196 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



trol clicmist as the result of siuli increased knowledge and skill at the 

 command of the dishonest, are made more numerous by the rapid 

 changes in the manner of preparing and keeping articles of food. 

 The modern grocery store exhibits to the buyer's eye little that is 

 edible; iiistead, a great array of cans, boxes, cartons, jars and 

 tumblers, beautifully labelled, greet the gaze. If he is thus prevented 

 from handling the food that later comers will buy, he is also prevent- 

 ed from seeing, until the package is opened at his own home, the ar- 

 ticle he buvs. Manv a fraud lui'ks under the cover of a beautiful 

 label. 



Every age and every class has dishonest men. Pilse says of the 

 latter part of the twelfth century, ''False rights, false measures, 

 false pretences of all kinds were the instruments of commerce most 

 generally in use. Xo buyer would trust the word of a seller, and 

 there was hardh' any class in which a man might not with reason sus- 

 pect that his neighboi intended to rob or even to murder him." Men 

 are better than that to-day. Xot so many will defraud their neigh- 

 bors. But, on the other hand, the resources of the fraudulently dis- 

 posed have been wonderfully increased. Leaving to others the pre- 

 sentation of the statistical, administrative and legal aspects of the 

 subject, let us consider some examples of the various types of adul- 

 teration occurring within our State boundaries, and some of the 

 problems with which the food chemist must deal. In this survey, 

 no attempt is made to present a full list of discovered adulterations, 

 but simply to consider certain interesting cases, typifAiug the various 

 forms of adulteration. 



These types are well defined in the Pure Food act of 1895, in addi- 

 tion to which there are special laws with reference to milk and 

 cream, renovated butter and oleomargarine, cheese, lard, evaporated 

 apples and other apple products, fruit juices and vinegar; the Pure 

 Food act follows the precedent of the English food and drug act in 

 defining the terms '"food" and '"adulteration," and, in most States 

 that have acted in reference to food adulteration, the same general 

 method of legislation has been pursued. Under this act, new abuses 

 can be quickly reached, but the burden of establishing its defi'iiitions 

 and standards, and of proving the injurious character of adulterants, 

 where such injury is alleged in the indictment, rests more heavily 

 upon the prosecution. The special laws commonly express the defini- 

 tions and often establish standards for the substances with which 

 they severally deal and, in most cases, make especial regulations for 

 the commerce therein and provide difi'erent penalties from those spe- 

 cified by the general act. In all cases, however, the adulteration 

 belongs to one or more of the types indicated in the latter act. 



This act prohibits (1) the addition of materials so as to lower or de- 

 preciate or injuriously effect the quality, strength and purity; (2) the 

 substitution, in whole or in part, of any inferior or cheaper sub- 



