428 THE MICROSCOPE. 



very large of Dr. Hassall.* The report of these inquiries fills be- 

 tween 600 and 700 closely printed pages of a large octavo, replete with 

 details of the fraudulent contaminations commonly practised by the 

 people's purveyors, at the people's expense of health and pocket. 



By the help of modern chemistry, a wonderfully small fractional 

 part of many substances contained in, or mingled with some other 

 substance, may be discovered. The grave gives up its secret to the 

 chemist, who detects the minutest particle of arsenic in the body of the 

 victim long murdered. But every body who is poisoned is not poisoned 

 by an agent so responsive as arsenic to chemical tests. Most poisons 

 of the vegetable class soon decompose, and cannot be recomposed or 

 reproduced. If 'they contained permanent active principles, the quan- 

 tity of these is commonly too small to admit of any demonstration 

 which is practically trustworthy. Much of the vegetable rubbish with 

 which articles of food are poisoned, in a comparatively mild degree, by 

 adulteration, is undiscoverable by chemical science. Sloe-leaves among 

 tea defy the examination of the detective chemist. He may demon- 

 strate the tea not to contain as much of its active principle " thein," as 

 it ought ; he may prove that its quality is bad, but he cannot show 

 why, he cannot elicit from the fragments of the Chinese leaf the pro- 

 duce of the British blackthorn. But the problem that baffles chemistry, 

 is solved by vegetable anatomy. The microscope supplies the short- 

 comings of the crucible and the test-tube. The root, leaf, stalk, bark, 

 flower, fruit of each plant, herb, or tree, has its peculiar structure, dis- 

 cernible by microscopical examination in the minutest portion of each 

 of those parts. The fragment of tea presents a different arrangement 

 of cells, vessels, and other parts, from that exhibited by the piece of 

 sloe-leaf; and the difference is distinguished with certainty by the 

 aid of the microscope. 



If gratitude is due to those who discover antidotes to disease, or 

 invent appliances for relieving pain, the same obligation must un- 

 doubtedly be admitted to the man whose researches, by detecting the 

 hidden seeds of sickness, must directly tend to prolong life and increase 

 its comforts. The facts of the case, though already more or less known 

 to the public, are really startling when presented in so large a mass 

 and on such formal authority. " In nearly all articles," said Dr. Hassall, 

 before a committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire 

 into these adulterations, " whether food, drink, or drugs, iny opinion is 



* Food and its Adulterations ; comprising the Reports of the Analytical Sanitary 

 Commission of the Lancet, for the years 1851 to 1854 inclusive. By Arthur Hill 

 Hassall, M.D. 



