SECTION VII. 



ADULTERANTS. 



GEEA.T as tbe consumption of coffee is in Europe and the 

 Americas, it lias become so necessary in every household, 

 that the demand continues to increase, and very full prices 

 are maintained. The largely extended plantations in Brazil, 

 in Ceylon, in India, in Java, and in other suitable localities, 

 profitably opened up every day, altogether fail to keep down 

 prices, and will long continue to offer the strong inducement 

 of large profits ! 



Taking advantage of this great public want, the unscru- 

 pulous and fraudulent trader foists upon the easily-duped 

 masses of consumers vast quantities of unwholesome and 

 pernicious stuff, mixed in certain proportions with coffee; 

 and, although the law has interposed in the case of chicory, 

 forbidding, under penalties, its being sold mixed with coffee, 

 unless especially so. labelled and declared, yet who can tell 

 the thousand and one mixtures that are still made and sold 

 with it ? 



It may be said that all this can be prevented by purchas- 

 ing only unground coffee, in a roasted state; ready for grind- 

 ing; but there are those (to be reckoned by hundreds of 

 thousands of families) who, having no means of grinding this 

 roasted coffee, are compelled to buy that which is already 

 ground, or go without altogether. 



"What abominations do these (in too many cases) not drink, 

 then, under the much abused name of coffee ? 



These reflections are forced upon my mind every time I 

 enter a coffee-house, and am called to put faith in the purity 

 of the cup of coffee set before me. 



Visitors to the establishments of coffee-grinders speak of 



