284 



THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN KACE. 



[1855. 



It was fortunate that these three gentlemen used steel forks, 

 which instantly disclosed the mischief: if they had chanced to 

 use silver, all three might have fallen victims to these poison- 

 ous conserves. 



But we are not yet at the worst. " When Catherine de 

 Medicis wished to get rid of obnoxious persons in an ' artistic' 

 manner, she was in the habit of presenting them with deli- 

 cately made sweetmeats, or trinkets, in which death lurked in 

 the most engaging manner ; she carried 



' Pure death in an earring, a casket, 



A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket.' 



Her poisoned feasts are matters of history, at which people 

 shudder as they read; but we question if the diabolical 

 revenge and cold-blooded wickedness of an Italian woman ever 

 invented much more deadly trifles than our low, cheap confec- 

 tioners do on the largest scale. 



OF SUGAR ORNAMENT. 



The painted feast contains, among its highly injurious ingre, 

 dients, ferrocyanide of iron or Prussian-blue, Antwerp-blue- 

 gamboge, and ultramarine, and among its deadly poisons the 

 three chrome yellows, red lead, white lead, vermilion, the 

 three Brunswick greens, and Scheele's green or arsenite of 

 copper. The wonder is that, considering we set such poison- 

 traps for children, ten times more enticing and quite as deadly 

 as those used to bane rats, that the greater number of 

 youngsters who partake of them are not at once despatched, 

 and so undoubtedly they would be if nurses were'not cautious 

 about these coloured parts, which have always enjoyed a bad 

 name under the general denomination of ' trash and 

 messes.' As it is, we are informed by Dr. Letheby that ' no 

 less than seventy cases of poisoning have been traced to this 

 source ' within three years ! 



In France, Belgium, and Switzerland the colouring of con- 

 fectionery with poisonous pigments is prohibited, and the 

 vendors are held responsible for all accidents which may occur 

 to persons from eating their sugar confectionery. 



All kinds of sugar-plums, comfits, and ' kisses,' in addition 

 to being often adulterated with large quantities of plaster of 

 Paris, are always open to the suspicion of being poisoned. 

 Necessity cannot be urged for the continuance of this wicked 

 practice, as there are plenty of vegetable pigments which, if 

 not quite so vivid as the acrid mineral ones, are sufiiciently so 

 to please the eye. Of late years a peculiar lozenge has been 

 introduced, in which the flavour of certain fruits is singularly 

 imitated. Thus we have essence of jargon el drops, essence of 

 pine-apple drops, and many others of a most delicate taste. 

 They really are so delicious that we scarcely like to create a 

 prejudice against them; but the truth is great and must pre- 

 vail : all these delicate essences are made from a preparation 

 of Eether and rancid cheese and butter. 



If we could possibly eliminate, from the mass of human dis- 

 ease, that occasioned by the constant use of deleterious food, 

 we should find that it amounted to a very considerable percen- 

 tage on the whole, and that one of the best friends of the 

 doctor would prove to be the adulterator. But even our re- 

 fuge fails us in our hour of need ; the tools of the medical 

 man, like those of the sappers and miners before Sebastopol, 

 often turn out to be worthless. Drugs and medical comforts 

 are perhaps adulterated as extensively as any other article. To 

 mention only a few familiar and household medicines for in- 

 stance : — Epsom salts are adulterated with sulphate of soda ; 

 carbonate of soda with sulphate of soda — a very injurious 



substitute. Mercury is sometimes falsified with lead, tin, and 

 bismuth ; gentian with the poisonous drugs aconite and bella- 

 donna ; rhubarb with turmeric and gamboge ; cantharides 

 with black pepper ; and cod-liver and castor oils with common 

 and inferior oils ; whilst opium, one of the sheet-anchors of 

 the physician, is adulterated to the greatest extent in a dozen 

 difi'erent ways. Medical comforts are equally uncertain. Thus 

 potato-flour forms full half of the so-called arrow-roots of com- 

 merce ; sago-meal is another very common ingredient in this 

 nourishing substance. Out of fifty samples of so styled arrow- 

 root. Dr. Hassall found twenty-two adulterated, many of them 

 consisting entirely of potato-flour and sago-meal. One-half of 

 the common oatmeals to be met with are adulterated with bar- 

 ley meal, a much less nutritious substance^an important fact, 

 which boards of guardians should be acquainted with. Honey 

 is sophisticated with flour-starch and sugar-starch. And lastly, 

 we wish to say something important to mothers. Put no faith 

 in the hundred and one preparations of farinaceous food for in- 

 fiints which are paraded under so many attractive titles. They 

 are all composed of wheat-flour, potato-flour, sago, &c., — very 

 familiar ingredients, which would not take with anxious parents 

 unless christened with extraordinary names, for which their 

 compounders demand an extraordinary charge. To invalids 

 we would also say, place no reliance on the Revalentas and Er- 

 valentas advertised through the country as cures for all ima- 

 ginary diseases. They consist almost entirely of lentil-powder, 

 barley-flour, &c., which are charged cent, per cent, above their 

 real value. 



Of all the articles we have touched upon, not one is so impor- 

 tant as water. It mixes more or less with all our solid food, 

 and forms nine-tenths of all our drinks. Man himself, as a 

 sanitary writer has observed, is in great part made up of this 

 element, and if you were to put him under a press you would 

 squeeze out of him 8^- pailfuls. That it should be furnished 

 pure to the consumer is of the first importance in a sanitary 

 and economic point of view. 



The Unity of the Human Race* 



Experience has taught us not too hastily to charge any 

 scientific theory with being contradictory to Scripture. Free- 

 dom of speculation is rightly privileged. Revealed truth is 

 not endangered by discussion and investigation. 



Hence, when a theory is proposed to us like that of the spe- 

 cific difference between the several races of mankind, we shall 

 do well to receive it without anger or contempt, and to enquire 

 whether it may not be jjossibly consistent with Theological and 

 physiological science. 



That the whole human race has sprung from one male and 

 one female at the first, seems, however, to be distinctly taught 

 in Holy Scripture, and to be a matter of the highest antecedent 

 probability from physical considerations. 



The doctrine of our oneness of origin, let it be noted, does 

 not depend upon a single text, such as that which afiirms that 

 " God hath made of one blood all the nations of men." Though 

 this passage, and others like it, should be explained away, that 

 doctrine could not perish with them. For all Scripture either 

 asserts or else assumes the unity of the human fiimily. Adam 

 by transgression fell; mankind in general were involved in the 

 fall. They have an hereditary taint; their nature is corrupted, 

 because they are his offspring. And their redemption comes 



* Canadian Journal, Slay, 1855. 



