134 



FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



In this country Canada makes a much better statement of the results 

 which have followed the enforcement of the adulteration -of -food act of 

 1876 than is done anywhere else. The commissioner of inland revenue 

 has published annually for eight or ten years a statement showing the 

 entire number of samples analyzed, the persons supplying them, and 

 their composition and adulterants. Spices occupy a prominent position 

 in the reports, and a collation of the results of the investigations of the 

 several public analysts is of interest. la 1878, when the reports first 

 become available to us for reference, the summary of the spices analyzed 

 showed : 



This enormous amount of adulteration, amounting to nearly a uni- 

 versal custom, was followed in 1879 by a similar report : 



In 1880 there were reported as the results of the public analysts' 

 work : 



There is a very slight improvement apparent, but it must be remem- 

 bered that in examinations of this description the specimens selected 

 are always of a suspicious nature, those which are already known to be 

 pure being omitted, so that year by year the list of brands which are 

 excluded from examination increases. 



