pounds, and, when it is taken into 
 account that the manufactories have a capacity for turning 
 out 116,000,000 pounds of oleomargarine a year, it can be 
 readily seen that the dairy business is placed in jeopardy 
 It is also computed that there are from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 
 people throughout the country interested in the dairy busi- 
 ness, who have a capital invested in it from $4,000,000 to 
 $6,000,000, and, as nearly every State in the union is en- 
 gaged in the manufacture, the loss to these people in conse- 
 quence of the competition with the spurious is enormous. 
 
 The money value of the annual dairy product is estimated 
 by good authorities to exceed that of the wheat crop, or corn 
 
BUTTER. 21 
 
 crop, and is greater than that of the cotton and wool com- 
 bined and is between $400,000,000 and $600,000,000. Besides 
 proving detrimental to home production, the adulterations 
 injure our foreign trade. In illustration of this fact, Con- 
 gressman Parker has shown by statements procured from 
 the bureau of statistics and census bureau, that during the 
 six years ending June 30, 1881, the value of oleomargarine 
 exported rose from .$70,483 in 1876 to $381,556 in 1881. In 
 1878 the quantity exported was only 1,698,401 pounds, but 
 in the year ending June 30, 1881, it was 26,327,676 pounds. 
 In the year ending December 31, 1881, the quantity of butter 
 exported was only 21,331,358 pounds, while in the preceding 
 year it was more than 37,000,000 pounds. The value of the 
 butter exported was $3,250,000 less in 1881 than in 1880. 
 On the other hand, the statistics show that the amount and 
 value of cheese exported were greater in 1881 than in 1880. 
 The inference is, of course, that the amount of butter ex- 
 ported has greatly decreased because of the remarkable 
 growth of the oleomargarine industry and the rapidly in- 
 creasing amount of oleomargarine exported. The census 
 bureau furnished a statement showing that in the cities of 
 New York, Philadelpnia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, Balti- 
 more, Cincinnati, and Louisville there were twelve factories, 
 employing nearly seven hundred hands, paying $187,648 in 
 wages, and using $4,740,941 worth of material. The capital 
 of these factories was $1,600,000, and the value of the annual 
 product $6,035,753. Four-fifths of the material product of 
 these cities are credited to New York City. Mr. Parker 
 asserts that at home every consumer is liable to become the 
 daily victim of those who are adulterating the people's food 
 by an imitation so artfully made as to defy detection by any 
 except experts, and that our market abroad for the genuine 
 product is greatly harmed by the belief that we are palming 
 off on consumers as a dairy product a base imitation. 
 
 The imitation butter only costs the Eastern manufacturers 
 nine cents a pound, while it readily sells at from twenty-five 
 to forty cents. 
 
 Apt was the cartoon in an Eastern illustrated publication, 
 
22 BUTTER. 
 
 where it represented a maid churning in a country farm- 
 house, with the words underneath, "The Dairy of the Past," 
 and a factory with a foreman, surrounded with boxes labeled 
 fats, greese, lard and the refuse of packing establishments, 
 mixing them together for butter, with the words underneath, 
 "The Dairy of the Present.' 1 
 
 Where so many foreign substances are used, it would seem 
 to be an easy matter to detect the adulteration, but the 
 coloring as well as taste are so well looked after that the 
 fraud readily passes as butter. Lard, specially prepared, is 
 most commonly used with pure butter, and the extent to 
 which it enters into the composition may be judged when it 
 is stated that in a recent trial of a dealer in Chicago, it was 
 shown by a chemist that the sample purchased contained 70 
 per cent, of lard. In the trade the mixtures are known as 
 oleomargarine, in which beef suet is the leading ingredient, 
 used entirely uncooked; butterine, pure butter and lard; and 
 suine, the leaf lard of the hog, which is macerated and used 
 in its raw state, but in the market it all passes for butter. 
 Their profits may be judged when it is stated that lard only 
 costs in Chicago from 2\ to 17 cents per pound, while butter 
 sells at from 18 to 50 cents per pound. In some cases, the 
 mixtures are harmless, but in a majority of instances, the 
 stuff' is absolutely injurious from the very nature of the vile, 
 rejected articles that constitute its ingredients. In all cases 
 as much water as possible is incorporated in order to give 
 weight. By bringing the butter to a melting point, water to 
 the amount of 50 per cent, and salt from 2 to 14 per cent, 
 are stirred into the mixture until it becomes cold. Butter is 
 also adulterated with starch, usually potato flour, and with 
 curd, the fat of beef, mutton, veal, etc., no matter whether 
 from diseased or putrid carcasses, as is most frequently the 
 case. 
 
 Inasmuch as color often determines the price, some cream- 
 eries, where even pure butter is supposed to be prepared for 
 the market, use a compound to give the article a rich, yellow 
 appearance. Butter, from milk from cows off' grass-feed, 
 has a white appearance, and because of the suspicion attach- 
 
BUTTER. 23 
 
 ing to it in that condition, color compounds are mixed with 
 it. It is claimed by those who use them that they are pre- 
 pared from vegetable substances and hence harmless, but 
 others, who pretend to a knowledge of the matter and are 
 opposed to the system of deception, hold that they are of an 
 injurious nature and should not be used. 
 
 Tests. — To determine adulteration, a sample should be 
 taken from the center of the lump, melted and placed in a 
 bottle. The bottle should then be placed for a half an hour 
 or so near the fire. The water and salt will become separated 
 from the butter and sink on account of their greater weight. 
 As to whether there are any trustworthy chemical tests for 
 foreign fats in butter, authorities differ. Generally the 
 presence of lard can be detected by the whiter appearance of 
 the mixture over pure butter, or its unnatural, peculiar color- 
 ing, and its sticky, peculiar character. An expert can deter- 
 mine it at once by its color and taste, good creamery having 
 a fresher and more palatable taste. As the fusing or melt- 
 ing point of butter is less than that of animal fats in the 
 ratio of about 33 to 45, the presence of fats can be very 
 closely determined by placing the suspected article upon a 
 hot griddle and noting the manner and rapidity with which 
 the parts dissolve. 
 
 Furthermore, under the microscope, pure butter reveals 
 elongated globules of fatty matter in clusters, while the 
 spurious presents a mixed conglomerate, and greasy looking 
 mass. 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 A POOR ARTICLE IN THE MARKET. 
 
 The manufacture of cheese has grown enormously within 
 the past few years. The superiority of American cheese has 
 created a large foreign demand, and the exportations are 
 yearly increasing on account of it. United States Commis- 
 sioner Loring estimates that during the year 1881, this 
 country shipped abroad between 120,000,000 to 140,000,000 
 pounds of cheese. To take advantage of this increased de- 
 mand, manufacturers have resorted to extensive adultera- 
 tions, and lest the reputation already achieved and the trade 
 already acquired be destroyed, the dairy interests of the 
 country, in local as well as national organizations, have 
 entered their protests. They verv laudably desire the home, 
 as well as the foreign market protected from the spurious 
 article. 
 
 So good has been the reputation of American cheese abroad 
 that unscrupulous dealers have taken further advantage 
 of it, as witness the following from a recent issue of 
 The Chicago Tribune — " The Drovers 1 Journal says: 'The 
 quotations on American cheese and butter received from the 
 Liverpool market are of no value to any one in the trade. 
 They are utterly worthless except to convey and perpetuate 
 a false impression. These articles are mostly in the hands 
 of one house, and the market is as skillfully manipulated as 
 any fancy stock in Wall Street, and by an expert who shows 
 a smartness that would cause Jim Fisk to turn in his grave 
 with envy. Nearly all the poor English cheese the firm 
 handle they label American, and nearly all the prime Ameri- 
 can stock they sell is labeled prime English. Thousands of 
 boxes of choice Illinois and Wisconsin made goods are sold 
 annually by this firm as choice English; and the house has 
 practiced this deception since the trade began, or since 
 American goods made the just reputation they enjoy.' 
 
CHEESE. 25 
 
 "There is no doubt that the foreign dealer sometimes re- 
 sorts to ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, but 
 people here have set them many awful examples. The 
 adulteration of cotton with sand, cheese and butter with lard, 
 lard with tallow, etc., have been carried out on such a scale 
 by unprincipled parties on this side of the Atlantic as to de- 
 stroy the confidence of many in even those articles which are 
 pure, and materially lessen the demand in not a few cases. 
 Vast quantities of vile stuff have been sent over to Europe, 
 and it is no wonder if the cheaters there avil themselves of 
 the fact to their own temporary benefit. Only two days ago 
 it was stated here by an exporter that he could not obtain 
 orders for lard, though offering to lay it down in Liverpool 
 at considerably less than quotations. The natural inference 
 is that the parties corresponded with were suspicious of 
 quality, though in that case there was no reasonable ground 
 for fear.' 1 
 
 The adulterations, to which resort is had, are those with 
 lard and other animal fats, the leaves of sage, parsly and 
 other herbs, which are so infused into the cheese as to give 
 it a green color. Other matters, such as annatto, mangold 
 flowers, saffron, and the juice of red carrots are likewise 
 used for coloring. To give weight, pocatoes boiled and re- 
 duced to a pulp, and bean meal are employed. The outer 
 surface is sometimes washed over either with Venetian red, 
 and reddle or sulphate of copper and arsenic, in order to 
 protect the cheese from the attacks of the cheese mite and 
 other parasites. This practice is very dangerous, as many 
 persons frequently eat the rind, and, besides, is not always 
 a sure safeguard against parasites. The presence of para- 
 sites can be ascertained by cutting into the cheese. If dry 
 and powdery parts be found, it can be set down that such 
 parts consist almost entirely of cheese mites and their ova in 
 different stages of development. 
 
 Tests. — The differences in the composition of cheese, such 
 as being made from cream, whole milk, or skim-milk, or 
 made into a hard cheese or soft, like cream cheese, render it 
 quite difficult to determine the question of purity. The 
 
26 CHEESE. 
 
 presence of annatto, however, is indicated by its orange 
 color. The use of potato and other starchy substances, as 
 bean meal, etc., can be determined by adding to a minute 
 portion of the cheese a drop or so of a solution of iodine. 
 The cells of the potato are characterized by their large size 
 and rounded form, and bean meal reveals similar character- 
 istics. If copper has been used, burn the rind and then treat 
 the ash with nitric acid, after which the solution may be 
 rendered alkaline by ammonia, when a characteristic blue 
 color will appear. The detection of arsenic can only be 
 made by a very difficult chemical process. If fats have been 
 used, heat the cheese in a pan of water, when the fat will 
 separate and may be easily poured off. Venetian red can 
 only be detected by a long chemical analysis. Pure cheese 
 is never colored. 
 
CONFECTIONERY. 
 
 CONFECTIONS SHARPEN AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Art and ingenuity have been taxed to produce something 
 novel, attractive and palatable in confectionery. With pure 
 and wholesome substances only limited varieties of candies 
 can be manufactured, and hence we find that the dealers re- 
 sort to the use of articles, which are absolutely poisonous in 
 their character, in order to place before the public greater 
 sorts of confections. The adulteration of sugar confection- 
 ery is enormous ; and many of the ills of young people, as 
 well as of older ones, who have a "sweet tooth,' 1 grow 
 directly out of their consumption. 
 
 The chiei varieties of articles used in adulterations are 
 glucose, starch, lemon chrome, chalk, different kinds of clay, 
 plaster of Paris, lampblack, chromate of lead, cochineal, red 
 lead, red oxide of lead, vermilion, cinnabar, bisulphuret of 
 mercury, brown ferruginous earths, Antwerp blue, indigo, 
 ferrocyanide of iron, German ultramarine, Brunswick green, 
 carbonate of copper, Emerald green, arsenite of copper, 
 white lead, hydrated sulphate of lime, mixed with different 
 kinds of flour and arrowroot. The leading adulterant is 
 with glucose. Equal parts of sugar and glucose are used on 
 the ground that certain kinds of candy, if made out of noth 
 ing but cane-sugar, grow hard and grow old in a very short 
 Glucose when mixed with cane-sugar, keeps them 
 soft and fresh. It is also claimed that it brightens up the 
 candy. 
 
