290 ADULTERATION OF FOOD, DRUGS, ETC. 
Mr. Scholefield’s Committee having resumed the exami- 
nation of witnesses, reports of the evidence have appeared in 
the newspapers. We think it unnecessary to publish a 
lengthened report of the statements of each witness, many of 
which are a repetition, wdth slight variations, of facts pre- 
viously noticed, with occasionally a correction or contra- 
diction, denoting either a difference of opinion among the 
witnesses as to the facts, or different modes of stating the 
case, according to the aspect from which it is viewed. 
In the Times of March 3d, we find the following digest of 
the general tenor of the evidence : 
“ The witnesses before this Committee assure us that the 
tradesmen of London are playing pantomime in real life and 
in deadly earnest ; that we are the poor dupes, and that we 
have to pay for the sport w T hich we give — to pay, not only 
with our money, but with our lives. For the worst of it is, 
that the articles w r e purchase are, they tell us, not merely 
diluted, they are adulterated — positively, abominably, poi- 
sonously. There is scarcely, they say, a single article of daily 
use which it is possible to procure genuine from ordinary 
shops. We ask for bread, and we receive a stone ; for coffee, 
and we receive chicory; for chicory, and w^e receive burnt 
carrots and powder of dried horses 5 liver ; for oil of almonds, 
and we receive prussic acid, to heighten the enjoyment of the 
dessert by adding a little risk to it. 55 
This summary of the nature of the evidence is followed by 
a few remarks, the truth of which admits of no denial, to the 
effect that a share of the responsibility rests with the public 
— the purchasers of the various articles prepared in obedience 
to their demand for that which is cheap. 
“ Throughout the country there is no greater curse than the 
rage for cheapness — the false ideas that most people have as 
to what is really cheap. 55 
This, however, is not stated as any extenuation of the 
crime of adulteration, but as a mode of explaining the extent 
to which it is practised. The writer proceeds to observe: — 
“ Surely any one of respectability, sufficient to gain cre- 
dence for his assertion, would make a fortune were he to set 
his face strenuously against all imposture, and determine to 
sell only genuine articles, even at a slightly enhanced price. 
So far from the enhanced price depriving him of custom, 
people would crowd to the shop, and might even be too ready 
to fall into a trap — the belief that the increased price is a 
sufficient guarantee for a better article. We continually pay 
at increased rates for the sake of far less advantage. What 
we want is to get the very thing we ask and pay for. Strange 
