ADULTERATION. 



I 



In the report of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Health for 1874 the most common adultera- 

 tions were enumerated. George T. Angell, 

 who road a paper on the subject of adultera- 

 tions und poisonous materials before the Social 

 Science Association at Saratoga, was informed 

 by an eminent physician of Boston that pa- 

 tients frequently die because the prescriptions 

 arc made up of adulterated drugs and fail of 

 tlK'ir HlVi-t ; and a large wholesale dealer and 

 a retail druggist of the same, city stated to him 

 that the adulteration of medicines is so uni- 

 versal that no profits could be made on the 

 sale of pure articles. 



Nearly all groceries are adulterated very 

 commonly in the United States. Teas are not 

 only frequently adulterated before they arrive 

 in America, but are colored and faced by the 

 admixture of poisonous substances in the United 

 States, large factories existing for this purpose 

 in New York and Philadelphia : one of the 

 processes involves the use of prussic acid ; the 

 commonest coloring materials and adulterants 

 employed are arseniate of copper, verdigris, 

 mineral-green, Prussian blue, talc, clay, and 

 soapstone. In^England the sale and even the 

 landing of adulterated teas are now stringently 

 prevented. The exclusion of adulterated China 

 teas from the English market naturally causes 

 their importation into the United States to in- 

 crease. The Japan teas as they are prepared 

 for the retail trade are said to be quite as fre- 

 quently adulterated and artificially colored as 

 the others. A great number of substances are 

 used to adulterate the coffee which is purchased 

 in a ground state : pea-flour colored with Ve- 

 netian red is often used ; but the commonest 

 adulterant is chiccory, which is itself almost 

 invariably debased by the admixture of vari- 

 ous articles, some of them of a highly injurious 

 character. A machine has been invented and 

 is used for molding spurious coffee-berries out 

 of an artificial paste. The article called essence 

 of coffee is composed of various coloring mate- 

 rials. The adulteration of sirups and sugars 

 with glucose is a practice which has recently 

 spread alarmingly. The extensive use of glu- 

 cose, or the grape-sugar of commerce, is held 

 to be the main origin of Bright's disease of the 

 kidneys, and the cause of the present preva- 

 lence of that fatal malady. The importations 

 of glucose increased tenfold between 1875 and 

 1877, and at the same time extensive factories 

 were established for its manufacture in the 

 "Western States. The article sold as grape- 

 sugar is manufactured by boiling corn-starch 

 with sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), and mixing 

 the product with lime. A portion of the sul- 

 phuric acid, and sometimes copperas, sulphate 

 of lime, and other noxious principles, remain 

 in the glucose. In the analysis of seventeen 

 samples of table sirup by Dr. Kedzie, fifteen 

 were found to be made of glucose, one of them 

 containing 141 grains of oil of vitriol and 724 

 grains of lime to the gallon, and one from a 

 lot which had sickened a whole family con- 



tained 72 grains of vitriol, 28 of sulphate of 

 iron (copperas), and 3G3 of limo to the gallon. 

 The cheap sugars sold in Michigan are stated 

 on the same authority to be adulterated and 

 colored with poisonous substances. Analyses 

 of the sugar sold in New York reveal the pres- 

 ence not only of glucose with its inherent poi- 

 sons, but of muriate of tin, a formidable poison 

 which is employed in the bleaching process. 

 Mr. Fuller, a retired .importer of sugar, called 

 the attention of the United States Board of 

 Trade, in their meeting held at New York in 

 November, 187-8, to the dangerous adultera- 

 tions practiced -with sugar, honey, and molas- 

 ses. Glucose is largely used also to adulterate 

 maple-sugar, candies, jellies, honey, and other 

 sweet fobds. Ground stone is undoubtedly 

 used to adulterate sugar and other groceries. 

 It is said that mills are in operation in various 

 parts of the United States in which white stone 

 is ground into dust of varying fineness, which 

 is classified into the soda grade, the sugar 

 grade, and the flour grade. A practice which 

 is now exceedingly common, and is being rig- 

 orously suppressed in Great Britain, is the use 

 of alum in bread. The various baking-powders 

 sold now are said to be largely composed of 

 alum, the price of which is less than 3 cents 

 per pound, while cream of tartar costs 30 

 cents or more. The effects of alum used in 

 this way are colic, constipation, heart-burn, 

 and dyspepsia. The New York chemist, Dr. 

 Henry Mott, Jr., on analyzing sixteen different 

 powders, found alum a very considerable ingre- 

 dient in every one ; some of them contained 

 also terra alba, insoluble phosphate of lime, and 

 other foreign substances. The cream of tartar 

 sold in the shops is seldom found to contain 

 more than 30 per cent, of genuine cream of 

 tartar. It is principally adulterated with terra 

 alba, which produces destructive effects on the 

 stomach and kidneys. Of the milk sold in the 

 larger American cities, 90 to 95 per cent, is 

 said to be reduced with water. This water is 

 supposed to frequently contain the germs of 

 malarial infection, or to be frequently impreg- 

 nated with lead-poison, and therefore to be a 

 very common cause of infant mortality. The 

 lactometer and crearaometer are said to be en- 

 tirely inefficient to detect adulteration. Cream 

 is made with gums and white glue ; and the 

 consistency, taste, and color of watered milk 

 are restored with flour, starch, gum, sugar, 

 carbonate of soda, and the brains of animals. 

 Oleomargarine, which is now extensively man- 

 ufactured from animal fats as a substitute for 

 butter, is dreaded as a vehicle for infecting the 

 human system with trichinae and other inter- 

 nal parasites. The fat is not subjected to a 

 higher temperature than 120 F. John Mi- 

 chels, a New York chemist, states that the re- 

 fuse fat of one pork-packing establishment is 

 to his knowledge sent to the artificial butter 

 factories ; and Professor Church found in oleo- 

 margarine horse- fat, fat from bones, and waste 

 fat, such as is ordinarily used in making can- 



