ADULTERATION OF FOOD. NO. 7, ETC. 
13 
may be fixed for them in the pond, in the part 
where it is most desirable that they should be ac- 
customed to display themselves. The trough must 
be fixed in the pond on two firm posts, within arm's 
length of the shore, raised high enough from the 
water to prevent ducks from stealing the food con- 
tained therein, having a cover which lifts up by 
hinges, and so forms a lid, to keep out rats and 
open only in front. Many persons, however, feed 
their swans by simply throwing the corn, or grain, 
into shallow water. They will skim the surface 
for the light grains which float, and then submerge 
their heads in search of that which has sunk. But 
it is cruel to locate a pair of swans for the sake of 
their beauty in a new-made piece of water whose 
hanks and bottom are as barren and bare as the in- 
side of a hand basin. A load or two of water 
weeds should have been thrown in, the previous 
spring, to propagate themselves and afford pastur- 
age. Swan food exists in proportion to the shal- 
lowness and foulness, not to the extent and clear- 
ness of the water. A yard of margin is worth a 
mile of deep stream. 
In confined waters, swans require a liberal sup- 
ply of food in the autumn, when the weeds run 
short. It should be remembered that at this season 
they have to supply themselves with a new suit of 
clothes, as well as to maintain their daily strength. 
If they have not been taught to eat grain, and 
have not acquired a notion of grazing, they will 
perish from starvation. Young birds are apt to be 
fanciful or stupid, and have not sense enough to 
come on the bank and eat grass, or pick up the 
threshed corn, or grain, which may be thrown 
down to them. Sometimes they may be tempted 
with a lock of unthreshed barley or oats, thrown, 
straw and all, into the water, which they will in- 
stinctively lay hold of and devour. Cygnets, which 
have been previously put up to fatten, will give lit- 
tle or no trouble in this respect, besides the ad- 
vantage of being accustomed to the near approach 
of their feeder. 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD.— No. 7. 
Lozenges, Confectionary, cfc.^ — There are few 
articles in common use more subject to adulteration 
than lozenges and similar preparations consumed 
by children. Not only are substances added to 
them, which are cheaper than the sugar in their 
composition, but others, also, of a very deleterious 
character, such as preparations of lead, arsenic, cop- 
per, &c, for the purpose of coloring. 
The substances usually employed in the falsifi- 
cation, in bulk, are chalk, pipe clay, plaster of 
Paris, sand, flour, and starch, all of which bodies 
can readily be detected by the chemist. When ta- 
ken into the stomach by children, these lozenges, 
sugar plums, &c, often occasion severe constipa- 
tion, and other diseases, which, doubtless, every 
year, is the cause of carrying great numbers to the 
grave. But, by far the most dangerous adultera- 
tion in this species of manufacture is the coloring 
matter used to impart the beautiful and brilliant 
hues the articles generally assume. All the sub- 
stances employed for this purpose, which are de- 
rived from the mineral kingdom, are poisonous and 
attended with danger, excepting the oxides of iron, 
ferruginous lakes, and prussian blue. Of vegeta- 
ble substances, gamboge should be severely pro- 
scribed, in consequence of being a drastic cathartic, 
which, even in minute doses, occasions violent in- 
testinal irritation. Litmus, too, should be equally 
prohibited, both on account of its being occasional- 
ly incorporated with putrefied urine, and being 
adulterated with common arsenic and the peroxide 
of mercury. 
The lozenges, comfits, &c, which are of a bright 
orange tinge, are sometimes colored with chromate 
of lead and minium, or red lead ; brilliant yellows 
with gamboge, Naples yellow, and chromate of 
lead ; greens with prussian blue and vegetable yel- 
low lake of alumina, mixed with sulphate of lime, 
as well as with Scheele's green, or the arsenate of 
copper ; the blues are chiefly colored with prussian 
blue, and consequently contain no deleterious 
compound ; the reds are tinctured with vegetable 
lakes of alumina, and chromate of lead with red 
vegetable lake and red lead. The papers, also, 
used for wrapping up sugar confectionary, are 
colored with similar poisonous materials as the 
comfits themselves, and children will often suck or 
eat these papers, from which it is evident that the 
most fatal consequences are liable to occur. 
As the most diversified colors can be obtained by 
the confectioners, from totally harmless materials, 
it is surprising that they pursue a practice so per- 
nicious to public health. Thus, from the lakes of 
cochineal and carmine, they can prepare all the 
reds ; the lakes of logwood will afford them a vio- 
let; the lakes of dyer's broom, &c, will give the 
yellow ; the lake of Persian berries, with prussian 
blue, forms a more beautiful green than any mineral 
can produce ; and finally, by mixing these harmless 
colors, all the intermediate tints and shades can be 
obtained. 
Pure sugar, or candy, taken in moderate quanti- 
ties, is wholesome and beneficial to health, and 
may be used without injury to the teeth ; but 
whenever nausea is produced, it will be found that 
it invariably arises, not from the sugar, hut from 
the vile trash mixed up with it, known under the 
general name of "sweetmeats," or "sugar plums." 
Should any one doubt this latter fact, an analysis 
of these articles, taken from any confectioner's shop, 
readily proves it. 
Shearing or Clipping Horses. — We have seen 
specimens of this recently in the city, that would 
quite astonish the uninitiated. A long-haired, 
shabby-looking beast, after being a few hours un- 
der the hands of the shears, comes out with a close, 
smooth, shining coat, quite to the taste of the ad- 
mirers of horse flesh. There are some advantages 
in this practice irrespective of the looks. The 
horse does not sweat so easily, and when once 
wet, he dries more readily, and the tendency to 
colds is thereby materially lessened. 
* 
A Genuine Alchemist.— The Dey of Algiers, 
understanding that the Bey of Tunis, who had 
been dethroned, possessed the art of converting the 
baser metals into gold, restored him to his throne 
on condition that he revealed his secret. The 
Bey sent him, with much pomp and ceremony, a 
plow ! 