 This use of glucose now threatens a long litigation. The 
 manufacturing confectioners have become alarmed by a 
 claim of the National Confectionery Company of Boston for 
 indemnity for past infringement upon what is called the 
 Chase patent, granted in 1870, covering the use of grape- 
 sugar in the manufacture of boiled sugar goods, and the 
 payment of a royalty of \ cent a pound on all glucose bought 
 
28 CONFECTIONERY. 
 
 from the Buffalo, Peoria and Glen Cove refineries, and \ cent 
 a pound on all other grape-sugar purchases. The Chase 
 patent is believed by the manufacturers to have been sud- 
 denly called into action by parties controlling the Buffalo 
 and . American grape-sugar companies in Buffalo and the 
 Peoria, 111., refinery, and Duryea, of the Glen Cove works, 
 Long Island, to control the glucose trade of the union as 
 against all other manufacturers, and particularly to head off 
 the Chicago concern now approaching completion. No 
 doubt is said to exist as to the validity of the patent and the 
 power of the present owners to enforce a claim for past in- 
 fringement, and a future royalty from every confectioner in 
 the union who has been using glucose, and the impression is 
 that a ring has been formed to squeeze the confectioners to 
 buy exclusively of the companies nominally under arrange- 
 ments with the National Confectionery Company, and also 
 to extort royalty rights worth $3, 000, 000 a year. The Buffalo 
 confectioners are joining their colleagues elsewhere and pro- 
 pose to raise $1,000,000, if necessary, to fight the patent. A 
 wholesale confectioner has stated that on trial he will be 
 able to prove the use of glucose in American candies anterior 
 to 1867, Such proof it is claimed will invalidate the patent. 
 
 In some samples of candies the colors are so numerous, 
 that in a single parcel there may be together four or five 
 poisons. Nearly all the colors given are deadly poisons and 
 instances have been known where sickness and death have 
 resulted from a large use of candies colored with them. The 
 essences used to flavor the candies are also of a dangerous 
 nature, such as pine-apple, jargonell pear or bitter almond. 
 The worst are prussic acid and fusel oil. Some candies that 
 have a fruity taste are flavored with rotten cheese, which has 
 been previously treated with sulphuric acid and bichromate 
 of potash. 
 
 Some candies are also impregnated with intoxicating 
 liquors. Recently in New Haven, Conn., it is stated that a 
 young lady of fine family became intoxicated by eating 
 candy compounded with rock and rye. In consequence of 
 this discovery, the confectioner was notified by the city at- 
 
CONFECTIONERY. 29 
 
 torney, that if he continued the manufacture of the article, 
 which was apparently solid, he must take out a liquor license. 
 A society for the prevention of crime also interested itself in 
 the matter and adopted measures to stop the selling of such 
 candies. 
 
 Tests. — The color is an indication of aduteration, but to 
 determine whether it is vegetable, animal or mineral matter, 
 all that is necessary is to dissolve the candy in water and 
 whatever is precipitated to the bottom may be put down as 
 either mineral or insoluble starch, or some insoluble sub- 
 stance, as chalk, white potter's clay, pipe clay or Cornish 
 clay, etc. If plaster of Paris has been used, it becomes 
 solid when moistened with water. Chalk will effervesce on 
 the addition of an acid If some kind of starch has been 
 used, dissolve a small part of the candy upon a slip of glass 
 and if there is a residue, it can be put down as starch. If 
 any other insoluble substance besides starch has been %sed, 
 the starch can be converted into glucose with sulphuric acid. 
 
 The presence of insoluble or mineral substances is of 
 course very objectionable. 
 
BEER. 
 
 THE AMBER LIQUID PRESENTS A GOOD APPEARANCE. 
 
 When Gambrinus invented this beverage, it consisted of 
 the products of malt, hops and water. The brewing of beer, 
 however, in these modern days, has been revolutionized, 
 and we find such adulterations used as those with glucose, 
 water, sugar, treacle, liquorice, burnt sugar, vegetable 
 bitters, including picric acid, coculus indicus and strychnia; 
 carminatives and opium, variolas minerals, as alum, salt, 
 sulphate of iron, carbonate of lime, soda and other articles. 
 Sweet flag root, quassia, coriander seeds, capsicum, caraway- 
 seeds, grains of paradise, ginger, beans and peas, to save 
 malt? and oyster shells are also employed. To give beer an 
 appearance of strength, sulphate of iron alum, and salt are 
 used ; to correct acidity, chalk and the alkalies, and to give 
 hardness characteristic of age, sulphuric acid and cream of 
 tartar, or bitartrate of potash. 
 
 " Beans,' ' says a writer, "tend to mellow malt liquor, and 
 from their properties add much to its inebriating qualities, 
 but they must not be used in too large a quantity. Oyster 
 shells are very good to recover sour beer. Alum is generally 
 put into the vat, as it gives the beer a smack of age. Coculus 
 indicus is used as a substitute for malt and hops, and is a 
 great preservative of malt liquor. It prevents second fer- 
 mentation in bottled beer and consequently the bursting of 
 the bottles in warm climates. Its effects are of an inebriating 
 nature.' ' Half alum and half copperas, as well as gas, are 
 used to give beer a head of froth. 
 
 Each brewer has a process of his own for combining the 
 articles enumerated, and, to such an extent has adulteration 
 been resorted to, that some of the beer sold to dealers is 
 positively injurious. Many, who are fond of beer, are loth 
 to drink it because of its effects, in some instances, pro- 
 ducing billiousness and headaches, and in other cases, acting 
 
BEER. 31 
 
 as a purgative and deranging the system. Hence the pre- 
 ference shown for imported beer, where it can be obtained, 
 such as Erlanger, Culmbacher, etc. This beer produces no 
 evil effects and must therefore be pure, or, if adulterated, 
 composed of harmless ingredients. Some brands of home 
 brewing are most excellent, but they are rare and not easily 
 obtainable except at restaurants, which have built up a 
 reputation and desire to keep it. 
 
 In New York recently, a committee of gentlemen proposed 
 to visit several breweries of that city, and witness the process 
 of manufacture with a view of either confirming or denying 
 the reports in circulation, as to the poisonous character of 
 the substances used in turning out the "amber nectar. 11 
 The brewers declined on some special plea, and then a 
 thorough chemical analysis, by some chemists, of various 
 samples showed that the real reason for not permitting the 
 visit was the desire to conceal the extent to which they 
 adulterated their beer. 
 
 A leading brewer of Chicago admitted to the writer of this 
 work the use of injurious substances, but claimed, in extenu- 
 ation of his questionable practice, the fact that others did 
 the same, and, to protect himself, and to be able to produce 
 and sell as cheaply as others, he was forced into it much 
 against his own will and personal inclinations. He had to 
 do it or run his business at a pecuniary loss. The loss, how- 
 ever, is entirely on the side of the buyers and consumers. 
 The adulterations are wholly for the purpose of realizing 
 greater gains. 
 
 When it is taken into account that the value of malt liquors 
 consumed in the United States amounted to $444,806,373 in 
 1881, according to the report of the bureau of statistics, it 
 requires no stretch of the imagination to picture the immense 
 profits resulting from the use of the foreign substances named; 
 since the price of beer to buyers and consumers is the same 
 as it has been for years, and the adulterating articles used 
 are of the cheapest description. No stronger proof of the 
 enormous practice of adulterations can be given than the 
 almost stationary character of the cultivation of hops. In 
 
32 BEER. 
 
 1860, the value of malt liquors produced was only $7,994,707; 
 in 1870, the value of the product had increased to $55,706,643 
 and in 1881, the value rose to over $444,000,000 as above; 
 while the acreage of the hop crop in 1874 was 37,004, and at 
 the present time is in the vicinity of 70,000. If hops were in 
 as great a demand as years ago and no substitutes used in 
 beer, it ought to follow that the acreage ought to increase in 
 almost like proportion with the increase in the brewing 
 of beer, especially since our exportations of hops has in- 
 creased from 9,587,329 pounds in 1877, to 18,458,782 in 1878, 
 and to nearly 26,000,000 in 1879. On the contrary, the 
 "malt" product has grown amazingly and the acreage very 
 slight, the former increasing since 1870 eight-fold, while the 
 latter grew scarcely two-fold. 
 
 Tests. — Boil the beer with some unbleached wool for about 
 ten minutes. Remove the wool and wash it. If the beer is 
 pure, the wool will remain white, but if it contain picric 
 acid the wool will be dyed of a yellow color. If sulphuric 
 acid be present, dip a pen into it and then if the written 
 words turn black on being dried before the fire, the acid has 
 been used. As to the use of burnt sugar, genuine beer, when 
 shaken with a solution of tannin, becomes decolorized, while 
 that colored with the sugar still retains a greater part of its 
 color. If cream of tartar has been used, add to some beer, 
 alcohol until it is not entirely dissolved on shaking, and then, 
 after it has been allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, the 
 orystalline residue at the bottom reveals it. The presence of 
 coculus indicus and other substances can only be ascertained 
 by a chemical process. 
 
LARD. 
 
 WHITE AND SPOTLESS IN COLOK. 
 
 If one could witness the manufacture of lard in some of 
 the rendering establishments in the cities, there would be 
 surprise and consternation. The apparently pure and white 
 article so nicely shown in the market, would be found to be 
 largely made of the worst animal refuse instead of from the 
 fat only which surrounds the tissues. All substances that in 
 any way yield fat are melted at a certain temperature, the 
 fluid extracted running into good sized kegs. The worst 
 feature of the manufacture is that the refuse frequently 
 comes from hogs that have died from disease. Alum and 
 quicklime are used to give it its white appearance, and 
 potato flour, starch, mutton suet, tallow and carbonate of 
 potash employed to give weight. A gentleman purchased 
 what he considered a superior quality of lard; indeed he had 
 never seen an article that looked better. He prepared with 
 it an ointment, and on mixing in some chemicals, he dis- 
 covered that the lard turned very shortly into a full slate 
 color. On examination, the lard was found to contain a 
 large portion of lime. The lard renderer subsequently stated 
 to the party that it was a common practice among lard deal- 
 ers to mix from 2 to 5 per cent, of milk of lime with the 
 melted lard. A sopanaceous compound is formed; which is 
 not only pearly white, but will allow a stirring in during 
 coloring of 25 per cent, of water. 
 
 If this lard were used only in America the damage would 
 not be so great, but a good deal of it is shipped abroad, the 
 result is that it works great injury to this country in foreign 
 lands. Recently Cuba, which consumes a large quantity, 
 sent back its protest, and gave warning that unless stopped, 
 purchases would be made elsewhere, as it did not want our 
 adulterated grades. Of course the effect of shipping this mixed 
 stuff has already been to diminish the foreign demand, as 
 
34 LARD. 
 
 witness the newspaper extract in the chapter on "Cheese, 1 ' 
 and the following: In 1878, the total exports of lard amounted 
 to 342,667,920 pounds, while in 1879 they fell off 20,955,615 
 pounds, although the production had greatly increased and 
 prices ruled comparatively low. 
 
 Tests. — To determine the lard adulteration, mix with the 
 article some nitrate of mercury, when if it turns black it is 
 impure. Or, if on melting, it fuse without effervescence, or 
 without the occurrence of a deposit, it may be safe to set it 
 down as pure, but if ebulition takes place, or a sediment is 
 thrown down, the lard is unquestionably adulterated. 
 
 If starch be present, mix a drop of a tincture of iodine 
 with a few grains of the lard upon a slip of glass, when the 
 composition will become either deep blue or almost black. 
 
VINEGAR. 
 
 ITS PUNGENCY ARTIFICIALLY INCREASED. 
 
 Some of the compounds sold under the name of vinegar 
 are only such in taste. The different kinds may be designated 
 as malt, wine, cider, beet, sugar and wood vinegars, but a 
 large portion of the stuff offered in the market is prepared 
 from less expensive material, and sustains no relation to the 
 active principle from which it should derive its strength and 
 purity. The chief articles used in adulterations are water, 
 sulphuric acid, burnt sugar, acetic and pyroligneous acids, 
 and acrid substances, as chillies and grains of paradise. The 
 water is added to increase its bulk, sulphuric acid and acrid 
 substances co make it pungent and burnt sugar to restore 
 the color lost by dilution. A good deal of the vinegar found 
 at restaurants is simply nothing more than diluted sulphuric 
 acid and water colored with burnt sugar. Occasionally 
 vinegar is found to contain nitric, hydrochloric and tartaric 
 acids, alum, salt, spurge flax, mustard, pellitory and long 
 pepper. 
 
