280 



FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 



[1855 



remarkable book, yet it bad little effect in reforming tbe abuses 

 it exposed. General denunciations of grocers did not touch 

 individuals of the craft, and tbey wore consequently not driven 

 to improve tbe quality of tlieir wares. The Lancet Com- 

 mission went to work in a different manner. In Turkey, when 

 of old tbey caught a baker giving false weight or adulterating 

 the staff of life, they nailed his ear to tbe doorpost, ' pour 

 encourager les autres.' Dr. Hassall, like a modern Al Kachid, 

 perambulated tbe town himself, or sent his trustworthy agents 

 to purchase articles, upon all of which tbe inexorable miscro- 

 scope was set to work, and every fraudulent sample, after due 

 notice given, subjected its vendor to be pinned for ever to tbe 

 terrible pages of the Commissioners' report. In this manner 

 direct responsibility was obtained. If tbe falsification denounced 

 was not the work of the retailer, he was glad enough to shift 

 the blame upon tbe manufacturer, and thus the truth came out. 



A gun suddenly fired into a rookery could not cause a greater 

 commotion than this publication of tbe names of dishonest 

 tradesmen, nor does tbe daylight, when you lift a stone, startle 

 ugly and loathsome things more quickly than the pencil of 

 light, streaming through a quarter-inch lens, surprised in their 

 naked ugliness tbe thousand and one illegal substances which 

 enter more or less into every description of food that it will pay 

 to adulterate. Nay, to such a pitch of refinement has tbe art 

 of falsification of alimentary substances reached, that tbe very 

 articles used to adulterate are adulterated ; and while one 

 tradesman is picking tbe pockets of bis customers, a still more 

 cunning rogue is, unknown to himself, deep in his own ! 



Tbe manner in which food is adulterated is not only one of 

 degree but of kind. Tbe most simple of all sophistications, 

 and that which is most harmless, is tbe mixture of inferior 

 qualities of the same substance. Indeed, if the price charged 

 were according to ciuality, it would be no fraud at all, but this 

 adjustment rarely takes place. Secondly, the mixture of 

 cheaper articles of another kind ; Thirdly, the surreptitious 

 introduction of materials which, taken in large quantities, are 

 prejudicial to health ; and Fourthly, the admixture of the most 

 deadly poisons in order to improve the appearance of tbe article 

 ' doctored.' 



Tbe microscope alone is capable of detecting at one operation 

 tbe nature and extent of tbe more harmless but general of 

 these frauds. When once tbe investigator, by aid of that 

 instrument, has become familiar with the configurations of dif- 

 ferent kinds of the same chemically composed substances, he is 

 armed with fir greater detective power than chemical agents 

 could provide him with. It is beyond the limit of tbe test-tube 

 to show the mind the various forms of animal and vegetable 

 life which exist in impure water; delicate as are its powers it 

 could not indicate tbe presence of tbe sugar insect, or distin- 

 guish with unerring nicety an admixture of the common Cir- 

 cuma arrowroot with the finer Maranta. Chemistry is quite 

 capable of telling the component parts of any article : what are 

 the definite forms and natures of the various ingredients which 

 enter into a mixture it cannot so easily answer. This the 

 microscope can at once effect, and in its present application 

 consists Dr. Hassall's advantage over all previous investigators 

 in the same field. The precision with which be is enabled to 

 state the result of his labors leaves no appeal ; be shows his 

 reader the intimate structures of a coffee-grain and of oak or 

 mahogany sawdust ; and then a specimen of tbe two combined, 

 sold under tbe title of genuine Mocha. Many manufacturers 

 and retailers, who have been detected falsifying tbe food of the 

 public, have threatened actions, but they all flinched from the 

 test of the unerring instrument. 



THE CRUET-STAND. 

 The system of adulteration is so wide-spread and em- 

 braces so many of the items of the daily meal, that we scarcely 

 know where to begin — what corner of tbe veil first to lift. Let 

 us hold up the cruet-frame, for example, and analyse its con- 

 tents. There is mustard, pepper (black and cayenne), vinegar, 

 anchovy and Harvey sauce — so thinks the unsuspecting reader 

 — let us show him what else beside. To begin with mustard. 

 'Best Durham,' or ' Supei'fine Durham,' no doubt it was pur- 

 chased for, but we will summarily dismiss this substance by 

 stating that it is impossible to procure it pure at all ; out of 

 forty-two samples bought by Dr. Hassall at the best as well as 

 inferior shops, all were more or less adulterated with wheaten 

 flour for bulk, and with turmeric for colour. Vinegar also suf- 

 fers a double adulteration ; it is first watered, and then 

 pungency is given to it by the addition of sulphuric acid. A 

 small quantity of this acid is allowed by law ; and this is fre- 

 quently trebled by tbe victualers. The pepper-caster is another 

 stronghold of fraud — fraud so long and openly practised, that 

 we question if the great mass of the perpetrators even think 

 tbey are doing wrong. Among tbe milder forms of sophistica- 

 tion to which this article is subjected are to be found such 

 ingredients as wheaten flour, ground rice, ground mustard- 

 seeds, and linseed-meal. Tbe grocer maintains a certain reserve 

 as to tbe generality of the articles he employs in vitiating bis 

 wares, but pepper be seems to think is given up to him by tbe 

 public to ' cook ' in any manner be thinks fit. This he almost 

 invariably does by tbe addition of what is known in the trade 

 as P.D., or pepper-dust, alias the sweeping from tbe pepper- 

 warehouse. But there is a lower depth still; P. D. is too 

 genuine a commodity for some markets, and it is accordingly 

 mixed with D. P. D., or dirt of pepper-dust. 



Out of twenty-eight samples of cayenne pepper submitted to 

 examination, no less than twenty-four were adulterated with 

 white mustard-seed, brickdust, salt, ground rice, and deal saw- 

 dust, by way of giving bulk ; but as all of these tend to lighten 

 the colour, it is necessary to heighten it to tbe requii'ed pitch. 

 And what is employed to do this ? Hear and tremble, old 

 Indians, and lovers of high-seasoned food — with red LEAD. 

 Out of twenty-eight samples, red lead, and often in jjoisonous 

 quantities, was present in thirteen ! Who knows how many 

 ' yellow admirals ' at Bath have fallen victims to their cayenne- 

 cruets ? Nor can it be said that the small quantity taken at a 

 time could do no permanent mischief, for lead belongs to the 

 class of poisons which are cumulative in their effects. 



He who loves cayenne, as a rule is fondof curry-powder, and 

 here also tbe poisonous oxide is to be found in large quantities. 

 Some years ago a certain amiable duke recommended the laboring 

 population, during a season of famine, to take a pinch of this 

 condiment every morning before going to work, as "warm and 

 comforting to the stomach.' If they had followed bis advice, 

 thirteen out of every twenty-eight persons would have imbibed a 

 slow poison. Those who are in the habit of using curry, generally 

 take it in considerable quantities, and thus the villanous falsi- 

 fication plays a more deadly part than even in cayenne pepper. 

 Imagine a man for years pertinaciously painting his stomach 

 with red lead ! We do not know whether medical statistics 

 prove that paralysis prevails much among ' Nabobs,' but of this 

 we may be sure that there could be no more fruitful source of 

 it than tbe two favorite stimulants we have named. 



MEAT AND BREAD. 



Some years ago ' tbe Goldner canister business' so excited 

 the public against this invaluable method of storing perishing 



