Apeil 15, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



509 



In Englaad advocates of a general and 

 efficient food adulteration law were not 

 wanting, but the people at large were apa- 

 thetic and Parliament was more concerned 

 with party questions than with measures 

 that, while promising little party advan- 

 tage, were threatened with strong opposi- 

 tion. Trained analysts were few and far 

 between, and in the absence of standards 

 there was no end of conflict and jealousy 

 among the few experts. 



The London Lancet has earned the grati- 

 tude of the civilized world by its early, 

 earnest, fearless, persistent and finally suc- 

 cessful advocacy of food adulteration laws. 

 It was in a position of commanding influ- 

 ence and it stood for public welfare. The 

 Lancefs Analytical Sanitary Commission, 

 established in 1850, with Dr. Arthur Hill 

 Hassell as chief analyst, waged a deter- 

 mined warfare on food and drug adultera- 

 tion for a period of nearly twenty years, in 

 fact until comprehensive laws had been en- 

 acted and their efficiency demonstrated. 

 The Analytical Sanitary Commission made 

 reports from time to time of the analyses 

 of a large number of foods, drinks, drugs, 

 confections, tobacco, etc., it being the first 

 to undertake this work in any systematic 

 way. ISTaturally, opposition in every form 

 was excited and became active, vigorous 

 and determined. The Commission and the 

 editor of the Lancet were threatened with 

 legal prosecution and personal violence. In 

 the House of Commons Sir Charles Wood, 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, quoted as the 

 opinion of the ' most distinguished chem- 

 ist of the day ' the assertion that ' neither 

 by chemistry nor by any other means ' 

 could the admixture of chicory with coffee 

 be detected, the falsity of which assertion 

 Dr. Hassell demonstrated with the micro- 

 scope. The protection of coffee from adul- 

 teration by chicory which itself had been 

 adulterated with parsnips and other roots 

 was the first practical achievement of the 



Commission, although the question of cof- 

 fee adulteration and the sale of coifee sub- 

 stitutes was considered from the standpoint 

 of revenue rather than of fraud. 



In 1854 Dr. Hassell published ' Food 

 and its adulterations — comprising the re- 

 ports of the Analytical Sanitary Commis- 

 sion of the Lancet for the years 1851 to 

 1854 inclusive.' Before the publication of 

 these reports in the Lancet it was notorious 

 that many articles of food were generally 

 adulterated, but nothing was known with 

 the precision necessary to suppress fraud. 

 Conclusive evidence of the value of the 

 Commission's revelations, which had a 

 wide circulation in Dr. Hassell' s book, is 

 found in the fact that reforms in food laws 

 were immediately pressed in Parliament. 



Nor was the movement confined to Eng- 

 land. In 1855 the French law relative to 

 foods, which had been in force since 1851, 

 was amended to include drinks, and prog- 

 ress was made in Spain, Denmark and 

 other countries. In the same year the 

 Select Committee on the Adulteration of 

 Food was appointed by Parliament and be- 

 gan an investigation, summoning before it 

 a large number of witnesses, embracing 

 chemists, microscopists, manufacturers, 

 wholesale dealers and consumers, but no 

 general law was passed until 1860. In the 

 same year, 1855, Dr. Letheby was appointed 

 Medical Officer for the city of London, a 

 position which had been sought with much 

 earnestness by Dr. Hassell, both of whom 

 had been prominent in the agitation for 

 pure food laws. 



A work ' On the Composition of Food, 

 and how it is Adulterated, with Practical 

 Directions for its Analysis, by W. Marcet, 

 M.D., P.C.S., etc., appeared in 1856. Dr. 

 Marcet devotes a considerable space to dis- 

 paraging the work done by Dr. Hassell, 

 and the Lancet reviews Marcet's book with 

 marked severity. 



Jealousies among the advocates of reform. 



