AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 491 



ric, and colored with red lead; that six samples contained large 

 qunntities of salt, sometimes alone, but more frequently combined 

 with rice and a red ferruginous earth, or with red lead; that one 

 of the samples was adulterated with a large quantity of the musk 

 of white mustard seed; that two contained rice only, colored with 

 red lead, which latter substance is often present in sufficient 

 amount to produce unpleasant symptoms in" the system of those 

 using cayenne pepper. Snuft' is adulterated with another prepar- 

 ation of lead, chromate of lead, and not to a larger extent than 

 red-lead is present in cayenne, and several cases have been re- 

 corded recently of the production of paralysis by the use of snuff 

 containing lead; now if snuflf, which merely passes up the nostrils, 

 will give rise to paralysis, it is extremely probable that cayenne pep- 

 per will do so when introduced into the stomach, especially when 

 taken in curry powder, in which far larger quantities are con- 

 sumed than when taken alone. Now this red lead is cmnulative 

 upon the system, and is not discharged very easily; in fact none 

 of the metals are easily expelled from the system; they are all 

 apt to accumulate, but lead of any kind, and mercury are par- 

 ticularly liable to accumulate and often do so; and though the 

 symptoms might not go to the extent of paralysis, the health 

 might be very much disturbed. I have known serious illness to 

 result from taking curry powder, which must have been caused by 

 the red lead introduced through the cayenne into the powder. 

 Cayenne pepper, in many cases, is exposed to the light of the sun 

 in shop windows, and it is very apt from that exposure to loose 

 its color. If any mineral coloring matter is used the Cayenne 

 will stand exposure, and not appear to fade. It really does fade, 

 but then the coloring matter added makes up for the deficiency 

 of color. When you see particularly red pepper, there is good 

 reason to suspect that it is not genuine. It is a suspicious cir- 

 cumstance in itself, but is not conclusive, because the addition of 

 salt to cayenne peper heightens its color in a very remai-kable 

 manner, and makes it more vividly red than even red lead would 

 do. Much of the red pepper which is imported in a ground 

 state from India contains salt. 



The conclusions arrived at by the committee from the exami- 

 nation of twenty-six samples of curry powder were, that seven 

 only were genuine; that nineteen, or nearly four-fifths, were 

 adulterated; that ground rice, usually in very large quantities, 

 was present in nine samples; that potato farina was detected in 

 one; that salt was present in eight; that the highly poisonous 



