February 7, 1890.'] 



SCIENCE. 



89 



Eemsen, from the results they had obtained, summed up briefly 

 as follows: — 



"1st, Starch-sugar as found in commerce is a mixture, in 

 varying proportions, of two sugars, called dextrose and maltose, 

 and of dextrine, or starch-gum. Dextrose was discovered in 

 grapes by Lowitz in 1793, and was first prepared from starch by 

 Kirchhoflf in 1811. In 1819, Bracomiot prepared it from woody 

 fibre. Maltose was first recognized as a distinct sugar by Du- 

 brunfaut, in 1847, in the product of the action of malt on starch. 

 No dextrose is thus produced, according to O' Sullivan. 



"2d, The process of making starch-sugar consists, first, in 

 separating the starch from the corn by soaking, g-rinding, strain- 

 ing, and settling; and, second, in converting the starch into 

 sugar by the action of dilute sulphuric acid, this acid being sub- 

 sequently removed by the action of chalk. To make the solid, 

 'grape-sugar, ' the conversion is carried further than to make the 

 liquid, 'glucose.' After clarifying, the liquid is concentrated 

 in vacuum-pans, and is decolorized with bone-black. 



"3d, The starch-sugar industry in the United States gives 

 employment to twenty-nine factories, having an estimated capital 

 of five millions of dollars, consuming about forty thousand 

 bushels of com per day, and producing grape-sugar and glucose 

 of the annual value of nearly ten millions of dollars. In Ger- 

 many, in 1881-83, there were thirty-nine factories of this sort, 

 consuming over seventy thousand tons of starch, and producing 

 about forty thousand tons of starch-sugar. ' ' 



Since this report of the National Academy was printed, the 

 number of starch-sugar factories in the United States has 

 decreased to twelve, with a capital invested estimated at from 

 twelve to fifteen million dollars, consuming about fifty thousand 

 bushels of corn per day, and having an annual production of 450,- 

 000,000 pounds, valued at $10,500,000.1 



"4th, Stai-oh-sugar is chiefly used in making table-simp, in 

 brewing beer as a substitute for malt, and in adulterating cane- 

 sugar. It is also used to replace cane-sugar in confectionery, in 

 canning fruits, in making fruit-jellies, and in cooking. Artifi- 

 cial honey is made with it ; and so, also, is vinegar. 



"5th, Starch-sugar represents one distinct class of sugars, as 

 cane-sugar does the other ; the former being obtained naturally 

 from the grape, as the latter is from the cane and the beet. 

 Starch-sugar, which is a term chemically synonymous with dex- 

 trose and glucose, when pure, has about two-thirds the sweeten- 

 ing power of cane-sugar. By the action of the dilute acids, both 

 cane-sugar and starch yield dextrose. In the case of starch, 

 however, dextrose constitutes the sole final product. 



"6th, The commercial samples of starch-sugar obtained by the 

 committee showed a fairly uniform composition on analysis. The 

 liquid form, or 'glucose, ' contains from 34. 3 to 43. 8 per cent of . 

 dextrose, from to 19.3 percent of maltose, from 29.8 to 45.8 

 per cent of dextrine, and from 14.3 to 23.6 per cent of water. 

 The solid form, 'grape-sugar,' gave from 73 to 73.4 per cent of 

 dextrose, from to 3.6 per cent of maltose, from 4.3 to 9.1 per 

 cent of dextrine, and from 14 to 17. 6 per cent of water. Three 

 specimens of especially prepared 'grape-sugar' contained 87.1, 

 93.3, and 99.4 per cent of dextrose respectively. The last of 

 these was ciystalline anhydrous dextrose. 



"7th, Of mineral or inorganic constituents, the samples of 

 starch-sugar examined contained only minute quantities. The 

 total ash formed in the 'glucose' was only from 0.335 to 1.060 

 per cent, and in the 'grape-sugars' only from 335 to 0.750 per 

 cent. No impurities, either organic or inorganic in character, 

 other than those mentioned, were detected in any of the samples 

 examined. 