 Some factories will not resort to adulterations. They find 
 it pays better to turn out the pure article and they generally 
 command their own prices from consumers, who will have 
 only the best at any cost. If it were an easy matter to de- 
 tect the impurities in all the vinegars offered for sale, people 
 would not allow themselves to be imposed upon, but insist 
 upon the pure article. 
 
 Tests. — To determine all the ingredients is simpiy im- 
 possible except by a chemical analysis. The presence of 
 sulphuric acid, however, which is a highly injurious sub- 
 stance, may be discovered by dipping a pen in the vinegar 
 and writing with it on paper. If the written words turn 
 black, when dried before the fire, the vinegar is charged with 
 the acid. Or a still more reliable test, add a few drops of 
 the suspected vinegar to a small fragment of cane-sugar and 
 
36 VINEGAR. 
 
 evaporate on the water-bath, heated sand, when the residue 
 will turn more or less black. If mineral acids be present, 
 the color of a paper which has been colored with methylani- 
 line violet, will be destroyed by the mineral in the vinegar, 
 but not by organic acids. If chillies and other acrid sub- 
 stances have been used, evaporate a little of the vinegar on 
 the water-bath and then their presence will be revealed on 
 tasting by the pungent taste. 
 
WHISKEY 
 
 CHEMISTRY WORKS GREAT CHANGES IN THE ARTICLE. 
 
 Alcohol is the principal constituent of whiskey. Starch, 
 woody fibre, corn, etc., furnish that base, and, were it not 
 for the desirability of imparting speedy age in the product, 
 a good pure article could be secured in the market. But the 
 . rivalry and competition between manufacturers has lead to 
 adulterations and the invention of processes, by which to 
 give the article the flavor of age and please the palate of the 
 consumers. Sulphate of copper, sulphuric acid, fusel oil, 
 etc., are some of the delectable (?) ingredients, and a com- 
 pound is formed, the consumption of which not only steals 
 men's brains, but undermines their constitution and health. 
 Of course the manufacturers throw the blame upon the inno- 
 cent consumers and assert that if they did not like its taste 
 and consumed it, there would be no occasion for the manu- 
 facture of the spurious article. Their argument runs about 
 as follows : "The fact is, people have become so much 
 accustomed to the taste of compounded liquors that they 
 don't recognize pure liquors when they get it. If they do, 
 they don't like it. Since the process of making 'fine old 
 whiskey' in two days was discovered, a complete revolution 
 in the business has taken place. I know the whole business 
 from beginning to end, and right here let me give you a bit 
 of advice. If you want to drink spirituous liquors, let me 
 tell you the manner in which most of the whiskey now sold 
 is made. The rectifiers add to a barrel of high wines five 
 gallons of the oil of rye. Other essences are put into it to 
 give color and flavor. It is run through the still, purified, 
 placed in barrels and sold. It tastes just as well to the 
 average drinker after two weeks' time as whiskey five }-ears 
 old. The distiller who makes a pure whiskey can't sell it. 
 The consumer doesn't like the taste of pure liquor, because 
 he has not become accustomed to it, and prefers the flavored 
 
38 WHISKEY. 
 
 rectified high wines. The average grade of whiskey costs 
 from 16 cents to 18 cents per gallon to manufacture. The 
 tax is 90 cents per gallon. Say its original cost is $1.10. 
 Now, if a pure liquor is made to become old whiskey it must 
 stand at least five years. The barrel must be open and five 
 or six gallons are lost by evaporation, Consider the loss of 
 interest on the investment for the time the whiskey is stand- 
 ing idle, rents, etc., and you will see that it cannot be sold 
 at a fair profit for less than $4 per gallon. A vast majority, 
 however, of all the 'old' whiskey sold does not bring more 
 than $3 per gallon. The truth is that it is chemically treated 
 and has no real age. The manufacturer is not to blame for 
 compounding liquors. The consumer had rather have it 
 than pay for the genuine article." 
 
 This, however, does not take into consideration the fact 
 that were only the pure kinds of whiskies turned out by the 
 manufacturers, only the pure liquid could and would be con- 
 sumed. Burnt sugar is also used to give whiskey color and 
 age. 
 
 Tests. — For the detection of fusel oil, a simple practice is 
 to rub some of the spirit between the hands, and after allow- 
 ing the alcohol to escape, the peculiar odor will be at once 
 perceived. There is no known common method of ascer- 
 taining the age of whiskey. 
 
WINES. 
 
 DREGS TURNED IXTO WINES. 
 
 Pure wines are, as a rule, rare. This is somewhat singu- 
 lar in view of the increased natural production of the article 
 in the United States. The time was not many years since 
 when nearly all the wines were imported from Germany. 
 France, Spain and Hungary, because consumers not only 
 wanted a liquid of good body, strength and boquet, but were 
 possessed of a fanciful idea that the home product was well 
 nigh worthless in comparison with it, but since California, 
 as well as other sections of our country, has fully demon- 
 strated a capacity for its production in large quantities of a 
 better character than that from abroad, affectation for the 
 foreign article has greatly diminished and consumption of 
 the home product increased. The establishment of large 
 wineries, under the charge of professional experts, has large- 
 ly brought up the reputation of California wines from the 
 reproach placed upon them by the hasty marketing of the 
 first goods. By reason of this reproach in the past, a great 
 deal of the native product has been sold under foreign labels, 
 and some is so still placed upon the market. But the wines 
 of America are now more in favor and in greater demand. 
 The last report of the United States bureau of statistics 
 proves this fact very conclusively. It shows that our total 
 consumption of wines in 1881 was 28,231,106 gallons, of 
 which amount the United States only imported 5,231,106 
 gallons. 
 
 How much of this was pure it is difficult to determine. 
 No statistics are published in this country to indicate the 
 manufacture of wine from other articles than grapes. . In 
 France, however, official reports for 1881 show that no less 
 than 47,000,000 gallons of wine were made from sugar, and 
 51,000,000 made from raisins, while the imports of Spanish 
 and Italian wines for "blending;"' amounted to 154,000,000 
 
40 WINES. 
 
 gallons. These together are equal to one-third of the actual 
 yield of the French vineyards and strikingly illustrate the 
 enormous adulterations of French wines. If so great is the 
 adulteration in France, the land of vineyards, it is safe to say 
 that only a small percentage of the American wines has been 
 left unmolested by the dealers. The adulterations are made 
 with different articles, and made so skillfully as to discount 
 like efforts of other countries, which largely accounts for the 
 popularity of American wines. Sometimes different kinds 
 of grape wines are mixed, and, in other cases, the manu- 
 facture is wholly artificial. 
 
 The Boston Journal of Chemistry has stated that thousands 
 of gallons of claret are made by allowing water to soak 
 through shavings and adding thereto a certain portion of 
 logwood and tartaric acid, and a little alcohol. It further 
 stated that good judges could hardly tell the difference be- 
 tween this mixture and the genuine article. Sherries are 
 often made from cheap white wine, strengthened with brandy, 
 colored with treacle and flavored with almonds. A kind of 
 sherry is also manufactured from pale malt and sugar candy, 
 a small quantity of brandy and inferior wine being added to 
 flavor it. Sometimes lead is used to restore muddy wines. 
 White wines are also increased in color by the addition of 
 caramel or burnt sugar, and red wines by acetic acid. For 
 flavoring purposes, extract of sweet briar, elderflowers, 
 arris root, cherry and laurel water are used. Port wine is 
 made frequently from cider, brandy, elder and damson wines 
 and a decoction of sloes and powdered catechu, and aged 
 with a strong decoction of Brazilwood with alum. The 
 brilliancy of port wine is sometimes increased by means of 
 alum, and, if turbid, it is cleared by gypsum, while astrin- 
 gency is imparted by oak sawdust. Madeira wines are 
 adulterated similar to those of sherry and other white wines, 
 Bordeaux and Burgundy wines are strengthened frequently 
 by the addition of brandy. Wines are also adulterated with 
 cane-sugar, the juice of rhubarb, gooseberries, apples and 
 pears, and colored with elderberry, black sherry, bilberry, 
 logwood, and Brazilwood, carbonate of soda and potash, 
 
WINES. 41 
 
 lead, beetroot, aniline dyes, cochineal and sulphuric acid. 
 
 Champagne sold in this country is largely spurious. Some- 
 times it it made of cheap white wine, sugar and coloring 
 matter being added, and then again partly or wholly from 
 gooseberry, apple, pear or rhubarb. In some manufactories, 
 white sugar, whitest brown sugar, crystalline acid or tartaric 
 acid, pure water, white grape wine and brandy in various 
 proportions are used to produce a champagne that sells 
 readily for the genuine. Cider is also employed in the manu- 
 facture of a cheap grade of wine. Many American cham- 
 pagnes sold under foreign labels, are simply made from poor 
 grapes and berries. While only a few weeks old, this liquid 
 is bottled green, and pretended age is given by charging it 
 with carbonic acid gas and other slight off-hand preparations, 
 the peculiar effect of which, in connection with this "wine," 
 is to create a rank poison in the human system. Let any 
 doubter make a business of drinking it, and he will soon be 
 convinced. Wine to be good should be made from ripe 
 grapes, after being carefully picked and freed from immature 
 and damaged berries, and then when fermented in bottles, it 
 is as good as the best made in Europe. Sometimes where a 
 red wine is to be produced, quality is sacrificed for color and 
 unripe fruit is used. "The raw wine," says a writer, "is 
 cleared by the use of aluminum, gelatine, and alum, the 
 latter imparting to it great brilliancy, and it is treated with 
 a flavoring syrup which is charged like soda water with car- 
 bonic acid, by filling the bottle under a fountain. In this 
 process the wine is liable to be impregnated with lead and 
 copper, which have the effect of disorganizing alike the wine 
 and consumers' stomach. Nausea and headache are among 
 the ill results of drinking 'sparkling wine' thus prepared, 
 or any of the adulterated still wines which are 'doctored' to 
 suit the taste ' ' 
 
 Rhine wine is adulterated with 'sugar, water and spirits. 
 The mixture is fermented with grape husks and then labeled 
 wine. 
 
 Tests. — The wool dyed yellow by means of chromate of 
 potash. Such wool, boiled for some time with genuine wine 
 
42 WINES. 
 
 assumes a characteristic light brown color, no matter in 
 what country the wine is grown; while if the wine be arti- 
 ficially colored with aniline dyes, the wool is dyed red. Wine 
 colored with cochineal does not change the tint of the wool, 
 but extract of Brazil wood gives rise to a dark wine red, and 
 extract of Campeachy wood to a brown or brown black color. 
 A mixture of Campeachy and Brazil wood extract, dyes the 
 wool from iron-grey to black. Wine colored with beetroot 
 can be made colorless by lime water. 
 
 All Colifornia grown wines are recognizable to experts by 
 a peculiar flavor, difficult to define, which has been called 
 "earthy, 1 ' putting one in mind of some of the wines of Bur- 
 gundy. To most people, however, this peculiarity is not 
 apparent and is not as intense as the "foxy" aroma of wines 
 made from the American grape varieties. Another peculi- 
 arity of California wines is that they contain considerable 
 alcohol as the result of the intense sunshine under which the 
 grapes ripen. 
 
 If elderberries have been used to color wine, a solution of 
 caustic potash added to it, will produce a purple color; if 
 logwood, a reddish purple; if Brazil wood, a red color; if 
 beetroot, red; and if red mulberries, a purplish color. 
 
 The detection of foreign spirit in genuine wine, is exceed- 
 ingly difficult, even by chemical processes unless the spirit 
 added is very impure. Other substances in wine can only 
 be detected by difficult chemical processes. 
 
BRANDY. 
 
 AN ARTICLE THAT TASTES LIKE THE GENUINE. 
 
 Brandy to be good should be distilled from white and pale 
 red wines. Very little, however, of the article sold in the 
 market is so manufactured. A product that tastes exactly 
 like brandy is very ingeniously turned out and only experts 
 can tell the difference. Of the $70,607,081 worth of the 
 article consumed in the United States in 1881, the largest 
 part is said to have been spurious. 
 
