PUBLISHER'S Department. 



CHE^F IFOOID IFOIR. THIE n^vdllLLIOn^. 



BV CHARLES S. BKAY. M.D. 



^From " The Century Magazine" for July.'\ 



I. INKiUITorS ADULTEKATION. 



" TiiEUE has been so much adulteration of 

 food," said a New-York divine recently, " that 

 it is an amazement to me that there is a 

 healthy man in America. The great want of 

 to-day is practical religion, — a religion that 

 will correctly label goods, that will prevent a 

 marr telling you a watch was made in Geneva 

 when it was made in Massachusetts, that will 

 keep the ground glass and the sand out of the 

 sugar, that will go into the grocery and pull 

 out the plug of ale-adulterated sirup, that 

 will dump in the ash-barrel the cassia-buds 

 that are sold for cinnamon, that will sift out 

 the Prussian-blue from the tea-leaves, that 

 will keep out of flour the plaster of Paris and 

 soapstone, that will separate the one quart of 

 Ridgewood water from the one honest drop 

 of cow's milk, that will throw out the live ani- 

 nialculae from the sugar. Heaven knows what 

 they put in the spices, in the butter, or the 

 drugs ; but chemical analysis and the micro- 

 scope have made wonderful discoveries." 



"The Youth's Companion," in a recent 

 article on the adulteration of food, says, — 



" A system of inspection is neccssarj' to protect the 

 public from the aduheration of food which is so 

 common in this country, especially in the i)Oorer 

 quarters of onr large cities, where the prices are 

 low and the purchasers not fastidious. . . . Large 

 quantities of unwholesome meat are sold to the poor, 

 such as poultry which has been thrown out of the 

 better class of markets, ' boh ' veal, the meat of calves 

 killed too soon after birth, and beef that comes from 

 animals that have been unliealtliy before slaughter- 

 ing. . . . The health of a community can be serious- 

 ly injured bv the tricks of dishonest tradesmen, and 

 people should be careful in buying food that is offered 

 at unusually low prices." 



These strictures may, perhaps, strike the 

 average reader as foreshadowing a crusade 

 against the compounders and venders of adul- 

 terated food ; but this is not our prime object. 

 The coml)ined power of the pulpit and press is 



almost incalculable, and the batteries of the 

 latter are being levelled against this " common 

 enemy " along the whole line. That men, 

 induced b^- the hope of gain, should adulterate 

 the staples of life, and thus add crime, and, as 

 often follows, murder, to their account on the 

 "Great Ledger" of eternity, seems almost 

 impossible of conception ; and yet it is onl}' 

 too true. This criminal practice is as old as 

 the hills ; and its recent condemnation b}- the 

 clergy and press is omj- another e.KCinplifica- 

 tion of the value of free speech and a free 

 press, — two inestimable boons to Americans. 



II. ^SPOILED FOOD. 



It is a fact, lamentable enough in itself, 

 that food has a natural tendency to decay, 

 which men have heretofore unsuccessfully at- 

 tempted to check. Especially is this true of 

 auimal food and its after-products, such as 

 butter, cream, milk, cheese, lard, etc. The 

 problem of pure, fresh, healthful, cheap food, 

 in all climates and seasons, is a field broad 

 enough to command the attention of all phi- 

 lanthropists. To the rich man all things seem 

 possible ; but to the laboring classes this prob- 

 lem of fresh and cheap food is, and ever has 

 been, a veritable Gordian knot. . 



The laboring man looks forward to Sunday 

 for a da3- of rest and a good dinner. The 

 steak, oysters, chop, chicken, and such deli- 

 cacies are procured on Saturday, and kept 

 over for this sabbath meal. It goes without 

 saying, that a lack of ice, a warm room, a 

 rauggv day, a iioorlv ventilated cellar, and 

 a myriad of such evcry-day causes and cir- 

 cumstances, conspire to spoil these viands. 

 Even slightly salted, they lose tlieir fresh 

 flavor ; smoked, they are even less desirable ; 

 immersed in pickle, or corned, they become 

 impregnated with the deadly saltpetre ; placed 

 in a refrigerator, they are i)i-acticallv frozen. 



