FOODS AND DRUGS AND THEIR ADULTERANTS. 7^ 



on by the State Board of Health of Massachusetts; 

 and the annual reports of that board furnish valu- 

 able data as to the actual condition of commercial 

 substances. Spices, coffee, and cocoa are the most 

 important foods for which the microscopical analy- 

 sis is found available; while chocolate, tea, tobacco, all- 

 spice, cassia, pepper, cayenne, paprika, cloves, ginger, 

 rnustard, nutmeg, vanilla, cardamom, and numerous other 

 materials may be examined to advantage. Cocoa fre- 

 quently contains foreign cereals, starch, or sugar; cof- 

 fee is adulterated with pea-hulls, peas, chicory, wheat, 

 and charcoal. On the other hand, in some of the foods 

 advertised as substitutes for coffee a considerable admix- 

 ture of coffee may be found. Tea, cloves, pepper, and 

 mustard are most frequently adulterated with refuse por- 

 tions of the plant in question--tea-stems,. clov&-stems, 

 pepper-shells, and mustard-hulls respectively. Occa- 

 sionally very bad samples of cloves occur with a large 

 proportion of wheat, turmeric, and charcoal; of mustard, 

 nine-tenths wheat and turmeric; of pepper, one- third 

 olive-stones. 



It would be unprofitable, even if it were possible, for 

 the student to attempt to cover the whole field of micro- 

 scopical analysis, since the detailed information involved 

 can best be acquired in practice when it is needed. 



We -shall therefore take up only three of the most im- 

 portant substances, coffee, mustard, and pepper, with 

 their commonest adulterants, as types of the rest, and as 

 illustrating the sort of characteristics by which vegetable 

 food substances are identified. 