 Various processes are used. Some convert corn spirit into 
 imitation brandy by using alcohol, argol, wine-stone, or 
 cream of tartar, acetic ether, French wine vinegar, bruised 
 French plums, flower stuff from cognac, in various propor- 
 tions, and coloring with burnt sugar to the required tint and 
 roughing it to the taste with a few drops of the tincture of 
 catechu, or Kino; while others use some puncheons of brandy, 
 raisin spirit, tincture of grains of paradise, cherry laurel 
 water and spirit of almond cake, to which they add some 
 quantity of oak sawdust and give color with burnt sugar. 
 Even the French brandy imported into this country, is, either 
 in part or wholly, made from corn, or from molasses, potato 
 or beetroot spirit. British brandy is also spurious, as it is 
 frequently made by the distillation of murk, the name given 
 to the refuse skins and pips of grapes left after the distillation 
 of wine. Since chemistry can produce essential oils arti- 
 ficially — "oils which have the odor of that particular ether 
 to which brandy owes its flavor," foreign countries, alike 
 with America, produce mostly a spurious article. Oak saw- 
 dust and tincture of grape stones, purposely prepared, are 
 used to give new brandy the taste of an old spirit. Cayenne 
 pepper is used to give pungency. 
 
 Tests. — The detection of fusel oil may be made by resort- 
 ing to the process described under the head of "whiskey." 
 If pepper be present, it is recognizable by the irritating 
 
44 BRANDY. 
 
 character of the vapor given off when the substance contain- 
 ing it is burnt. The rectification of spirits not derived from 
 the grape is so perfect, that their presence is not easily de- 
 tected in brandy. However by evaporating a portion of the 
 spirit, the presence of a foreign substance may be detected 
 by the peculiar penetrating taste. 
 
GLUCOSE. 
 
 USED SOLELY FOR ADULTERATING PURPOSES. 
 
 Glucose is the cheapest of all sweets. It is manufactured 
 from corn and stands without any special merits of its own. 
 Its sole use is as an adulterant of other sweets and as such 
 derives its commercial value. Its manufacture costs com. 
 paratively little, and. when mixed with other forms of 
 saccharine matter, a resulting article is produced that passes 
 for the genuine. It sells to the trade for 4J to 4J cents per 
 pound, and the articles it adulterates are sold at a figure far 
 beyond the bounds of commercial honesty. In the case of 
 sugar, except possibly granulated, it is mixed with it to the 
 amount of over one-half and the mixture sells from 9 to 11 
 cents per pound. A swindle of the most aggravated character! 
 If the price of sugar was reduced proportionate to the use of 
 glucose, the imposition upon the purchaser would not be so 
 great, but the quotations have only fallen some 2 or 3 cents 
 since the growth of glucose manufactories within the last 
 twelve years. Sugar was quoted at 10 to 14 cents per pound 
 in 1870, while at the present time, the market ranges from 
 7| to 11 cents — the decline being due largely to the increased 
 production of sugar at home as well as abroad. 
 
 In confectionery the swindle amounts almost to robbery. 
 The price of candy has remained about the same for years 
 and yet glucose is used with it to an enormous extent. 
 Fully 200 per cent, is profit derived chiefly from its use, and 
 when it is taken into account that the sales of the confectioners 
 of Chicago alone reach annually over a million dollars, it 
 can readily be seen that the business is a most profitable one. 
 In syrup, honey and maple sugar, it also enters very largely 
 as an adulterant and brings the dealers handsome returns. 
 
 At the present time, there are manufactories in operation 
 in Buffalo, N. Y. ; Glen Cove, N. Y. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Detroit, 
 Mich.: Des Moines, Iowa City and Davenport. Iowa: Tippe- 
 
46 GLUCOSE. 
 
 canoe, Peoria, Freeport and Geneva, 111., and an immense 
 establishment, with a capacity of 15,000 bushels of corn per 
 day, is about completed in Chicago. With a view of con- 
 trolling the market, they all belong to a general association, 
 which fixes prices and limits production. Besides regulating 
 the trade, they speculate on their own hook with syrup 
 "doctored" by themselves and sell at a figure the same as 
 that for the pure article. To sell at less figures would be an 
 admission of adulteration and purchasers would be placed 
 on their guard. Quotations are therefore kept up both for 
 the sake of gain and to deceive the people. 
 
 Of course in this game of general grab, they are not slow 
 to make all the money possible out of their business and 
 resort to adulterations of the very article, which has its 
 existence simply as an adulterant of other articles. The 
 dealer in swindling his customers is thus himself unconsciously 
 being swindled. When he buys the glucose he supposes it to 
 be real glucose, but if he possessed the knowledge of thorough 
 analysis, he would find that the manufacturers mix with it, 
 by a certain process, the lowest form of other saccharine 
 matter in order to enhance its sweetness. There is thus a 
 Pelion on Ossa of fraud, and the consumer of sweets is at the 
 mercy of both the greedy -manufacturers and the dealers. 
 
 Whether glucose is injurious to the system, doctors are 
 divided in opinion. Some maintain that it is highly detri- 
 mental to health, while others insist that it is perfectly 
 harmless. 
 
 Tests. — As glucose is a sugar less soluble and sweeter than 
 cane-sugar, the suspected article may be placed in a goblet 
 of water and after stirring for some time, what fails to be- 
 come speedily assimilated with the water may be set down 
 as glucose from its crystalline appearance. 
 
TOBACCO. 
 
 COLORED STAMPED PAPER USED FOR COVERS. 
 
 Tobacco is used more extensively than any other stimulant 
 or narcotic. It has been estimated by Dr. Geo. M. Beard, of 
 the New York University, that it is used by 900,000,000 of the 
 human race and that over four billion pounds are raised 
 annually throughout the world, which is nearly four pounds 
 a year for every man, woman and child upon the face of the 
 globe. 
 
 Whether in the form of smoking or chewing tobacco or 
 snuff, it is of course outrageously adulterated. The leaf, 
 when rolled up for chewing purposes, is treated with molasses 
 and some gritty substances to give taste and weight, and 
 where a cheap article is desired, the leaf, stock and refuse 
 that accumulates from month to month in the factories are 
 put together and a fine wrapper placed around each plug. 
 When it is considered that the refuse has been trod upon by 
 dirty boots or shoes and saturated with the saliva of the 
 workingmen, it can readily be imagined what an excellent 
 chewing compound has been formed. 
 
 Cigars are made from inferior leaves, highly flavored and 
 the narcotic properties heightened by chemical processes, 
 and, in some instances, cherry leaves, specially prepared, 
 are mixed with the better qualities of the weed. Some brands 
 have wrappers made out of paper manufactured and colored 
 in imitation of the leaf. 
 
 Before the perfection of the art of deception, it was an 
 easy matter to determine a good cigar by the light brown 
 specks on it. These were made by worms, and as they would 
 only touch the best tobacco, smokers would select such 
 cigars as were thus marked. Chemists, who are now a part 
 of every well established manufactory, found a way of imita- 
 ting these spots, and that circumvented the test. The ashes 
 were also a good indication. If white, the cigar was good; 
 
48 TOBACCO. 
 
 if not, then it was bad. The chemists again came to the 
 rescue and made so-called "cabbage leaves" — the reputed 
 use of which with tobacco is a pure fiction — burn as white as 
 the best kind of tobacco. Ammonia is largely used for this 
 purpose, although sometimes the same end is attained by 
 soaking the tabacco in a strong solution of saltpetre. The 
 latter practice is said to be very injurious to consumers. In 
 order to give cigars an intoxicating quality, some manu- 
 facturers dip the fillings into a solution of sulphuric ether 
 and bromide of potassium, which is pronounced to be highly 
 injurious. The peculiar effects of some cigars are said to be 
 unquestionably due to their being filled up with so-called 
 nervines, narcotics and stimulants. Some flavor their cigars 
 with a combination of vanilla, valerian and New England 
 rum. Other substances are also used for flavoring, such as 
 opium, the tonka bean, balsam of fir, cedar oil and ascarilla 
 bark. 
 
 Snuff is adulterated with pepper and other substances that 
 give it weight, pungency and color. 
 
 Tests. — There is no reliable test except one's experience 
 in the use of tobacco. A close inspection of plug tobacco 
 will reveal its impurities, and smokers of cigars can deter- 
 mine between a natural and artificial flavor. A fine cigar 
 can hardly be said to improve by manipulations beyond the 
 necessary curing and should burn evenly and well for some 
 time, without the presence of any hard or crumbling particles. 
 The wrapper should have a smooth, clear surface, and the 
 ends present a filling of leaves of fine fiber, loosely rolled 
 together and not compactly pressed as if solid. Poor leaves 
 crumble and are easily pressed together, and when burned, 
 burn somewhat like a rolled mass of rags. 
 
SODA WATER, GINGER BEER AND MINERAL WATER. 
 
 GAS MAKES THEM ALL BUBBLE ALIKE. 
 
 Nearly all the soda water, ginger beer and mineral water 
 sold are not by any means what their names imply. The 
 mineral water, in which the greatest efficacy has been 
 found, is that which has been imported, and the demand 
 for it has been so great that chemists have found processes 
 for manufacturing water that tastes exactly like it. Foreign 
 as well as home dealers have turned out the spurious article, 
 and so great has been the competition that a government 
 tax on the imported article came to the assistance of the 
 home manufacturers. Genuine mineral waters, although ex- 
 empt from duty, suffered alike with the rest, but recently 
 the government decided upon admitting it free to our ports, 
 where it could be conclusively shown that it was natural min- 
 eral water impregnated with its own gas. Some of the so- 
 called mineral water is simply made with powdered effer- 
 vescent salts, which are put up and sold by druggists in 
 bottles containing two and four ounces each. In charging a 
 fountain, six ounces of the powder is used for every ten gal- 
 lons of water, and where a draught is prepared extempor- 
 aneously, half a teaspoonful of the powder is placed in a 
 goblet previous to filling with water. 
 
 Soda water, in order to be such, should contain alkali, 
 but the kind sold in the market is simply water impregnated 
 with carbonic acid gas, not a particle of soda being used. 
 In like manner ginger beer should be made of ginger, sugar 
 and water subjected to fermentation. 
 
 Tests. — The presence of the right ingredients can only be 
 determined by chemistry. On standing, however, exposed 
 to the air for some time the liquids lose their strength and 
 become insipid, whereas the genuine keep their strength and 
 body for a considerable time. 
 
BREAD. 
 
 THE STAFF OF LIFE IS THE STAFF OF THE BAKER 1 S PROFITS. 
 
 One would suppose that the bakers would be above any 
 tricks of adulterations. But it appears not. The moment 
 he commences his dough until he puts his loaf up for sale, 
 he smuggles into it articles calculated to increase the weight 
 and deceive the public. Water is cheap, and hence his de- 
 sire that his bread should contain as much of it as possible. 
 He accordingly soaks it with all the water it will hold and 
 then rushes it into a hot oven with as little delay as possible. 
 This produces a crust instantaneously and prevents the 
 escape of water. He next covers his bread with cloths and 
 thereby keeps it moist until it is sold. If he is especially 
 avaricious he adds some rice, and this, when cooked, swells 
 up greatly and absorbs a great deal of water. Potatoes are 
 added for a similar purpose. He also uses alum to give his 
 bread a white appearance. Sulphate of copper is sometimes 
 used for the same purpose. 
 
 Alum hardens the nutritious qualities of the bread and 
 renders digestion difficult. Besides, sometimes it is used to 
 "doctor up" damaged flour. Bread made at home is darker 
 than baker's, for the reason that no injurious alum is used. 
 The whiter the bread, the greater the adulteration either 
 with alum, or sulphate of alumina and potash. 
 
 Tests. — What has already been stated as to color is an in- 
 dication of adulteration. When soaked in water, home- 
 made bread in which pure yeast has been used, does not 
 present as spongy an appearance as the adulterated bread. 
 Or immerse a slice of bread in a docoction of logwood, when 
 the presence of alum will be indicated by the appearance of 
 a blue coloration. 
 
BAKING POWDERS. 
 
 "A LITTLE LEAVENETH THE WHOLE LUMP." 
 
