102 



of the latex. These vessels afford useful means of distin- 

 guishing chicory from some other roots employed in the 

 adulteration of coffee. The chief part of the root is made 

 up of little utricles or cells. These are generally of a rounded 

 form, but sometimes they are narrow and elongated. The 

 former occur when the pressure is least and the root soft, 

 the latter in the neighbourhood of the vessels.* 



There are four characters by which adulterated chicory 

 may be distinguished from the genuine. 



1st. It yields to cold water a much whiter colour. In 

 using this test it is necessary to have a sample of genuine 

 chicory for comparison. 



2ndly. A decoction of chicory containing either roasted 

 grain or pulse, yields when cold a purplish or bluish-black 

 colour, with a solution of iodine ; whereas a corresponding 

 decoction of genuine chicory is merely coloured brown by 

 iodine. 



Srdly. The microscope detects in adulterated chicory the 

 torrefied starch grains of either corn or pulse. That they are 

 starch grains is shown by the action of a solution of iodine, 

 which blackens them. 



4thly. The odour and flavour will sometimes detect adul- 

 terations. 



Boasted and ground chicory attracts water from the air, 

 and thereby increases in weight and becomes clammy. The 

 grinders are accustomed to return as much by weight of 

 ground chicory as they receive of the unground root, for the 

 loss which the root suffers by grinding is more than compen- 

 sated by the absorption of water from the air. 



* " Food and its Adulterations." 

 THE END. 



C. WHITING, BEAUFOET HOUSE, STRAND. 



