INDUSTRY, INVENTION, COMMERCE 



Adulteration, a term not only applied in 

 its proper sense to the fraudulent mixture of 

 articles of commerce, food, drink, drugs, seeds, 

 etc., with noxious or inferior ingredients, but 

 also by magistrates and analysts to accidental 

 impurity, and even in some cases to actual sub- 

 stitution. The chief objects of adulteration are 

 to increase the weight or volume of the article, 

 to give a color which either makes a good article 

 more pleasing to the eye, or else disguises an 

 inferior one, to substitute a cheaper form of the 

 article, or the same substance from which the 

 strength has been extracted, or to give it a false 



!i. Among the adulterations which are 

 practised for the purpose of fraudulently in- 



j; the weight or volume of an article are 

 the following: Bread is adulterated with alum 

 or sulphate of copper, which gives solidity to the 

 gluten of damaged or inferior flour; with chalk 

 or carbonate of soda to correct the acidity of 

 such flour; and with boiled rice or potatoes, 

 which enables the bread to carry more water. 

 and thus to produce a larger number of loaves 

 from a given quantity of flour. Wheat flour is 

 adulterated with other inferior flours, as the 

 flour from rice, bean, Indian-corn, potato, and 

 with sulphate of lime, alum, etc. Milk is usually 

 n<lultorated with water. The adulterations gen- 

 erally present in butter consist of an undue pro- 

 portion of salt and water, lard, tallow, and other 

 fats; when of poor quality it is frequently eol- 

 ith a little annatto, and, at times, with the 

 juice of carrots. Genuine butter should not con- 

 tain less than eighty per cent, of butter-fat. 

 Cheese is also colored with annatto and other 

 substance*. Tea is adulterated (chiefly in China) 

 with sand, iron-filings, chalk, gypsum, China 

 clay, exhausted tea leaves, and the leaves of the 

 sycamore, horse-chestnut, and plum, whilst color 

 and weight are added by black-lead, indigo, 

 Prussian-blue (one of the deleterious ingredients 

 used by the Chinese in converting the lowest 

 qualities of black into green teas), gum, tur- 



soapstone, catechu, and other substances. 

 Coffee is mingled with chicory, roasted wheat, 

 roasted beans, acorns, mangel- wur/d. rye-flour, 

 and colored with burned sugar and other materi- 

 als. Chicory is adulterated with different flours, 

 as rye, wheat, beans, etc., and colored with fer- 

 ruginous earths, burned sugar, Venetian red. etc. 

 Cocoa and chocolate are mixed with the cheaper 

 kinds of arrowroot, animal matter, corn, sago, 

 tapioca, etc. Sugar (moist) may be alul 

 to some extent with >.md and flour. Tobacco is 



with sugar and treacle, aloes, limiorice. 

 oil, alum. < h leaves as rhubarb, chic- 



ihbage, burdock, coltsfoot, besides excess 

 of salt and water. Snuffs are adulterated with 

 carbonate of ammonia, glasn, sand, coloring mat- 

 Confections are adulterated with flour 



ilphate of lime. Preserved vegetables 

 are kept green and poisoned by salts of copper. 

 The acridity of mustard i^ commonly P 

 by flour, and the color of the compound 

 proved by turmeric. Pepjwr is adulterate 

 Hnseed-meal. flour, mustard husks, etc. Color 



a to ]>ickles by salts of copper, acetate of 



copper, etc. Ale is adulterated with common 

 salt, C occiUus Indicus, grains of paradise, quassia, 

 and other bitters, sulphate of iron, alum, etc. 

 Porter and stout are mixed with sugar, treacle, 

 salt, and an excess of water. Brandy is diluted 

 with water, and burned sugar is added to im- 

 prove the color; sometimes bad whiskey is 

 flavored and colored so as to resemble brandy, 

 and sold under its name. Gin is mixed with ex- 

 cess of water, and flavoring matters of various 

 kinds, with alum and tartar, are added. Hum 

 is diluted with water, and the flavor and color 

 are kept up by the addition of cayenne and 

 burned sugar. For champagne, gooseberry, 

 and other inferior wines are often substituted. 

 Port is manufactured from red Cape and other 

 inferior wines, the body, flavor, strength, and 

 color being produced by gum-dragon, the wash- 

 ings of brandy casks, ana a preparation of Ger- 

 man bilberries. Cheap brown sherry is mixed 

 with Cape and other low-priced brandies, and is 

 flavored with the washings of brandy-casks, 

 sugar-candy, and bitter almonds. Pale sherries 

 are produced by gypsum, by a process called 

 plastering, whicn removes the natural acids as 

 well as the color of the wine. Other wines are 

 adulterated with elderberry, logwood, Brazil- 

 wood, cudbear, red beetroot, etc., for color; 

 with lime or carbonate of lime, carbonate of 

 soda, carbonate of potash, and litharge, to cor- 

 rect acidity; with catechu, sloe-leaves, and oak- 

 bark for astringency; with sulphate of lime and 

 alum for removing color; with cane-sugar for 

 giving sweetness and body; with alcohol for 

 fortifying; and with other, especially acetic 

 ether, for giving bouquet and flavor. Medicines, 

 such as jalap, opium, rhubarb, chinchona bark, 

 scammony, aloes, sarsaparilla, squills, etc., are 

 mixed with various foreign substances. Castor- 

 oil has been adulterated with other oils; and 

 inferior oils are often mixed with cod-liver oil. 

 Cantharides are often mixed with golden-beetle 

 and also artificially-colored glass. The adultera- 

 tion of seeds is largely practiced also, the seed 

 which forms the adulterant being of course of the 

 most worthless kind that can he had. Thus 

 turnip-seed is mixed with rape, wild mustard. 

 or charlock, which are steamed and kiln-dried 

 to destroy their vitality, so as to evade detection 

 in the progress of growth ; old and useless turnip- 

 seed is also used fraudulently mixed with frvsh 

 seeds. Clover is also much mixed with plantain 

 and mere weeds. 



Acts against adulteration have been passed in 

 various countries and at various linirs. In 1006, 

 the United States Congress passed comprehen- 

 sive laws rfgainst food adulteration, under the 

 titles nf the Pure Food Act and the Meat Insjec- 

 tion Art. 



Aerial Navigation. I he first balloon 

 was sent up by the brothers Stephen and Joseph 

 Montgolfier, paper manufacturers at Annonay. 

 near Lyons, on June 5, 1783, and reached an 

 altitude of nearly a mile. It was inflated with 

 heated air, for which Imlmgrn gas was soon 

 substituted. The modern balloon is hut a slight 

 improvement on that invented by Montgolner. 



