SPICES AND CONDIMENTS. 195 



Calculated cm this basis the four samples were found to consist of: 



These figures show a fair agreement, and, in the opinion of the au- 

 thors, entitle the method to consideration. They condemn, however, 

 severely placing any reliance on determinations of the alcohol extract. 



Weigmann* has also examined a number of pure peppers, and obtained 

 results which do not harmonize with those of Lenz. He finds : 



Our experience with the inversion of starch by acids is such as to 

 make it seem very probable that, without the necessary attention to de- 

 tails, it would be very possible to obtain such results as those last given 

 from lack of complete conversion of starch to reducing sugar or the 

 inversion of other substances, and in the discussion of our analyses 

 this will be referred to. 



In the second reportt of the Laboratoire Municipal de Paris the sub- 

 ject of pepper and its adulteration as practiced in France is discussed. 

 There whole peppers are made artificially from plaster, gum, and a little 

 pepper, and the ground article with the most diverse substances, such 

 as hemp-seed cake, colza, rape and beechnut cakes, starches, residues 

 from the manufacture of potato starch, mineral matter, sweeping of 

 spice warehouses sold as pepper dust, and so forth. The residue from 

 the manufacture of potato starch has, after fermentation, a pungent 

 taste which makes it a desirable adulterant, but the most common one 

 is the powdered kernel of the olive, which is yellowish white in color 

 and possesses all the outward characteristics of white pepper and gives 

 practically the same amount of ash. To give this powder the proper 

 taste and pungency there was added Cayenne, powdered bay leaves, 

 and dried and powdered orange skins. The mixture is recognized with- 

 out difficulty by chemical and microscopic examination, the latter of 

 which gives an absolute proof of the character of the substance. 



It is recommended to separate the olive kernels from pepper by the 

 use of a mixture of glycerine and water of a Sp. Gr. of 1.173 at 10 C., 

 in which the former sink. After decantation they can be examined 



"Rep. anal. Cliem. 6, 399-40. 



f Documents sur les falsifications desMatieres aliinentaires, Paris, 1885, p. 688-695. 