 The market is filled with patent baking powders. Country 
 fairs are overrun with their exhibition and city stores are- 
 filled with placards advertising their merits. In some places, 
 bread and biscuits, freshly made, are parceled out to custo- 
 mers to show what light, white, airy and palatable products 
 can be raised from them. Most of these powders are made 
 of alum and bicarbonate of soda with some starch or flour. 
 The city chemist of Chicago pronounces them very objection- 
 able and maintains that alum, whatever condition it may 
 be converted into in the bread-baking, becomes in the 
 stomach, altered into aluminic chloride, a styptic, or astrin- 
 gent much more powerful than alum itself. Powders are 
 also made with carbonate of soda and tartaric acid, which are 
 objectionable since the resulting tartarate of soda possesses 
 aperient properties. Most baking powders so-called are 
 made of about three parts of starch, one part bicarbonate of 
 soda and one part alum. The presence of alum is noticeable 
 in nearly all samples, and its use for this purpose has been 
 invariably condemned by the medical profession. 
 
 Tests. — There is no reliable or easy test except by chemi 
 cal analysis. 
 
CREAM OF TARTAR. 
 
 AN ARTICLE USED EXTENSIVELY IN COOKING. 
 
 The house committee on commerce, in its investigations 
 into certain few adulterations recently, submitted to congress 
 a report, from which we take the following in reference to 
 the subject under consideration : 
 
 "Commercial cream of tartar contains tartarate of lime, 
 which must, within limits, be accepted as natural to it. 
 Cases have recently been tried in England in which the 
 adulteration charged was the lime tartarate present in this 
 salt, but the magistrate properly refused to convict. Yet 
 this is an article which is subject to gross adulteration. 
 Among eighteen samples examined by the experts, six were 
 found to be of satisfactory purity, eleven of them contained 
 lime varying from 17 to 90 per cent., three of them having 
 nearly the latter figure. Two contained no cream of tartar 
 at all, but consisted, the one of sulphate of lime, alum, and 
 acid phosphate of lime, and the other of alum, acid phosphate, 
 and potato-starch. Corn-starch was also found in large 
 proportion in one of the lime sulphate powders. Consider- 
 ing the use of cream of tartar in cooking, its impure con- 
 dition is a serious evil. As we all know, this article enters 
 into the manufacture of bread of the world, and certainly 
 such adulterations should be, if possible, stopped. Of nine 
 samples examined in New York one had 80 per cent, of terra- 
 alba, one 61 per cent., and the others contained lime-salt. 11 
 
 Tests. — For terra alba, dissolve in a solution of caustic 
 potash, which leaves the impurity undissolved. For lime in 
 any form, dissolve in aqua ammonia and add a little solution 
 of oxalate of ammonia, which will precipitate chalk or lime 
 in any form. For starch or flour, test the solution with 
 iodine, which will give a blue color. 
 
CIDER.. 
 
 ACID SUBSTITUTED FOR THE PURE JUICE. 
 
 In a country abounding with orchards and cider presses, 
 it would seem that there ought to be no occasion for a 
 spurious article, and yet we find it in the very center of a 
 cider producing section. In fact, cider has been so skillfully 
 adulterated that it is difficult to tell the false from the genuine. 
 Sometimes the pure juice is mixed with water and then brought 
 up to the right flavor with either acetic or carbonic acid. In 
 most cases, however, water is sweetened with sugar, impreg- 
 nated with tartaric acid and colored with burnt sugar. This 
 is the kind mainly sold in large cities. As bottled cider is 
 liable to become impure, sulphate of soda and other chemicals 
 are mixed with it to keep it sweet. The difficulty of getting 
 pure, hard cider is very unfortunate, as it is regarded by 
 physicians a most valuable beverage for the nervous and 
 dyspeptic. Dr. Beard calls it "the Rhine wine of America 1 ' 
 and adds that it would be "better, far better for our Ameri- 
 can ladies if they took more hard cider and less tea and 
 coffee. It clears the digestion, corrects the liver and sharpens 
 the appetite." 
 
 Tests. — By exposing the mixture for some moments to the 
 air, the gas escapes and a flat, insipid tasting fluid remains, 
 having little of the body and pungency of pure cider. 
 
CHICCORY. 
 
 THE ROOT OF CONSIDERABLE EVIL. 
 
 This plant is very extensively cultivated throughout the 
 country. Its value lies in the use of its roots, which form, 
 when duly prepared, a leading admixture to coffee, as already 
 shown. The roots grow deep into the ground and are taken 
 up just before the plant blossoms in August or September. 
 They are then washed, kiln-dryed and roasted, after which a 
 very small quantity of lard is added to improve the appear- 
 ance of the powder. This powder strikingly resembles 
 ground coffee and cannot be easily detected from it by the 
 naked eye. Hence the great temptation to mix it with coffee 
 and produce an article, on which large profits can be realized, 
 especially since the plant is raised with scarcely any trouble 
 and is prepared at a very trilling expense. Once it grew in 
 a natural state without any merits being discovered in it, but 
 now its cultivation has assumed large proportions to meet 
 the demand and greed of unscrupulous merchants. So well 
 has it been prepared for the market that it not only supplies 
 the home demand, but large quantities have been shipped to 
 Europe, where it has achieved a reputation as being superior 
 to the native product. 
 
 Not satisfied with its cheapness as an adulterant, the dealers 
 in coffee mix with the chiccory different kinds of roasted corn, 
 as wheat and rye, beans, acorns, carrots, beet-root, burnt 
 sugar and red earths, and thus greatly enhance the pecuniary 
 value of packages labeled "pure coffee" and swell their own 
 ill-gotten bank accounts. Sometimes the seeds of wild senna 
 are mixed with it,, and, as their odor closely resembles 
 roasted coffee, the resulting article is made still more 
 deceptive. 
 
 Tests. — The microscope will reveal the different articles 
 used by the difference in their cellular structures. In a mixed 
 article, the chiccory will be made manifest by the particles 
 swelling up on the addition of water, and the other ingre- 
 dients will show scarcely any change. 
 
FLOUR. 
 
 THE FLOUR OP THE MILLS NOT THE FLOUR OF COMMERCE. 
 
 The adulteration of flour is not carried on to as great an 
 extent as with other articles of commerce. The millers, as 
 a general rule, run it into barrels as it comes from the grind- 
 stone and ship it to the market. When it reaches the 
 centers of trade and has remained stored for awhile, under 
 unfavorable conditions, it is liable to be damaged and then 
 the sellers usually mix with it alum and carbonate of soda 
 to stop decomposition and correct the acidity arising there- 
 from, thus making it a more salable article. Of course, in 
 some instances, unscrupulous persons add chalk, mineral 
 white, rice, beans, corn and potato flour to give the article 
 bulk and weight and so enable them to realize greater profits. 
 
 Tests. — The only way to detect the adulteration of flour 
 with other kinds of flour is by the use of the microscope. 
 
CHOCOLATE. 
 
 THE FLAVOR CONCEALS THE FRAUD. 
 
 Chocolate, which is the prepared state of Cocoa for use, 
 has been designated as a food fit for the gods. The distinc- 
 tion is appropriate for its infusion graces, for the most part, 
 the tables of the rich and well-to-do people. It is produced 
 in Mexico, the West Indies, Central America and on the 
 French Island of Bourbon. Altough it is a great luxury in 
 its pure state, taste is sacrificed to the greed of dealers, and 
 so it is found frequently adulterated with various flours, 
 chicory root, colored ferruginous earths, corn, sago meal, 
 tapioca, arrowroot, potato starch, sugar, cocoa-nut oil, lard 
 and tallow. Even the finest chocolate is made up with clari- 
 fied mutton-suet and common sugar with cocoa. For color, 
 carbonate of lime, hydrated sulphate of lime, red ochre, 
 Venetian red, umber and clay are used. 
 
 Tests. — To detect adulterations proceed as follows: "If 
 in breaking chocolate, it is gravelly; if it melt in the mouth 
 without leaving a cool, refreshing taste; if on addition of 
 hot water, it becomes thick and pasty, and, lastly, if it form 
 a gelatinous mass on cooking, it is adulterated with starch 
 and such like substances. 
 
 Where earthy and other solid substances are deposited 
 from chocolate mixed with water, either the cocoa beans 
 have not been well cleansed, inferior sugar has been em- 
 ployed, or mineral subtances have been added to it, eithei 
 for the purpose of coloring or of increasing its weight. 
 Moreover, when chocolate has a kind of cheesy taste, animal 
 lat has been added ; and when very rancid, either vegetable 
 oil or even the seeds themselves have been employed.'" 
 
PICKLES. 
 
 WHEN GREEN, "GREEN 11 IS THE ONE THAT EATS THEM. 
 
 The pickling industry has received a great impetus within 
 the past few years. The supply has generally come from 
 abroad, but since improved methods have been discovered 
 for preserving fruits and vegetables, farmers have found it 
 quite profitable to cultivate their growth. Pickling factories 
 now abound all over the country, and were it not for the 
 substances used to give color, there would be no danger in 
 eating pickles. Whenever articles are pickled in the right 
 manner, they are usually of a yellow color rather than green. 
 The articles, however, when presented in the market, pre- 
 sent a vivid bluish green color, more intense than that of the 
 fresh vegetables. When therefore they are of decided green, 
 they nearly always contain copper, but when they are of a 
 yellowish or brownish green, copper is never present. The 
 manufacturers, however, desire their wares to present a fresh 
 color so as to please the eye of the consumers and prove 
 more salable. Whenever therefore they prepare the vege- 
 tables, they boil them either with copper at the bottom of the 
 pot, or allow them to stand in a copper pan for twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 Tests. — The presence of copper in pickles, bottled fruits 
 nd vegetables i s thus clearly indicated by their color. 
 
MEAT- 
 HOW TO DETERMINE A GOOD ARTICLE. 
 
 Poor is the family that cannot afford a plate of meat once 
 a clay at least. In Europe, the article is a rare luxury with 
 the poorer classes, and only graces their tables on festal 
 occasions, but in America, where it can be had in abundance 
 and at a small cost, it forms the leading dish at two, if not 
 the three, meals of a day throughout the year, 
 
 If it were not that unscrupulous dealers palmed off on the 
 unsuspecting people unsound and unwholesome meat, very 
 little fault could be found with the trade. Very often dealers 
 find it to their profit to sell meat not acceptable to a first-class 
 market. They purchase it at a low figure, and by treatment 
 present it in such a condition as to make it readily pass with 
 a certain class of consumers as a first-class article. 
 
 Where so many thousand heads of cattle, hogs and sheep 
 are daily received and slaughtered in a large city like Chicago, 
 it follows that a good many are diseased. Among the num- 
 ber many also die in transit, and, as their sale to rendering 
 establishments would bring very little, they are clandestinly 
 sold to sharp speculators at a saving price on original cost 
 Again the meat of an old one is sometimes sold as that of a 
 young animal. It is said that it is not easy to determine the 
 age of an animal when living and siili more difficult to do so 
 when dead. The age is generally ascertained by the teeth and 
 horns, but as butchers and owners of meat markets do not 
 exhibit meat "on the hoof," the consumer has only general 
 means of posting himself as to its real character. As to veal, 
 he is entirely at the mercy of the dealers. He trusts to their 
 honesty as to whether it is of the proper maturity, but he is 
 often mislead by their greed and rapacity. It is asserted by 
 good authorities that no less than five hundred calves are 
 daily shipped to Chicago, and that out of that number a 
 large portion are calves only a day or so old. They are 
 
MEAT. 59 
 
 bought at a low figure and sold at a considerable advance. 
 Yeal lias therefore been banished from the tables of those 
 who have become cognizant of the practice. 
 
 Tests. — Meat, when fresh, has certain well defined and 
 easily recognized characteristics. The muscles of sound 
 flesh should be firm, elastic, pale for the young animal, and 
 darker colored for the old one, and when cut across a little 
 reddish juice should flow out for sometime. The flesh when 
 of a deep purple tint is an indication that the animal has not 
 been slaughtered, but has died without being bled. Diseased 
 meat has a sickly, corpse-like smell. Bad meat is wet and 
 flabby, with fat looking like jelly. The fat should be firm 
 and without being marked with blood spots. As meat de- 
 cays, the fibres become paler or even turn greenish. In 
 boiling or roasting, bad meat looses in quality and becomes 
 hard. If a clean knife is pushed up to the hilt, the resistance 
 will be uniform* in good meat, while in putrefying meat 
 some parts are softer than others. The smell of the knife is 
 also a good test. Twenty-four hours after killing, the mar- 
 row of the hind legs is of a light rosy red color and moderate- 
 ly firm, if the animal has been a healthy one, but if it is soft, 
 brownish or exhibits black points the animal has been sick 
 or putrefaction has set in. 
 
