ADULTERATION OF FOOD.-NO. 3. 
267 
for, any person, even of indifferent delicacy of pa¬ 
late, could detect the altered taste of the milk ; and 
besides, after two hours 1 standing, the flour preci¬ 
pitated to the bottom of the vessel, and the translu¬ 
cent blueness of the liquid was again restored. 
This is a dangerous fraud, particularly when the 
milk is eaten in its crude state by young children, 
or persons in feeble health, as their stomachs are 
not sufficiently strong to digest raw flour with faci¬ 
lity. In order to prevent this inconvenience, the 
dealers boiled the flour in the water before mixing 
it with the milk; and, in this manner, an opaque 
mixture was obtained, which retained its opacity on 
standing. As, even with this addition, the falsified 
liquid had a flat taste, sugar, or sugar candy, was 
dissolved in it, by which means the peculiar sweet¬ 
ness of the milk was nearly restored. 
This adulteration, however, had become so easy 
of detection, by means of iodine, which renders a 
mixture of boiled flour and water blue, by its action 
on the fecula in the flour, that M. Barruel had a 
belief that this species of fraud was generally aban¬ 
doned. Driven from this device, the dealers resorted 
to several other very ingenious modes, which, it 
would seem, could not have been discovered with¬ 
out the aid of some scientific person. Among 
these, were the employment of an emulsion of 
almonds, corrected with a little sugar, or sugar 
candy; and, in some instances, it is stated that a 
factitious milk was fabricated from gum, the brains 
of young animals, and other materials, without the 
use of a particle of genuine milk; and, that the 
deception was so complete, that it was difficult for 
the chemists themselves, who were appointed to in¬ 
vestigate the subject, to detect the fraud. 
The simplest indication of the presence of flour, 
arrow root, rice, or starch, in milk, is that of small 
diaphanous clots, which may be seen on the sides 
of the vessel containing it, if it be transparent. 
Milk, containing starch, generally, but not always, 
burns more readily on the bottom of the vessel in 
which it is boiled, than pure milk. 
Chalk, and the milk of almonds, are also some¬ 
times employed for the purpose of restoring the 
opacity of the milk ; but the latter is seldom used, 
on account of its expense. The presence of chalk 
may easily be detected, from its settling to the bot¬ 
tom of the vessel in which the milk is contained, in 
about two hours after mixing, when the bluish color 
of the skimmed milk returns. In fact, any person, 
even of indifferent delicacy of palate, can distinguish 
the altered taste of the milk. A solution of tumeric 
is also sometimes added, for the purpose of impart¬ 
ing a richness of color, serving to prevent the dilution 
with water and abstraction of cream being apparent. 
There is another species of fraud, which is prac¬ 
tised among us to an alarming extent, and loudly 
calls on our public authorities for reform ; that is, 
the unnatural method of producing milk for the sup¬ 
ply of large cities , by feeding the cows on the refuse 
of the distillery , and confining them in foul , ill-ven¬ 
tilated stables - We are happy to learn, however, 
that this subject has recently been very thoroughly 
investigated by the New-York Academy of Medi¬ 
cine, and that their ample and elaborate report will 
shortly appear, which will doubtless merit the at¬ 
tention of the public, in its physical, as well as in 
its moral bearings. 
Butter. —Sad evidences of human depravity are 
also manifested in the falsification of butter, as well 
as of milk. This is often done by mixing it with 
bad flour, oat meal, pea flour, large quantities of salt 
and w T ater, hogs’ lard, old, or inferior qualities of 
butter, and one instance came under our notice 
where it was adulterated with a soft kind of cheese. 
In the winter and spring months, it is well known 
that the natural color of butter'is whitish, and often 
has the appearance of tallow; and, in order to 
please their customers, some butter makers color it 
with annotto, tumeric, the juice of carrots, or the 
flowers of saffron and marigold, by mixing them 
with the cream before churning. Although all of 
these substances are perfectly harmless, unless they 
are adulterated, the practice should be discouraged, 
as tending to conceal the defects, and destroy one of 
the simplest tests of good butter. 
Cheese. —The principle substances employed in 
adulterating cheese, are flour, starch, and common 
potatoes, boiled and mashed. There is nothing in the 
latter adulteration that is hurtful to the animal econ¬ 
omy, being merely a simple fraud, and, moreover, 
is easily detected. Indeed, in some parts of Sax¬ 
ony, potatoes of the best quality are dressed in 
steam, peeled, and reduced to a pulp. Five pounds 
of this are mixed with about 10 pounds of sweet curd, 
kneaded together, with the addition of some salt; 
after lying for a few days, the mixture is again 
kneaded, pressed into little baskets, where the su¬ 
perfluous moisture drains off, and the cheese is then 
formed into balls, and dried in the shade. These 
cheeses are said to keep well, when dry, and 
their taste and quality improve with age, with the 
advantage that, they generate no vermin. 
Cheese is often falsified by coloring, more or 
less, for the purpose of staining the rind, or impart¬ 
ing a richness to the appearance within. The co¬ 
loring substances usually employed, are annotto, 
tumeric, saffron, marigold, &c., all of which are 
perfectly harmless in themselves, but cheese is not 
unfrequently colored with stains and pigments, 
which are highly injurious, and ever poisonous; 
indeed, so much so, that persons have nearly lost 
their lives from eating those that have been colored 
with annotto, adulterated with red lead. 
A striking instance of the unconscious injury that 
is liable to be done, in consequence of adulterated arti¬ 
cles of food, is strongly exemplified by the following 
fact, which occurred in England a few years ago. In 
a case of poisoning from eating cheese, that had been 
colored with annotto, it was proved that one drug¬ 
gist sold a quantity of Vermillion to another, which 
had been adulterated with red lead, as is frequently 
practised, on the supposition that the Vermillion would 
only be used as a pigment in house painting, with¬ 
out the least suspicion of the use to which it would 
be applied. The purchaser, who adulterated the 
annotto, which was employed in staining the cheese, 
presuming that the Vermillion was genuine, had no 
hesitation in heightening the color of his inferior, or 
spurious annotto, with so harmless a drug. Thus, 
through the circuitous and diversified operations of 
commerce, a portion of deadly poison found admis¬ 
sion into one of the necessaries of life, in a way, 
too, in which no criminality could be attached to 
the parties through whose hands it had successively 
passed. 
