ADULTERATION OF FOOD. 



is as follows : Spices and condiments are adul- 

 terated with exhausted spices ; ground cereals 

 with Hour and buckwheat hulls; coffee with 



. rye, and other cereals; tea with ex- 

 hausted tea-leaves, leaves of other plants, and 

 damaged tea coated to improve the looks ; su- 

 pir with grape-sugar; sirup with grape-sugar, 

 in many cases all glucose; milk with water, 

 alkaline salts to neutralize acidity, and preserv- 



and it is often skimmed; bread with 

 alum, added to increase whiteness, rarely used 

 in this country; cream of tartar and baking- 

 powders with gypsum, starches, and " fillers _" 

 to increase bulk; butter, other fats are substi- 



r it, .ir it is adulterated with foreign 



:ve-oil with peanut and cotton-seed oil. 



In addition to these articles, several new and 



.: substances are largely used for sophis- 



.. Oleomargarine, for example, is manu- 

 factured on an enormous scale. Three factories 

 alone in New York State turn out not less than 

 4,500 tons a year, and there are five or six 

 other factories in the country. But a small 

 portion 'of their product is sold to the consumer 

 fur what it really is. Fears have been ex- 

 pressed that animal parasites, or diseases, might 

 be introduced into the human system by the 

 use of this substitute for butter; but the best 

 authorities declare that there is no such danger 

 from the use of oleomargarine. As the aim of 

 the manufacturers is to produce a sweet and 

 merchantable article, the use of putrid or ill- 

 smelling fat would be against their interests. 

 Nevertheless, the propriety of compelling deal- 

 ers to label all packages of oleomargarine with 

 name is generally recognized. Lard- 

 made by combining lard and oleomar- 

 garine-oil, and "lardine,"an artificial butter, 

 are al-i largely manufactured. The production 

 of glucose exceeds that of oleomargarine. It 



iiited that ten pounds of glucose per 



capita is made and sold each year in the United 



It is largely employed in making 



sirups, strained honey, confectionery, and the 



of sugar. Prof. 0. F. Chandler, 



and otlur chemists, pronounce glucose to be a 



harmli-s-4 article of food. The frequent state- 



iiat .sulphuric acid has been found in 

 large and poisonous quantities in glucose sir- 

 Sulphuric acid is employed 



'"ii version of starch into grape-sugar, 

 but the arid is afterward neutralized by means 

 of milk of lime. If any acid exists in the sirup, 

 it is either in combination with the lime or 



id in very small quantities a con- 

 dition strenuously avoided by the manufact- 

 urers." 



of acute poisoning have been repeat- 

 edly charged to the influence of canned foods. 

 Certain acid fruits in cans, such as apples and 

 cherries, and vegetables like tomatoes, act 

 upon lead or tin, and dissolve enough of the 

 metal to cause vomiting, purging, and cramps. 

 Such cases, however, are rare, in view of the 

 enormous consumption of canned products, 

 especially in the West, and in the army and 



navy.* It is proposed, as a safeguard, to re- 

 quire the year in which the can was packed to 

 be stamped on it. 



Besides investigating the character of domes- 

 tic food-supply, sanitary officials have recently 

 been led to take cognizance of the methods of 

 production and distribution, especially of bread 

 and milk. Bake-shops are usually in cellars, 

 artificially lighted, and are often damp, foul, 

 and unwholesome. They are sometimes used 

 as sleeping-places, and the bakers work long 

 hours and are exposed to sickness, especially 

 from skin-diseases. Dr. W. K. Newton, Health- 

 Officer of Paterson, who has visited several 

 such places, reports: "In one place we find 

 the cat and dog asleep in the kneading-trough, 

 fowls running around and perching on the vari- 

 ous utensils, and a general air of filth and lack 

 of thrift. In one shop the kneading-trough was 

 connected with the sewer by means of an un- 

 trapped waste-pipe. In another the soil-pipe 

 had burst, and the floor was flooded with liquid 

 filth. The baker said, 'That always happens 

 after a rain-storm.' I have seen a baker mix- 

 ing his bread with hand and arm covered with 

 the eruption of eczema. He said, 'The doctor 

 told me the dough was good for the disease.' 

 Frequent inspection of such places, as also of 

 dairies, is essential to the public health." 



It is barely thirteen years since it was dis- 

 covered that milk was a potent carrier of in- 

 fection, yet in a paper read by Ernest Hart, of 

 London, before the International Medical Con- 

 gress in 1881, it was said that, fifty epidemics 

 of typhoid fever, fifteen of scarlatina, and seven 

 of diphtheria had been traced to this source. 

 The total number of cases occurring during 

 these epidemics was 4,800. In one instance 

 reported in the London "Lancet," October, 

 1883, 220 cases of typhoid fever were traced 

 to a single dairy. Adulteration of milk is con- 

 fined chiefly to the addition of water, pre- 

 servatives, alkalies, and to the abstraction of 

 cream. While not directly harmful to health, 

 such adulteration seriously interferes with the 

 nourishment of infants through the impoverish- 

 ment of the milk, and is believed to be a prime 

 factor in causing the terrible infant mortality 

 in large cities. Harmful results' also follow 

 from the use of milk produced from cows fed 

 on distillery- waste, or otherwise improperly 

 cared for, while milk from diseased cows, es- 

 pecially those suffering from tuberculosis, is 

 very dangerous. It is proposed that all milk- 

 dealers and dairies should be registered and 

 kept under constant sanitary supervision. 



The latest document on the subject of milk- 

 adulteration in New York city, "Report on 



* A United States Army officer says : " There is hardly a 

 military station in the land where officers and soldiers and 

 their families do not habitually use canned foods ; and, as a 

 class, army people are, without doubt, the largest consumers 

 of canned articles, in proportion to their number, of any in 

 the country. In all my army experience (and for many years 

 I have been chief commissary of a military department, and 

 as such had charge of supplying posts with all their subsist- 

 ence), I have never known or heard of a case of canned -goods 

 poisoning in the army," 