 Still further, good meat has the following characteristics : 
 "Beef should be of a bright red color, well streaked with 
 yellow fat, and surrounded with a thick outside layer of fat. 
 Yeal and pork should be of a bright flesh color, with an 
 abundance of hard, white, semi-transparent fat. Lamb of 
 the best kind has delicate rosy meat, and white, almost trans- 
 parent fat. Fresh poultry may be known by its full, bright 
 eyes, pliable feet and moist skin ; the best is plump, fat and 
 nearly white. The feet and neck of a chicken suitable for 
 broiling are large in proportion to its size ; the tip of the 
 breast-bone is soft and easily bent between the fingers. 
 Fish when fresh, have firm flesh, bright clear eyes, rigid fins 
 and ruddy gills. Lobsters and crabs must be bright in color 
 and lively in movement." 
 
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 
 
 VARIETY IS THE SPICE OP LIFE. 
 
 Mustard. — The common adulterations of mustard are with 
 wheat flour or meal and colored with turmeric and some- 
 times with chrome yellow. Other adulterations practiced 
 are those with cayenne pepper, ginger, charlock, ground 
 rice, silicate of alumina or clay and chromate of lead. The 
 pepper is used to give pungency to the mustard and the clay 
 or other mineral substances for bulk and weight. Chrome 
 yellow and lead are dangerous admixtures. The microscope 
 is the best test for flour or meal. For ascertaining lead or 
 chrome yellow, take a sample of the mustard to a drug store 
 and have added to the watery mixture of the suspected 
 article, dilute muriatic acid until it shows a clear reaction 
 on litmus paper, then drop in a few grains of sulphuret of 
 potassium, which will give the mixture a reddish brown tint 
 if lead is present and leave it unchanged if it is free. A still 
 more positive test is to pass suiphureted hydrogen through 
 the mixture. For evidence of turmeric coloring, use a solu- 
 tion of borax, which gives a dark brown color with turmeric. 
 Turmeric is for concealing the harmless adulteration with 
 flour or meal, which reduces the strength and cheapens the 
 goods with no damage except to the consumer's purse. 
 
 Farinaceous Foods.— Nearly all are simple compounds. 
 In some cases, wheat flour, slightly baked, sweetened with 
 sugar, together with potato starch, Indian corn meal and 
 tapioca are used ; in other cases, simply gluten of wheat' 
 with a proportion of wheat starch ; in still others, nothing 
 but potato flour, artificially colored and, lastly, wheat flour, 
 tartaric acid and carbonate of soda. These articles make 
 up the foods with high sounding titles and in flaming colored 
 labels. 
 
 Sago. — This substance is obtained from the pith of the 
 stems of several kinds of palm, which grow on the islands of 
 
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES 61 
 
 the Indian Archipelago, in Madagascar, New Guinea, China 
 and Japan by a peculiar process. The leading adulteration 
 of sago flour and of granulated sago is with potato starch. 
 Frequently the false sago prepared from potato starch is 
 substituted for true sago. The microscope can alone detect 
 the adulterations. 
 
 Tapioca. — This root is cultivated in South America, from 
 which after due process, Cassava meal or bread is made and 
 a juice extracted that after a time deposits a farina or starch, 
 which is called tapioca meal. This meal being dried con- 
 stitutes granular tapioca. The adulterations of tapioca are 
 with mixtures of other starches as those of sago and potato. 
 With the microscope their detection is easy and certain. 
 
 Allspice. — This article is the berry or fruit of a tree, which 
 grows in the West Indies and in Jamaica. Its chief adulte- 
 rations are with mustard husk, bread-crust, beans, corn- 
 starch, woody tissues and turmeric, and can be detected with 
 the microscope. 
 
 Mixed Spice. — This is a mixture in different proportions 
 of several spices, as ground ginger, allspice or pimento with 
 cassia or cinnamon and a small quantity of powdered cloves. 
 Wheat flour, ground rice, sago and potato flour are used 
 chiefly for adulterations. 
 
 Anchovies. — Several kinds of fish are substituted for or 
 mixed with the genuine Gorgona anchovy. The chief of 
 these are Dutch, French, Sicilian fish and sardines and 
 sprats. Besides, the brine, in which the fish are preserved, 
 is higniy colored with bole Armenian and Venetian red. An 
 expert who is familiar with the flesh of the different fishes 
 can only detect the adulterations. 
 
 Cayenne Pepper. —Cayenne pepper is subjected to very 
 general adulterations. Red lead, sulphuret of mercury, 
 ground rice, turmeric, red earths, husk of white mustard 
 seed are used for this purpose. The use of red lead and 
 and other red coloring matter is to conceal other adulterations 
 and to preserve the color of the Cayenne. Salt is employed 
 to give weight. To detect foreign substances use the micro- 
 scope. 
 
62 MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 
 
 Nutmegs.— Nutmegs a:e sometimes mixed with riddled 
 nuts, eaten by insects, the small apertures are then closed 
 with a kind of cement formed of flour, oil and some powder 
 of nutmegs. These may be discovered by soaking them in 
 water. Also prick them with a pin. If they are good, the 
 oil will instantly spread around the puncture. 
 
 Powdered Cloves and Cinnamon are also adulterated. 
 The microscope will reveal the ingredients. 
 
 Ginger. — To improve the color of ginger, it is frequently 
 rubbed over with lime, and in some cases, washed in chalk 
 and water. The adulterations are with sago meal, tapioca, 
 potato flour, wheat flour, ground rice, cayenne pepper, 
 mustard husks and turmeric powder. The microscope will 
 reveal the foreign substances. 
 
 Pepper. — The adulterations of pepper are made with lin- 
 seed meal, mustard husk, wheat flour, pea flour, sago, rice 
 flour and pepper dust. To which may be added wheat bran, 
 sulp'hate of lime and rape seed, etc. "Out of four samples 
 examined," says the report of the congressional committee, 
 "taken from respectable houses in the City of New York, 
 only one was found pure. The others contained baked flour 
 and rye, with sand enough to prove the unclean condition of 
 the peppers when milled. Dr. Hassel in 1855 reported forty- 
 three specimens taken from English stores, sixteen of which 
 were adulterated. The chemist of the National Board of 
 Health gave the results of a larger experience. Of 1,116 
 peppers, 576 were adulterated with rice, sago, potato starch, 
 brown and white mustard, wood, wheat bran and flour, oat 
 flour, and ground gypsum. The Commissary-General sup- 
 plid sixteen unopened sample cans for investigation. Of 
 these two were adulterated with fresh flour, while six showed, 
 from the quantity of sand present, the unclean and probably 
 inferior quality of the peppers. Of thirty-two samples which 
 were purchased four were pure. The remaining twenty- 
 eight samples were mixed with ingredients which weakened 
 their strength and impaired their usefulness. 11 The adulte- 
 rations can be discovered by the use of the microscope. 
 
 Liquorice. — The principal adulterations are those with 
 
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 63 
 
 sugar and chalk. On boiling, the sugar and chalk will be- 
 come assimilated with the water, and liquorice settle at the 
 bottom. 
 
 Annatto. — This article, which is used foi coloring, is 
 itself subject to adulteration. It is mixed with sulphate of 
 lime, carbonate of lime, salt, alkali, red lead and copper and 
 ferruginous earths. 
 
 Curry Powders. — The genuine powder is composed of 
 turmeric, black pepper, corriander seeds, cayenne, fenu- 
 greek, cardamons, cumin, ginger, allspice and cloves. Of 
 these turmeric forms the largest proportions. Its adultera- 
 tions are with ground rice, potato starch, salt and red lead. 
 
 Sauces, Potted Meats and Fish, — These are colored 
 with red ferruginous earths, as bole Armenian and Venetian 
 red. 
 
 Syrup. — This is largely adulterated with cheap glucose. 
 The manufacturers of glucose buy large quantities of sugar 
 syrup and in consequence of it, the price of the pure article 
 advanced, within three months, 15 to 18 cents. 
 
 Soda Syrups. — The syrups used with the soda drawn from 
 fountains are abominations of the worst kind. Raspberry, 
 strawberry, pine- apple, lemon, etc., are no more related to 
 the substances from which they derive their names than 
 opium is related to food. They are made up from various 
 chemicals to give them a flavor of the genuine article, and 
 those who use these "extracts" regularly find to their regret 
 that the stomach determines their quality better than the 
 palate. They are poisonous in their character and should 
 be used very sparingly if at all. Good drug firms furnish 
 the best quality 
 
 Maple Sugar is adulterated with muscovado and brown 
 sugars. In some cases, only sufficient maple is retained to 
 impart a flavor to the mixed article. 
 
 Grain. — In order to raise the grade and improve the 
 quality of poor or damaged wheat, barley and other grains, 
 they are subjected to fumigation by sulphur and placed upon 
 the market as sound and in their natural condition. 
 
 Rum is a spirit obtained from fermented skimmings of the 
 
64 MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 
 
 juice of sugar-cane mixed with molasses and lees and diluted 
 with water. It is adulterated with cayenne or coculus 
 indicus to give it strength, sugar and burnt sugar to restore 
 sweetness and color. As it has a tendency to create pres- 
 piration, it is used frequently by persons to break up a cold. 
 
 Gin is made from unmalted rye and barley malt, rectified 
 with juniper berries. It is also made from malt and barley, 
 molasses and corn flavored with juniper berries and some- 
 times improved with corriander, cardamon and caraway seeds, 
 grains of paradise, almond cake and orange peel. It is 
 adulterated with alum, carbonate of potash, acetate of lead, 
 sulphuric acid, and sulphate of zinc. 
 
 Rancidity of Fats. — A test for rancidity of fats is to mix 
 with them iodide of potassium, which, if in the least affected, 
 quickly assume an orange color, the tint being directly 
 proportionate to the amount of rancidity. 
 
INJURIOUS SUBSTANCES. 
 
 THE POISONOUS STUFF THAT ONE SWALLOWS. 
 
 The following substances are 
 
 injurious by Dr. A. H. Hassell, 
 
 Coculus indicus, very poison- 
 ous. 
 
 Arsenite of copper, emerald 
 green or Scheel's green. 
 
 Sulphate of copper, or blue 
 vitriol, and acetate of 
 copper or verdigris. 
 
 Carbonate of copper or ver- 
 diter. 
 
 The three chromates of lead. 
 
 Red oxide of lead. 
 
 Red ferruginous earths, as 
 Venetian red, bole Ar- 
 menian, red and yellow 
 ochres, umber, etc. 
 
 Carbonate of lead. 
 
 Plumbago, or black lead. 
 
 Bisulphuret of mercury, or 
 cinnabar. 
 
 Sulpnate of iron. 
 
 Cayenne. 
 
 Picric acid, in doses of 1 to 
 10 grains many animals 
 can be killed. 
 
 pronounced to be very highly 
 
 of England : 
 
 The three false Brunswick 
 
 greens, being mixtures 
 
 of the chromates of lead 
 
 and indigo, or Prussian 
 
 blue. 
 Oxychlorides of copper, or 
 
 true Brunswick greens. 
 Orpiment, or sulphuret of 
 
 arsenicum. 
 Ferrocyanide of iron, or 
 
 Prussian blue. 
 Antwerp blue and chalk. 
 Indigo. 
 Ultramarine. 
 Artificial ultramarine. 
 Hydrated sulphate of lime, 
 
 mineral white or plaster 
 
 of Paris. 
 Alum. 
 
 Sulphuric acid. 
 Bronze powders, or alloys of 
 
 copper and zinc. 
 Chromates of potash. 
 Gamboge. 
 
COLORS IN CONFECTIONERY. 
 
 PIGMENTS THAT ARE THE PIGMENTS OF SHARPERS. 
 
 List of colors that should be excluded from confectionery 
 on the ground that they are very injurious to health : 
 
 Yellow Color. — Gamboge; the three chrome yellows, or 
 chromate of lead; massicot, or protoxide of lead; yellow 
 orpiment, or sulphuret of arsenicum; King's yellow, or sul- 
 phuret of arsenicum with lime and sulphur; iodide of lead; 
 sulphuret of antimony; yellow ochre. 
 
