410 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix' 



BAKING POWDERS AND THEIR ADULTERANTS. 



By J. T. Donald, B.A., 

 of Hubbard & Dcnild, Analytical Chemists, Montreal. 



At first sight my subject may seem scarcely a fitting one to 

 bring before such a Society as this, yet when we remember that 

 there is an enormous amount of this substance used, with good 

 or evil results to the consumers; when we recall to mind the 

 fact that there is no Sanitary Association before which such sub- 

 jects may be ventilated ; and especially when we consider that 

 one of the highest duties of science is to contribute to the welfare 

 of mankind, it will be admitted, I hope, that the discussion of 

 this subject is not beyond the scope of a Natural History So- 

 ciety. Glancing first at the history of baking powders, we find 

 that until within a comparatively recent date, in Canada at 

 least, every cook or housewife made her own baking powder as 

 required, by adding to her dough or paste a certain number of 

 spoonfulls of baking soda and twice as many of bitartrate of 

 potash or cream of tartar. The frequent presence of particles 

 of undissolved soda in pastry and the varying degree of lightness 

 of the pastry made under the old system, suggested to some in- 

 genious individual the idea of making a mixture which should 

 supersede — because of its uniformity of action and thorough mix- 

 ture of ingredients — the time-honored soda and cream of tartar. 



About thirty years ago, so far as I can learn, a mixture com. 

 posed chiefly of these ingredients, and manufactured abroad, was 

 introduced into this country under the name of" German Baking 

 Powder." Shortly afterwards a similar article was manufactured 

 in this city, as well as in the Dominion, for the first time. 

 Since then the manufacture and use of this substance have 

 increased wonderfully ; to such an extent, indeed, that large 

 establishments both in our own country and the United States 

 are exclusively engaged in the production of this article. la 

 Britain, strange to say, but little of this substance is used. 



A baking powder in so far as the manufacture of this sub- 

 stance is concerned, is essentially a mixture of soda bicarb, and 

 some dry acid substance, which latter acting upon the soda 

 drives off its carbonic acid, and this rising through the masa 



