232 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



resinification of the portion of the volatile oil, thus reducing the percent- 

 age of this substance and increasing that of the fat. 



The amount of starch and allied substances seeins fairly constant, 

 while that of albuminoids is rather lower than would be expected. The 

 fiber is also low, but our methods of determining so called fiber are so 

 indefinite that such determinations are of only of comparative value. 



Without any actual trials it would seem that determinations of oil 

 and fat, and perhaps of albuminoids and fiber, would serve well to 

 detect foreign substances which would certainly modify in a striking 

 way the normal relations of these proximate principles. 



At present nutmegs are almost entirely sold whole and grated in the 

 kitchen. Attempts at adulteration have, therefore, been few in number. 



MACE. 



The mantle or arillus of the nutmeg, a coat between the outside peri- 

 carp and the seed, is known as mace when separated and dried. The 

 coat is not continuous, but is a net- work the form of which is recogniz- 

 able in the dried spice. 



Of its microscopic structure Fluckiger and Haubury say : 



The uniform, small-celled angular parenchy me is interrupted by numerous brown oil 

 cells of larger size. The inner part of the tissue contains also thin brown vascular bun- 

 dles. The oells of the epidermis on either side are colorless, thick walled, longitudinally 

 extended, and covered with a peculiar cuticle of broad, flat ribbon-like cells, which 

 cannot, however, be removed as a continuous film. The parenchyme is loaded with 

 small grannies, to which a red color is imparted by Millon's test (solution of mercurous 

 nitrate) and an orange hue by iodine. The granules consequently consist of albumin- 

 ous matter, and starch is altogether wanting. 



This statement has been fully confirmed, and the presence of starch 

 claimed by several writers disproved. Iodine produces a peculiar deep 

 brown color approaching the black-blue given with starch, which, in 

 connection with the granules, has given riso to the statements that 

 starch is present. 



In the ground powder of mace all the details of structure described 

 by Fliickiger are readily made out, especially in chloral hydrate prep- 

 arations with polarized light, as the brown vascular bundles, the rib- 

 bon-like and epidermal cells all are polarizing substances, while the 

 large mass of granular parenchyma cells are not. The ribbon-like cells 

 are particularly interesting in the varied forms they assume. Adultera- 

 tions can be readily detected. 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MACE. 



Fliickiger and Hanbury found in mace 8.2 per cent, of essential oil and 

 24.5 per cent, of aromatic balsam or resinified aromatic oil but no fat; 

 also 1.4 per cent, of uncrystallizable sugar and 1.8 of mucilage, or a 

 body between that and starch, blued by iodine. The composition of 

 mace they therefore fiud to be very different from that of nutmeg, con- 

 trary to the assertion of Hassall. 