 Red Color. — Red lead, minium, or red oxide of lead; 
 vermilion, or bisulphuret of mercury; red orpiment, realger, 
 or bisulphuret of arsenic; iodide of mercury; red ferruginous 
 earths, or Venetian red, etc. 
 
 Brown Color. — Vandyke brown and umber. 
 
 Purple Color. — All purples resulting from the mixture 
 of any of the reds or blues given. 
 
 Blue Color. — Prussian blue, or ferrocyanide of iron; 
 indigo; Antwerp blue, a preparation of Prussian blue; cobalt; 
 smalt, a glass of cobalt; blue verditer, or sesquicarbonate 
 of copper; ultramarine, a double silicate of alumina and 
 soda, with sulphuret of sodium; German or artificial ultra- 
 marine, which resembles in its composition natural ultra- 
 marine. 
 
 Green Color. — The three false Brunswick greens, being 
 mixtures of lead and indigo; mineral green, green verditer 
 or subcarbonate of copper: verdigris, or diocetate of copper; 
 Emerald green, or arsenite of copper; the true Brunswick 
 greens, or -oxychlorides of copper; false verditer, or sul- 
 phuret of copper and chalk. 
 
 Various Bronze Powders. — Gold, silver and copper 
 bronzes; these consist of alloys, in different proportions of 
 copper and zinc, white lead or carbonate of lead. 
 
 The use of the above colors in candies, etc., is rigidly pro- 
 hibited by the Department of Health in France. Since the 
 
COLORS OF CONFECTIONERY. 67 
 
 list was put in force, a number of colors are now prepared 
 from coal tar, every tint being imitated. If these dyes, in- 
 cluding aniline dyes, were pure, their use, it is stated, would 
 be comparatively harmless, but being frequently contaminated 
 with arsenic, they ought to be condemned. How extensive- 
 ly arsenic is used is indicated by "Food and Health," of New 
 York, which says: "We import annually 2,000,000 pounds 
 of this deadly poison — one cent's worth of which would kill 
 2,800 people — and the bulk of this import is used in the 
 preparation of food and clothing.' 1 
 
THE PURPOSES SOME ARTICLES SERVE. 
 
 BULK, WEIGHT, COLOR, TASTE, SMELL, etc. 
 
 The following is a list of substances used for different 
 purposes of adulteration as set forth: 
 
 FOR BULK AND WEIGHT. 
 
 Acorns, 
 
 Barley, 
 
 Beach, leaves of, 
 
 Arrowroot, 
 
 Beans, 
 
 Bonedust, 
 
 Apples, 
 
 Beetroot, 
 
 Biscuit, roasted, 
 
 Almonds, milk of, 
 
 Brains, sheep's and calves 1 . 
 
 Corn, Indian, 
 
 Chiccory, 
 
 Clave-stalks, 
 
 Curd, 
 
 Carrots, 
 
 powdered, 
 
 Cassia, 
 
 Chalk, 
 
 Chestnut, horse, 
 
 Charlock, 
 
 Cider, 
 
 Clay, different 
 
 Cake, ground oil, 
 
 Dextrin, 
 
 varieties, 
 
 Earths, red ferru- 
 
 Elm, leaves of, 
 
 Flours, roasted wheat 
 
 ginous, 
 
 Fats, animal, 
 
 & rye, potato, rice, 
 
 Gelatine, 
 
 Glucose, 
 
 peas, etc., 
 
 Gum, 
 
 Ginger, 
 
 Grounds, coffee, 
 
 Hawthorn, leaves 
 
 Iron, magnetic 
 
 Lead, red, 
 
 of, 
 
 oxide of, 
 
 Linseed meal, 
 
 Lime, hydrated sul- 
 
 Leaves, various 
 
 Lie-tea, 
 
 phate of, 
 
 kinds, 
 
 Lime, carbonates of, 
 
 Liver, baked, 
 
 Lard, 
 
 Lime, sulphate of, 
 
 Mangel-wurzel, 
 
 Mustard husks, 
 
 Maize, 
 
 Magnesia, 
 
 Marble, powdered, Oak, leaves of, 
 
 Oat-meal, 
 
 Potatoes, 
 
 Pepper dust, 
 
 Plane, leaves of, 
 
 Pea-flour, 
 
 Plaster of Paris, 
 
 Parsnip, 
 
 Pipe-clay, 
 
 Rye, 
 
 Rice, 
 
 Salt, 
 
 Sago, 
 
 Starch, 
 
 Sawdust, 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 Suet, mutton, 
 
 Seeds, mustard, 
 
 Sand, 
 
 Seeds, radish, 
 
 Sloe, leaves of, 
 
 Soda, 
 
 Turmeric, 
 
 Tapioca, 
 
 Treacle, 
 
 Turnip, pulp of, 
 
 Tea, exhausted 
 
 Tan, oak-bark, 
 
THE PURPOSES SOME ARTICLES SERVE. 
 
 69 
 
 Tallow, 
 
 leaves of, 
 
 Wheat, 
 
 Water, 
 
 Woody-fibre, 
 
 Willow, leaves of, 
 
 White Potter's Clay. 
 
 
 
 FOR COLOR. 
 
 
 Annatto, 
 
 Antwerpblue, 
 
 Aniline dyes, 
 
 Alkali, 
 
 Alum, 
 
 Black cherries, 
 
 Brazil-wood, 
 
 Bole Armenian, 
 
 Black lead, 
 
 Cochineal, 
 
 Carbonate of cop- 
 
 Copper, salts of, 
 
 Chinese yellow, 
 
 per, 
 
 Chrome yellow, 
 
 Cherries, 
 
 China clay, 
 
 Chalk, 
 
 Cobalt, 
 
 Potash, 
 
 Earths, red ferru- 
 
 Gamboge, 
 
 Green, Emerald, 
 
 ginous, 
 
 Greens, the three 
 
 Indian red, 
 
 Indigo, 
 
 Brunswick, 
 
 Lake, 
 
 Lead, carbonate of. 
 
 Lead, red and black 
 
 , Lead, chromateof 
 
 , Liquorice, 
 
 Litmus, 
 
 Liver, baked, 
 
 Logwood, decoction 
 
 Lime, sulphate of, 
 
 Mica, 
 
 of, 
 
 Mallow flowers, 
 
 Mercury, bisul- 
 
 Madder root, 
 
 Naples yellow, 
 
 phuret of, 
 
 Orange, 
 
 Ochre, red, 
 
 Plumbago, 
 
 Prussian blue, 
 
 Red, Indian, 
 
 Red, Venetian, 
 
 Rose Pink, 
 
 Dutch Pink, 
 
 Salt, 
 
 Sienna, 
 
 Sugar, burnt, 
 
 Soap-stone, 
 
 Smalt, 
 
 Turmeric, 
 
 Treacle, 
 
 Ultramarine, arti* 
 
 Umber, 
 
 Vermilion, 
 
 ficial, 
 
 Vandyke brown, 
 
 Vegetable red, 
 
 White lead, 
 
 Yellow dyes, 
 
 Yellow ochre. 
 
 
 FOR TASTE, 
 
 SMELL AND OTHER PROPERTIES. 
 
 Alum, 
 
 Artificial essences 
 
 , Acetate of amyl, 
 
 Angelica root, 
 
 Almond cake, 
 
 Arsenic, 
 
 Acetic acid, 
 
 Burnt sugar, 
 
 Butyrate of amyl, 
 
 Cassia, 
 
 Cayenne, 
 
 Copper, sulphate of, 
 
 Cardamon seeds, 
 
 Caustic lime, 
 
 Cinnamon, 
 
 Catechu, 
 
 Camomile, 
 
 Carbonates of soda 
 
 Coculus indicus, 
 
 Cornander seeds, 
 
 and potash, 
 
 Cream of tartar, 
 
 Earths, red ferru- 
 
 Emerald green, 
 
 Grains of Paradise, 
 
 ginous, 
 
 Ginger, 
 
 Gin flavorings, 
 
 Gentian, 
 
 Grey salts, 
 
70 
 
 THE PURPOSES SOME ARTICLES SERVE. 
 
 Gum, 
 
 Iron, sulphate of, 
 Lead, acetate of, 
 Orange peel, 
 Oyster shells, 
 Oil of turpentine, 
 Picric acid, 
 Quassia, 
 
 Sulphuric acid, 
 
 Treacle, 
 
 Wormwood. 
 
 Honey, 
 
 Lime, caustic, 
 Long pepper, 
 Oil of almonds, 
 Orange powder, 
 Opium, 
 Potash, carbonate 
 
 of, 
 Sugar, 
 
 Sulphate of potash, 
 Tartaric acid. 
 
 Hydrochloric acid, 
 Liquorice, 
 Mustard seed, 
 Orris root, 
 Oak sawdust, 
 Powder, Chinese Bo- 
 tanical, 
 Salt, 
 
 Soda, carbonate of, 
 Salt of tartar, 
 White salts, 
 
THE LEGAL AND MORAL ASPECTS OF THE CASE. 
 
 WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE TO SUPPRESS ADULTERATIONS. 
 
 In the foregoing pages, we have set forth the adulterations 
 of the leading articles of diet and stimulants. They form, 
 however, only a small portion of the deceptions practiced in 
 business. Were the whole field covered, the exposition of 
 the frauds would fill a good sized volume and prove appal- 
 ling by their extent and enormity. 
 
 In the drug line alone, the adulterations of goods are 
 practiced almost beyond the bounds of belief, and put to 
 blush the manipulators of food by their superlative fineness. 
 Drugs are designed to improve and strengthen the vital 
 forces, and their manufacture and compounding should 
 therefore be of the best and purest character. Here at least 
 there ought to be no trifling with the human system. But 
 such is not the case. In the balance, the greed for gain 
 overbalances the side of humanity. Health is sacrificed for 
 wealth. 
 
 A wholesale drug firm in Chicago has shown, in a private 
 work of their own for circulation among their customers, a 
 list of some adulterations, but this list is meager and incom- 
 plete and seems to be merely supplementary to a pharma- 
 ceutical book, which was published some three years ago and 
 which gave chemical formulae for detecting adulterations in 
 drugs. In spite of this exposure, dealers in the wholesale 
 line seem to have not only continued their practices, but en- 
 larged upon the number of articles susceptible to sophistica- 
 tion. How extensively has grown this practice may be 
 judged by the following, taken from a circular issued recently 
 by a firm of manufacturing chemists of Peoria: "We have 
 assumed that the jobbing trade are, as a rule, handling and 
 selling adulterated powdered drugs. Of this we have the 
 most abundant evidence, having carefully examined many 
 samples obtained from jobbers, with the object of finding out 
 
72 LEGAL AND MORAL ASPECTS. 
 
 exactly what kind of goods we were obliged to compete with, 
 and we regret to say, that we have yet to find a pure sample 
 of bulk goods. We do not say all the goods offered are 
 adulterated, but that all we have examined are." 
 
 Deception, however, is not alone confined to foods and 
 drugs, but extends to perfumery, the manufacture of clothing 
 and other industries. In machinery, manufacturers recon- 
 struct machines and boilers from pieces taken out of old ones 
 and palm them off as new, and, in fabrics, shoddy material 
 is used to make up what appears to be good, durable goods. 
 In perfumery, very few scents are made directly from the 
 flowers, the names of which they bear, but from beef fat, 
 lard, etc., exposed to fresh flowers in close boxes until 
 thoroughly charged with their odors, from which fifty or 
 more combinations of the odors of other flowers are made. 
 Perfumes of other kinds are made from essential oils and not 
 from what they are supposed to be manufactured. Standard 
 fertilizers, such as guanos, superphosphates, etc., are also 
 adulterated. Their sales aggregate millions of dollars 
 annually, and, because of the large quantities purchased, the 
 tillers of the soil are Unconsciously deceived. 
 
 "Is there no remedy for this wholesale and almost univer- 
 sal deception ?" will be asked. In some classes of articles 
 there is, but in a majority of cases there is not the slightest 
 protection at law. In England, the consumers are measurably 
 protected by "The Sale of Food and Drugs Act," adopted in 
 1860 and amended by parliament in 1875, and under its pro- 
 visions aggrieved parties can not only secure redress, but in- 
 volve the adulterating tradesmen in severe penalties. In 
 France, the law prosecutes as an adulteration all chemical 
 coloring of wines and prescribes certain articles that must 
 not be "handled.'" In Germany also, adulteration of some 
 articles is made a punishable offense. 
 