"8th, The elaborate experiments upon the fermentation of 

 starch-sugar would seem to be final on the question of the health- 

 fulness, not only of glucose itself, but also of the substances pro- 

 duced by the action of a ferment upon it. Large quantities of a 

 concentrated extiact from the fermentation, representing from 

 one-third to one-half a pound of starch-sugar, were taken inter- 

 nally by the experimenter, and this repeatedly, without the slight- 



^ This information was kindly furnished me by the American Glucose Com- 

 pany of Buffalo, N.Y., in a recent letter, December, 1889, who also sent 

 samples of liquid and solid glucose. 



est observable effect. This result, rigidly applied, holds of course 

 only for those sugars which, like this, are made from the starch 

 of Indian-com or maize. ' ' 



From the foregoing facts the committee reached {he following 

 conclusions : ' 'Fii-st, that the manufacture of sugar from starch 

 is a long-established industry, scientifically valuable and com- 

 mercially important; second, that the processes which it employs 

 at the present time are unobjectionable in their character, and 

 leave the product uncontaminated ; third, that the starch-sugar 

 thus made and sent into commerce is of exceptional purity and 

 uniformity of composition, and contains no injurious substances ; 

 and, fourth, that though having at best only about two-thirds 

 the sweetening power of cane-sugar, yet starch-sugar is in no 

 way inferioi'to cane-sugar in healthfulness, there being no evi- 

 dence before the committee that maize-starch sugar, either in its 

 normal cgndition or fermented, has any deleterious efl'ect upon 

 the system, even when taken in large quantities. ' ' ' 



Some Other Adulterants. 



The use of flours and starches of various kinds — wheat, com, 

 rye, peas, beans, etc. — as food adulterants cannot be considered 

 injurious to health. However much the public may be cheated 

 in the purchase of such adulterated articles of food, as ground 

 spices, coffee, etc., they are not poisoned by their consumption 

 It is a question how much a purchaser is himself to blame, in his 

 endeavor to secure a ' 'bargain, ' ' when he demands so great a 

 quantity of any given material at less than it can be purchased 

 at wholesale in the market, that he compels the unscrupulous 

 manufacturer to make a compound which has never more and 

 generally less than the proportion of the genuine material repre- 

 sented by the price asked. 



Many articles of food spoil in transportation ; and, under the 

 plea of preventing further fermentation, resort is had to antisep- 

 tics, such as salicylic acid, sulphite of soda, borax, etc. These 

 deserve mention as being additions to foods of a class of. sub- 

 stances used to cloak carelessness in manufacture and otherwise, 

 and producing in many cases deleterious effects on the human 

 economy. In France and Germany the use of such antiseptics 

 as salicylic acid in food products is prohibited, although in the 

 latter country such addition is tolerated when the food product 

 is exported to cotmtries where such use is not prohibited. 



Le^islatioii on Food Adulteration. 



The adulteration of food, generally being aimed at the pocket 

 and not at the health of the consumer, ought to be easily reme- 

 died, one would suppose, by legislation. On, however, turning 

 to our different State laws on the subject, I am sony to say that 

 most of them are drawn up in a follow-the-leader style, under 

 the popular but erroneous impression that any substance used as 

 an adulterant of or a substitute for a food product is necessarily 

 injurious to health, with the consequence that these laws are, 

 with very few exceptions, merely dead letters. - New York and 

 Massachusetts have laws nearly identical in wording, whose en- 

 forement is inti'usted to their respective boards of health. In the 

 foiTQer State the law has proved a failure, because in an action 

 brought to obtain "an injunction against the sale of certain Ping 

 Suey teas it was held by the court, in refusing to grant the same, 

 that, although the teas in question had been cleai-ly sho^vn to be 

 adulterated WO;}? gypsum, Prussian blue, sand, etc. , it was like- 

 wise necessary to pirove that the effect of these admixtures was 

 such as to constitute a serious danger to public health " ^ In 

 Massachusetts, however, the law has been enforced with vigor by 

 the State Board of Health, and the yearly reports show a diminu- 

 tion in the percentage of adulteration of the samples submitted 

 to analysis. 



In this country the British Sale of Food and Drug's Act, 1875, 

 with all its imperfections, has served as a model for our legisla- 

 tion ; and until we have a general law on the subject, drawn up 



' Report on Glucose, prepared by the National Academy of Sciences, in re- 

 sponse to a request made by the commissioner of internal revenue, Washing- 

 ton, 1884. 



2 For list of State laws on food adulteration see Report of the Commia" 

 sioner of Internal Revenue, 1888, p. ccix. 



= Battershall, Food Adulteration and its Detection, p. 8 (New York, 1887), 



