57 



Lard. Since this report was commenced tiie Chemical Division have 

 issued part 5 of Bulletin 13, relating entirely to lard. Although much 

 data on this particular subject has been carefully collected, it is deemed 

 unnecessary to go further into the subject in this report. The reader 

 who doubts that this important article of daily consumption is adul- 

 terated in the most reckless and outrageous manner, is referred to the 

 above Bulletin and the report of the Agricultural Committee of the House 

 of Representatives of the Fiftieth Congress, and also to the exhaustive 

 and able report of Hon. E. H. Conger, of Iowa, in presenting the bill to 

 prevent the adulteration of lard. 



Flavoring extracts are used more or less in every family, and the 

 evidence I have been able to gather leads me to the conviction that a 

 very small proportion of the flavoring extracts sold on the market is 

 true to name. Most of them are mixtures of acids and other drugs ; 

 indeed, the manufacturer who makes a thoroughly pure article has no 

 chance in the market, where the cheapness of the artificial article gives 

 it full sway. The acids and drugs used in the preparation of these 

 goods are all more or less harmful, and as a result we not infrequently 

 come across wholesale poisoning from their use. See for example the 

 Washington Star, September 12, where a hundred persons at a wed- 

 ding were poisoned, presumably by eating ice-cream. A manufacturer 

 of this class of goods writes as follows : 



Fully 75 per cent, are sophisticated, and the cost of manufacture reduced about 50 

 per cent. That of this the retailer gains 25 per cent., while the consumer receives no 

 benefit whatever, and further, that these goods are always sold as pure. 



Tea, like coffee, is used in every household in the country, and has 

 Jong been recognized as a necessary article of diet. Like coffee, too, it 

 has become the prey of the adulterater, with this difference, that the 

 adulterants in the case of tea are frequently not simply commercial 

 frauds, but are often injurious to health, and sometimes extremely 

 poisonous. 



I subjoin extracts from replies received from two different tea houses, 

 differing widely in their statements. 



Chase & Sauborn, Boston, say: 



There is very .little adulteration in teas and coffees. Teas certainly are pure, and 

 Hit- advent of the coffee-mill in the grocery stores has done away with ground coffee, 

 and thereby with the opportunity to adulterate. 



They conclude their letter with the statement that "tea and coffee, as 

 at present furnished, are to a very large extent pure products." But it 

 seems that tea dealers, like doctors, differ. 



Martin Gillet & Co., of Baltimore, say : 



Two-thirds of green teas from China and one-half of all Japan teas are faced or 

 colored to give them a deceptive appearance. The facing is Prussian blue, gypsum, 

 soap-stone, plumbago, and other chemicals. They are certainly not beneficial to 

 health. Strange to say, the adulteration adds to the cost; that is, the color or faciug 

 costs. It simply enables the unscrupulous dealer to deceive the ignorant buyer. As 

 a rule, all tea shipped from China and Japan are branded by orders from America 

 with th names oftho highest grades, tfoono brawls tlio truth on the poorest grades. 



