264. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
COMMITTEES ON THE ARTIFICIAL COLORING OF SUGARS, 
ON THE USE OF THE POLARISCOPE TO DETERMINE THE 
VALUE OF SUGARS, AND ON DEMARARA SUGARS. 1876-1878 
These three committees were appointed in 1876, 1877, and 
1878 at the request of the Treasury Department, and were con- 
cerned with the question of the valuation of sugars in connec- 
tion with customs duties.“ For many years the duties on 
different grades of sugars were levied in accordance with their 
color, or what was known as the Dutch standard. After a time, 
however, the Government began to suspect that certain sugars 
were artificially colored, whereby the higher grades were made 
to assume the appearance of the lower grades, and were in 
consequence assessed at a lower rate than that which was prop- 
erly chargeable. In a test case which was tried in Baltimore in 
1878, the court decided that the fact of the artificial coloring of 
the sugars concerned for the purpose of defrauding the revenue 
was proven but held that no penalty could be enforced because 
it was not demonstrated that the importer had a guilty knowledge 
that the coloring was done for the purpose of escaping the higher 
duty.*° Thus, while the fact that certain sugars were artificially 
colored was no longer in question, the position of the Govern- 
ment as regards the collection of duties was no better than before. 
Acting on the opinion of the court, however, the Treasury De- 
partment temporarily ordered that wherever the color of sugar 
was mentioned in the law it should be interpreted as meaning 
the color which it would naturally have as a result of the partic- 
ular process by which it had been produced, or at the particular 
stage to which the process of clarification had been carried. 
Whenever there was reason to suspect that sugar had been 
artificially colored, its saccharine strength was to be determined 
and duty levied in accordance with the color which it would 
normally have when of that strength. The strength was deter- 
mined by the use of the polariscope, and the Customs Office had 
“Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 1, p. 133. Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1879, p. 11. 
* Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1877, pp. xxvi, xxvii. 
® Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1878, p. xxvii. 
* Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1879, pp. xxiv, xxv. 
