SPICES AND CONDIMENTS. 133 



the laws for the prevention of the adulteration of foods which have 

 been in operation in Germany, England, France, Canada, and a few of 

 our States, during a longer or shorter period of time, a large share of 

 attention has been given to the adulteration of spices and condiments 

 and the means of detecting them. Fortunately the latter are not diffi- 

 cult, and the results have been an awakening of the communities in 

 these countries to an appreciation of the advantages of pure spices 

 and the placing of the method of detection on a more certain basis. 



EXPERIENCE IN COUNTRIES HAVINGr PUBLIC ANALYSTS. 



In England the public mind had been so far educated by the publica- 

 tions of private investigators, such as Hassall, that in 1860 laws were 

 passed for the prevention of the adulteration of food and drink. These 

 have been modified and repealed, so that the present law dates from 

 1875 and amendments of 1879. Unfortunately there is no Government 

 report, of which we are aware, upon the results of the scientific work 

 done by those employed under the act, and we are indebted to the So- 

 ciety of Public Analysts for a large portion of the information which is 

 at our disposal in regard to adulteration in England. We have also in 

 the publications of Hassal, Blyth, and Allen volumes which give the 

 most recent scientific data as to the best methods for the detection of 

 adulteration, and illustrations of the forms in which foreign matter oc- 

 curs. On Dr. HassalPs work is founded many of our present methods of 

 examining foods microscopically, and especially spices and condiments. 

 In the Analyst, the publication of the Society of Public Analysts, will 

 be found among the proceedings of the society, in papers of individ- 

 uals, and in reports of prosecutions, much information in regard to the 

 status of adulteration in England during the last eleven years, includ- 

 ing the material used for adulteration of spices and the means of de- 

 tecting it. The lack of an official publication of the results of all that 

 has been done in regard to particular samples and of the methods em- 

 ployed for their examination is, however, much to be regretted. There 

 is the same difficulty in Germany. The law of the Empire of 1881 pro- 

 vides for the prevention of the adulteration of the substances which we 

 have under consideration, but no reports on the execution of the law or 

 of the results, scientific or otherwise, have been made available to us. 

 Much, however, has been published in the German technical and scien- 

 tific journals on the methods of detecting adulterants, which is of the 

 greatest value. 



In France, the laboratory of the prefecture of police of Paris, which 

 has control of the investigation of the food supplies of that city, makes 

 an elaborate report annually, of which, however, but a small portion is 

 devoted to spices, although they are recognized as being largely adul- 

 terated, pepper, for example, being mixed to an astonishing extent 

 with ground olive stones. Other cities of France have municipal lab- 

 oratories whose reports, if any there are, have not reached us. 



