194 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



FOOD ADULTIORATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



By Dr. Wm. Frear, State C'oHcye, Pa. 



It has been requested that I prepare for your consideration a 

 paper presenting the subject of food adulteration from the chem- 

 ist's point of view. 



It has been said that the manufacture of foods and the control 

 of food commerce is the battle-ground of chemists. Without at all- 

 failing to appreciate the importance of hooest and capable executive 

 action, of alert detective service, of specialized and skilful legal ad- 

 vice, of the experience and investigating abilities of the physician and 

 physiologist, it is true that the discovery of adulterations, the de- 

 termination of their nature a«d amount, and the exposition of the es- 

 sential facts of adulteration to the court and jury are functions with 

 which the control chemist is charged. 



There was a time when the housewife, by the simple process of 

 testing the solubility of her salt or sugar, could detect the presence 

 of the added sand. It is said, too, that the Mayor of Guildford used 

 to appoint official ale-testors who were wont to test the ale not only 

 by the taste, but pouring a portion of it upon the bench before the 

 inn, sat in their leathern breeches upon the bench; if they adhered 

 when attempting to arise, it was considered plain that "mine host," 

 lead by unfair means, increased the density of his ale. 



The day has passed when such simple tests will much avail in de- 

 tecting current adulterations. The development of modern, synthetic 

 chemistry has opened vast possibilities to the imitator and adul- 

 terator. It is but a few decades since the formation of the organic 

 food stuffs was considered to be possible only under the influence and 

 by the direct agency of the vital force inherent in the plant and 

 animal; but in 1828, Wohler, by heating the corbonate of ammonia, 

 produced area, the chief nitrogenous waste-product of the animal 

 body; sometime later, Berthellot made formic acid, which is widely 

 distributed in nature, by the simple process of exposing caustic 

 potash to the action of carbon monoxid. the gas that burns with a 

 blue flame in our coal stoves. These discoveries proved that the vital 

 force of the chemist's brain and the ordinary chemical agencies are 

 capable of performing much, if not all of the elaboration of ma- 



