1855.] 



FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 



283 



cula abouud. In addition to this foreign animal element, 

 grocers sometimes mix flour witli their sugar, and, if we are to 

 put any credit in popular belief, sand ; but of the presence of 

 this gritty ingredient we have never seen any trustworthy evi- 

 dence. Nevertheless we have said enough to show that the 

 tea-dealer and grocer do their best to supply the proverbial 

 'peck of dirt' which all of us must eat before we die. Wou'd 

 that we were fed with nothing more deleterious or repulsive ! 

 Let us see, however, the base admixtures one is liable to 

 swallow in taking— 



A Cop of Tea. o; 



In the Tea. 

 If Green. 



Prussian-blue. 



Turmeric. 



Cliina clay or Fi-ench chalk. 



Used tea-leaves. 



Copperas. 

 If Black. 



Gum. 



Black lead. 



Dutch pink. 



Used tea-leaves. 



Leaves of the ash, sloe hawthorn, 

 and of many other kinds. 



Ill the Milk. 



On an average 25 per cent, of 



water. 

 Annatto. 

 Treacle. 

 Flour. 



Oxide of iron. 

 And other unknown ingredients. 



In the Sugar. 



If brown — 

 Wheat flour. 

 Hundreds of the sugar insects. 



If White- 

 Albumen of bullock's blood. 



a Cdp OP Coffee. 



In, the Coffee. 

 Chicory. 



In the Chiconj. 

 Roast wheat. 



" acorn. 



" mangold-wurzel. 



" beans. 



" carrots. 



" parsnips. 



" lupin-seeds, 



" dog-biscuit. 



" horse-chesnuts. 

 Oxide of iron. 

 Mahogany sawdust. 

 Baked horse's liver. 



" bullock's liver. 

 In the Milk. 

 Water 2-5 per cent. 

 Annatto. 

 Flour. 

 Treacle. 

 Oxide of iron. 

 And other unknown ingredients. 



In the Sugar. 

 If Brown — 

 Wheat flour. 



Hundreds of the sugar insect. 

 If White- 

 Albumen of bullock's blood. 



We shall not dwell upon cocoa further than to state that it 

 is a still rarer thing to obtain it pure, than either tea or coffee. 

 The almost universal adulterations are sugar, starch, and flour, 

 together with red colouring matter, generally some ferruginous 

 earth ; whilst, as far as we can see, what is termed homoeopa- 

 thic cocoa is only distinguished from other kinds by the small 

 quantity of that substance contained in it. 



PICKLES. 



Accum, in his ' Death in the Pot,' quotes, from cookery- 

 books of reputation in his day, recipes which make uninitiated 

 persons stare. For instance, ' Modern Cookery, or the English 

 Housewife,' gives the following serious directions ' to make 

 Greening :' — ' Take a bit of verdii/ris the bigness o/a hazel-nut, 

 finely powdered, half a pint of distilled vinegar, and a bit of 

 alum-powder, with a little baysalt; put all in a bottle and 

 shake it, and let it stand till clear. Put a small teaspoonful 

 into codlings, or whatever you wish to green. 



Again, the ' English Housekeeper,' a book which ran 

 through 18 editions, directs — 'to make pickles green boil them 

 with half-pence, or allow them to stand for twenty-four hours 

 in copper or brass pans !' Has the notable housewife ever 

 wondered to herself, how it is that all the pickles of the .shops 

 are of so much more inviting colour than her own ? — we will 

 satisfy her curiosity at a word — she has forgotten the ' bit of 

 verdigris the bigness of a hazel-nut,' for it is now proved 



beyond doubt, that to this complexion do they come by the use 

 of copper, introduced for the sole purpose of making them of a 

 lively green. The analyses of twenty samples of pickles 

 bought of the most respectable tradesmen proved, firstly, that 

 the vinegar in the bottles owed most of its strength to the 

 introduction of sulphuric acid; sccondlj', that out of sixteen 

 different pickles analysed for the purpose, copper was detected 

 in various amounts. Thus ' two of the samples contained a 

 small quantity; eight rather much, one a considerable quantity, 

 three a very considerable quantity; in one copper was present in 

 a highly deleterious amount, and in two in ^wisonous amounts. 

 The largest quantity of this metal was found in the bottles 

 consisting entirely of green vegetables, such as gherkins and 

 beans.' 



We trust after this the good housewife will feel jealous no 

 longer, but rest satisfied that the home-made article, if less 

 inviting and vivid in colour, Ls at least more wholesome. A 

 simple test to discover the presence of copper in such articles 

 is to place a bright knitting-needle in the vinegar, and let it 

 remain there for a few hours, when the deleterious metal will 

 speedily form a coating over it, dense or thin, according to the 

 amount which exists. Wherever large quantities are found, it 

 is wilfully inserted for the purpose of producing the bright 

 green colour, btxt a small quantity may find its way into the 

 pickles in the process of boiling in the copper pans. Messrs. 

 Crosse and Blackwell, the great pickle and preserve manufac- 

 turers in Soho, immediately they became aware, from the 

 analyses of the Lancet, that such was the case, in a very 

 praiseworthy manner substituted sUver and glass at a great 

 expense, for all their former vessels. The danger arising from 

 the introduction of this virulent poison into our food would not 

 be so great if it were confined to pickles, of which the quantity 

 taken is small at each meal, but it is used to paint all kinds of 

 preserves, and fruits for winter pies and tarts are bloomed with 

 death. The papa who presents his children with the box of 

 sweetmeats bedded in coloured paper, and enclosed in an 

 elegant casket, may be corroding unawares the very springs of 

 their existence. As a general rule it is found that the red 

 fruits, such as currents, raspberries, and cherries, are uncou- 

 taminated with this deleterious metal, but owe their deep hue 

 to some red colouring matter, such as a decoction of logwood, 

 or infusion of beetroot, in the same way that common white 

 cabbage is converted into red, by the nefarious pickle-merchant. 

 The green fruits are not all deleterious in the same degree; 

 there seems to be an ascending scale of vinilence, much after 

 the following manner; — Limes, gooseberries, rhubarb, green- 

 gages, olives — the last-mentioned fruit, especially those of 

 French preparation, generally containing verdigris, or the 

 acetate of copper, iii highly dangerous quantities. The Lancet 

 publishes a letter from Mr. Bcrnays, F.C.S., dated from the 

 Chemical Library, Derby, in which he shows the necessity of 

 watchfulness in the purchase of these articles of food : — 



' Of this,' he says, 'I will give you a late instance. I had 

 bought a bottle of preserved gooseberries from one of the most 

 respectable grocers in the town, and had its contents transferred 

 to a pie. It struck me that the gooseberries looked fearfully 

 green when cooked ; and in eating one with a steel fork, its 

 intense bitterness sent me in search for the sugar. After having 

 sweetened and smashed the gooseberries, with the same steel 

 fork, I was about to convej- some to my mouth, when I obsen-cd 

 the prong to be completely coated with a thin film of bright 

 metallic copper. My testimony can be borne out by the evidence 

 of others, two of whom dined at my table.' 



