1881.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



slide under a cover, it can be pressed 

 out into an extremely thin film, and 

 the large cells of chicory will be 

 seen in long strings (Fig. 3), with 

 occasional fragments of spiral tissue ; 

 each cell of chicory, at this stage, is 

 about twenty times the size of coffee- 

 cells, treated in the same way. 



If peas or beans were used in 

 adulterating the sample under exam- 

 ination, their color, if well-roasted, 

 will very closely resemble that of 

 coffee, and the particles will be hard, 

 but will crumble by rubbing between 

 finger and thumb, and will also crush 

 under the knife-blade. Their odor 

 is but faint and hardly to be noticed 

 in the stronger odor of the coffee. 

 The starch-grains and cells of the 

 bean or pea, and the fragments of 

 the outer membrane, composed of 

 very fine columnar cells, will be 

 found and distinguished at the first 

 glance from coffee-cells, which they 

 do not in the least resemble. In 

 water, both beans and peas swell 

 quickly, but more slowly than chi- 

 cory, and soon become soft, so as to 

 be readily crushed down. 



It would extend this article to too 

 great a length to consider, separately, 

 all the roots and seeds that can be 

 and have been used, to adulterate 

 coffee. Starch is present in all the 

 grains — corn, rye, wheat, etc., that 

 could be used, and spiral tissues in 

 all the roots, so that the fact of adul- 

 teration is very easily and certainly 

 determined by the microscope, al- 

 though the determination of the pre- 

 cise substance used is somewhat more 

 difficult. The livers of animals chop- 

 ped, dried and ground, have been used 

 to adulterate coffee, but this material 

 is not probably used at this time, 

 and, like the coffee-berries made of 

 dried and colored clay, of which we 

 have read, probably could not now 

 be found in any manufactory or store. 



To examine ground coffee, it is best 

 to sift it and examine first the fine 

 particles, and if any starch-bearing 

 adulteration is present, starch will be 

 found. Next, examine pieces se- 



lected from the larger particles, and 

 if any pieces of roots are present, 

 here they will be found. Any pieces 

 of tissue or membrane noticed, 

 should also be inspected, and will 

 disclose the presence of seeds like 

 beans, etc. Then place about a tea- 

 spoonful of the sample in a two- 

 ounce vial of water, and note the re- 

 sults as before indicated. 



To enable a person to pronounce 

 certainly on all substances used in 

 adulteration requires protracted re- 

 search, for which considerable time 

 and a vast amount of labor are 

 necessary. Thus, the mere finding of 

 starch in a substance not naturally 

 containing starch, will not enable an 

 investigator to pronounce, with cer- 

 tainty, what kind of starch it is, un- 

 less he has examined every kind of 

 starch-bearing substance, which, of 

 itself, would be the labor probably of 

 years. But to determine whether 

 any adulteration exists, is a much 

 simpler matter, and in a succeeding 

 article the examination of other sub- 

 stances subject to adulteration will 

 be considered. 



If it is desired to mount for per- 

 manent preservation a pure sample of 

 coffee, or even an adulterated one, 

 or samples of the ingredients used in 

 the adulteration, it may be done 

 either in balsam or glycerin. To 

 mount in balsam, take the fine, sifted 

 part and steep it in turpentine or 

 chloroform until the air in the cells is 

 expelled, when, after shaking it, take 

 by a pipette from the bottom that 

 which first settles, and mount in bal- 

 sam in the usual way. For glycerin- 

 jelly mounting use alcohol instead of 

 turpentine. Samples of the foreign in- 

 gredients may be mounted in the 

 same way, or by mounting the small 

 slices cut for examination. It would 

 be useful also to mount samples 

 which have been subjected to macer- 

 ation, when they can be crushed 

 down into a film, and mounted in 

 glycerin or glycerin-jelly, so as to 

 better exhibit the shape of the indi- 

 vidual cells and their arrangement, 



