SPICES AND CONDIMENTS. 

 Brown gives the following analyses and says :* 



199 



The stones of olives, imported in pickle for table use, gave 3.68 percent, of ash, but 

 well-washed olive-stones, thoroughly burnt to a white ash, gave under 2 per cent, of 

 ash-like poivrette. " White poivrette" is therefore cleaned very pale, and perhaps 

 partly bleached olive-stones or precisely similar tissue ; black poivrette is the same, 

 mixed with a little black husk. It is to be noted that although it contains no starch, 

 yet it yields some sugar to Fehling's solution, after being boiled for some time with 

 dilute hydrochloric acid. The quantity depends on the length of time and strength 

 of acid, but may be stated approximately about 10 per cent. It is important to bear 

 this fact in mind when making a full chemical analysis of pepper containing poivrette. 

 After removing from such a mixture the matters soluble by boiling in dilute caustic 

 alkali, the woody fiber which remains has a yellow color. It consists of the poivretto 

 and some of the cells of pepper husk and one of the subcortical layers of the pep- 

 per berry. The pepper cells are made lighter and the poivrette cells darker by the 

 alkali, so that the two are more nearly of a similar yellow color after treatment with 

 alkali. This renders it more difficult to distinguish such of the cells as have some- 

 what similar markings, but it enables us to distinguish more clearly as poivrette the 

 many torn particles which have no definite form or markings. The final examination 

 of the complete cells is better made with good daylight rather than with artificial 

 light, and in a portion which has been treated with water only. 



The pepper cells are mostly different in shape and are colored, and have generally 

 a dark substance in the interior. They are not numerous, but the quantity varies in 

 commercial samples, owing to the modern practice of decorticating the pepper berry 

 to every different extent possible, and mixing the various portions so obtained, in- 

 cluding husks, in every variety of proportion with each other or with ordinary pep- 

 per. Each individual analyst must make himself familiar with both kinds of cells, as 

 no description can convey an adequate idea of either. In order to form a judgment 

 regarding the proportions of the different chemical constituents of commercial sam- 

 ples, we require to know the chemical composition of the different layers of the pep- 

 per-corn, and I hope soon to communicate to the society some figures bearing on this 

 point, as well as to notice some other substances used in the sophistication of pepper. 



It is interesting to note that the exemption, mentioned in section 8 of the sale of 

 food and drugs act, in the case of a label being affixed to the article sold intimating 

 that the same is a mixture, does not apply in the case of poivrette, the admixture be- 

 ing made manifestly for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the weight and bulk. 



In a subsequent note Brown t warns analysts not to confuse an exces- 

 sive amount of cortical cells of the pepper husk for poivrette, as they 

 ire somewhat similar. This, however, would certainly not occur if 



ithentic samples of pepper and olive-stones were used for comparison. 



Brown also contributes a paper to the Analyst on the use of "long 

 ," Chavica Roxburghiij as an admixture to the ordinary ground 