 In the United States, there is no national law touching 
 adulterations. Congress recently investigated the question, 
 but so far it has taken no action except to receive a report of 
 its committee. Several states and some cities have taken the 
 matter in hand, but the laws adopted have only had reference 
 
LEGAL AND MORAL ASPECTS. 73 
 
 to some special article or articles. In Michigan, the legisla- 
 ture passed a law against the adulteration of honey and some 
 other articles, but failed to cover the whole field. In Chicago, 
 the city council adopted an ordinance looking to the suppres- 
 sion of spurious butter, but failed to cover other branches. In 
 New York, a bill to prohibit the coloring of oleomargarine 
 to give it the appearance of butter was defeated this year by 
 the legislature in the interest of the manufacturers, but no 
 other kindred adulterations were presented for action. 
 
 Among all the states of the union, Illinois, however, is an 
 exception. It has almost complete legislation on adultera- 
 tions. It has covered food, drink and medicine, and pre- 
 sented very comprehensive and forcible acts touching their 
 sophistication. But after all, these acts are deficient in one 
 particular. They do not provide for a central, active and 
 responsible authority. In the case of the drug act, its chief 
 defect is that instead of entrusting the duty of ferreting out and 
 prosecuting violations to some regular paid expert or experts, 
 it leaves the whole matter to a board of pharmacy, which 
 receives no compensation from the state and which is virtually 
 responsible only to itself. As to the food and drink act, it 
 leaves the states attorney of each county to prosecute viola- 
 tors on complaint, and, as their time is given to other matters 
 exclusively, complaints, if ever sent in, receive very slight 
 attention at their hands. In view of the widespread preva- 
 lence of adulteration, the acts have so far, since their passage 
 in 1881, remained dead letters upon the statute book. We 
 have failed to note a single prosecution under them. All no 
 doubt due to the defect we have pointed out; 
 
 The firm above referred to, however, seem determined to 
 comply with the law's requirements. In the circular, they 
 say rather ironically: "We have never sold adulterated or 
 inferior goods, and under our state law we dare not, neither 
 can we compete with those who do. We do not propose to 
 take any precipitate action or involve any of our jobbing 
 friends in trouble. We propose to wait patiently and give 
 them plenty of time to replace their present stocks with pure 
 goods. We do not ask you to buy from us, nor do we con- 
 
74 LEGAL AND MORAL ASPECTS. 
 
 template increasing our business in this direction, but we will 
 naturally compel our competitors to ask more for goods, 
 thereby enabling us to realize equal prices for our own." 
 
 The prospect of the passage of a law covering all adultera- 
 tions by the general government is more remote than im- 
 mediate. Every state should therefore look to the interests 
 of its own people, and adopt needed measures to check the 
 present general tendency to commercial deceptions. The 
 law should be sweeping in its scope and penalties. It should 
 take in all classes of articles, like the law of Illinois. It 
 should see that rigorous prosecutions are inflicted upon all 
 violators. It should for repeated offenses, impose burden- 
 some penalties and thus force all to abandon their nefarious 
 practices. To effect all this, it should create a board of 
 chemists, under the pay and control of the state, to analyze 
 sample goods from various parts of the state, and then where 
 they find adulterations, leave the courts to pass judgment. 
 With such a provision, the acts of Illinois would be - all that 
 could be desired, and offendors would find it exceedingly 
 uncomfortable and unprofitable to ply their business. 
 
 Whether viewed from a legal, moral or commercial stand- 
 point, there can be no question as to the baseness of the 
 practice of imposing upon the public. Dr. Hassall has well 
 expressed it when he says: "It is impossible for a man to be 
 guilty of adulteration and yet be an honest man. Can it 
 even be said of the adulterator, be he a manufacturer or a 
 roaster and grinder of chiccory and coffee, or be he a retail 
 tradesman, who sophisticates the goods which he sells and 
 mixes them with roasted corn or beans, Venetian red, etc., 
 that he is guilty of a less offense than the common thief? 
 The last takes but our property, while the former not only 
 robs us of our substance, but sometimes our health as well." 
 ** "Taking into consideration, therefore, all the circum- 
 stances of the case, we believe it to be almost impossible to 
 over-estimate the importance of the subject of adulteration, 
 viewed either as a question of public, of pecuniary loss to the 
 consumer and the revenue or as one of morality. To sum 
 up, it is not too much to say that the question of adultera- 
 
LEGAL AND MORAL ASPECTS. 75 
 
 tion is one which affects the health of thousands, and even 
 the lives of many; that hundreds of thousands of pounds 
 (£'s) are annually lost to the consumer by the practice of 
 adulteration; and tnat by its prevalence the moral status of 
 the commercial portion of the community is lowered in the 
 eyes of the world.' 1 
 
 From what has already been shown in this work, it will be 
 apparent that the United States has outstripped all other 
 countries in the extent and variety of the adulterations it has 
 countenanced by a lack of legal restrictions. England in 
 her palmy days, when her merchants were unrestricted, never 
 approached the present practices of some of the merchants 
 of our country. So strongly are the manipulators of our 
 foods banded together that they resist with what influence 
 they can command in a state all efforts to destroy their per- 
 nicious business. They are up in. protest the moment any 
 one suggests a law. As the New York American Machinist, 
 speaking in a recent issue about commercial dishonesty 
 has well expressed it: "As soon as a measure of this kind is 
 introduced an outcry is sure to be raised against interfering 
 with the rights of trade, as if systematic deception were a 
 vested right which legislatures were bound to protect. 
 While there is nothing on its face derogatory to commercial 
 honesty in making and selling glucose, oleomargarine, clari- 
 fied syrup, and newly set-up machinery and boilers composed 
 in part of old and worn machines and boilers, there is neither 
 honesty nor should there be cover of law for selling glucose 
 for common "store sugar, 11 oleomargarine for butter, sugar 
 syrup for honey, or reconstructed machinery and boilers for 
 new. Deliberately planned deception should be treated with 
 something more than public contempt, which is no punish- 
 ment for the kind of individuals who are capable of regularly 
 practicing commercial humbuggery. If there is no law to 
 prevent such deception there ought to be such a force of 
 public indignation brought to bear upon the perpetrators of 
 these tricks, that would effectually drive them either out of 
 business or into strictly honest commercial transactions." 
 
 Their chief argument is that in presenting their mixed 
 
76 LEGAL AND MORAL ASPECTS. 
 
 substances they keep down the prices of the genuine and 
 thereby benefit poor people. Those who turn out butterine 
 or oleomargarine assert that had there been no such articles 
 in the market, during the winter of 1881 and 1882, the price 
 of butter would have been as high as seventy-five cents per 
 pound, and those who turn out other mixtures defend their 
 practices on the ground that without them many households 
 would be deprived of many indispensible articles. This sort 
 of defense is all very fine so far as it goes, but it wholly 
 ignores the deception at the bottom of their transactions. 
 They claim that their business is all open and above board, but 
 it is a curious commentary upon their statements that when- 
 ever there is any likelihood of legislation to compel them to 
 brand their packages so as to indicate their true nature, they 
 at once seek by ambidextrous methods to defeat it. If frauds 
 have been perpetrated, it is always outside speculators and 
 not they who are guilty. If such is the case, then why not 
 let the public be protected against imposition? If they are 
 doing the public a service, why not let the public know ex- 
 actly what that service is, and not keep them in ignorance of 
 the benefactions bestowed upon them by men, who would 
 have it appear that they are wholly disinterested and have 
 only the welfare (?) of the poor at heart? When people buy 
 their wares, under existing conditions, they suppose they are 
 purchasing the genuine. Why not then allow them to be en- 
 lightened as to the true state of affairs and thus enable the 
 poor to rise up and call them blessed and possibly prompt 
 them to erect monuments to their memory on their demise. 
 
 The secret of the whole matter is that, if they supinely 
 allowed the passage of a law to compel them to tell the truth, 
 a falling market, small sales, and comparatively small 
 profits would tend to break up their business. The mass of 
 well-to-do people would let their spurious articles alone and 
 poor people would purchase only in case of necessity. At 
 any rate there would be a great falling off in their sales, in 
 their business and in their dividends. 
 
 In short, deception is the basis of their success and poor 
 goods their stock in trade, and the sooner they are forced to 
 honest methods, the better for the health and purses of the 
 people and for the integrity of the commercial world. 
 
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 ON THE USE OF THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 The microscope is used by chemists and .the various pro- 
 fessions to detect adulterations. It is finely suited for the de- 
 tection of all organized structures and substances, animal or 
 vegetable, while chemistry is adapted for discovering the 
 presence of various chemical substances and salts. Of course 
 to use it intelligently, one must understand the general 
 character and structure of the substances to be examined, 
 and then any of them are easily designated. 
 
 For instance, suppose we have a sample of powdered cof- 
 fee and chiccory. If we are familiar with their structures, 
 we can at once classify them while inspected under the 
 microscope. However, a knowledge of the organizations of 
 all substances is not necessary. If we have under the micro- 
 scope a sample bought as coffee at the store and we find that 
 some particles differ from others in general structure, it can 
 be set down as absolutely correct that adulteration with 
 either chiccory or some other article has been resorted to. 
 No matter to how fine a powder the particles may have been 
 reduced, detection is simple and easy. In the case of tea 
 leaves, the genuine leaf will preserve the general outlines — 
 no matter how small the particles — of its structure or cellular 
 tissues, and the presence of foreign leaves can be easily 
 noted. So also the general structure and appearance of 
 wheat flour, sago powder, potato starch, rice, mustard, etc., 
 will reveal their respective differences and enable the ob- 
 server to note them easily. Likewise in the case of sugar 
 and glucose, the former presents perfect and brilliant crystals 
 while the latter is crystalline in character under examination. 
 
 A little practice with different articles will soon make one 
 an expert. A serviceable microscope can be purchased at 
 from $1 and upwards. Every family should possess one and 
 thereby be enabled to examine not only the ingredients of 
 what they consume, liquids as well as solids, but "many other 
 articles of use. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Allspice 61 
 
 Anchovies 61 
 
 Annatto 63 
 
 Baking Powders 51 
 
 Beer 30 
 
 ' ' ginger 49 
 
 Brandy 43 
 
 Bread 50 
 
 Butter 20 
 
 Cayenne pepper 61 
 
 Cider 53 
 
 Cheese * 24 
 
 Chiccory 54 
 
 Chocolate 56 
 
 Cinnamon, powdered 62 
 
 Cloves, powdered. ....... 62 
 
 Coffee 12 
 
 Confectionery 27 
 
 ' ' colors in 66 
 
 Concluding observations, . 77 
 
 Cream of Tartar 52 
 
 Curry Powders 63 
 
 Fats, rancidity of 64 
 
 Farrinaceous Foods 60 
 
 Fish 63 
 
 Flour 55 
 
 Ginger 62 
 
 Gin 64 
 
 Glucose 45 
 
 Grain 63 
 
 Honey 15 
 
 Introductory 3 
 
 Injurious substances 65 
 
 Lard 33 
 
 Legal and Moral Aspects 
 
 of the Question 71 
 
 Liquorice 62 
 
 Page. 
 
 Maple sugar 63 
 
 Meat 58 
 
 " potted 63 
 
 Milk 18 
 
 Microscope, on its use. . 77 
 
 Mineral water 49 
 
 Mixed spice 61 
 
 Mustard 60 
 
 Nutmegs 62 
 
 Pepper 62 
 
 " cayenne 61 
 
 Pickles 57 
 
 Powdered cloves and cin- 
 namon . , 62 
 
 Powders, curry 63 
 
 ' ' baking 51 
 
 Potted meats 63 
 
 Purposes some articles 
 
 serve 68 
 
 Rum. 63 
 
 Rancidity of fats 64 
 
 Sago 60 
 
 Sauces 63 
 
 Soda water 49 
 
 " syrup '. 63 
 
 Spice, mixed 61 
 
 Sugar, — see also glucose. 5 
 
 ' ' maple 63 
 
 Syrup 63 
 
 " soda 63 
 
 Tartar, cream of 52 
 
 Tapioca 61 
 
 Tea 8 
 
 Tobacco. . . 47 
 
 Vinegar 35 
 
 Whiskey 37 
 
 Wines .'.39 
 
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