90 ANALYSIS AND ADULTEKATIONS OF COFFEE. 



dandelions. It contains no essential oil, tannic acid, or alkaloid 

 analogous to that of coffee. The chief constituents of which it 

 is made up when roasted are a little gum, sugar partly burned 

 and reduced to caramel, coloring matter, and insoluble vege- 

 table tissue." It is evident, therefore, that by the admixture of 

 chiccory with coffee, the active properties of the latter are 

 reduced, since between the two articles there is no chemical 

 analogy whatever. The same authority also refers to this 

 subject of adulteration of coffee with another article named 

 coffina, made and introduced, in 1851, into the English 

 market. It w^as described as the seed of a Turkish plant, 

 which was found to be highly nutritious. On subjecting it to 

 examination with the microscope, it was ascertained to consist 

 of the roasted seeds of some leguminous plant, probably a 

 lentil. Of this article no less than eighty tons were offered for 

 sale by a Scotch house at about $60 per ton ; that is, at about 

 3 cents per Ib. " On this single transaction the revenue would 

 be defrauded of no less a sum than $22,200 and the public of 

 at least four times that amount, namely, $90,000. The impor- 

 tation of about 100 tons of lupin -seed from Egypt into 

 Glasgow has led to the conjecture that this coffina was made 

 from it a conjecture, it is believed, correct." 



The adulteration of coffee in some cases alters and reduces 

 so greatly the color and appearance of the article, as well as of 

 the infusion made from it, that the use of coloring matters is fre- 

 quently necessitated. One of these is burnt sugar, or sugar-house 

 molasses, technically known in the trade as Black Jack. Another 

 article, used sometimes to give increased color to adulterated 

 ground coffee, is Venetian red, or some other analogous ferrugi- 

 nous earth. The adulterations of coffee are altogether indefen- 

 sible ; and notwithstanding their frequent exposure, both at home 

 and abroad, they still to a great extent continue to be practised. 

 Some years since, roasted corn, principally rye, was largely 



