ILLINOIS STATE ftAIRVMEN’s ASSOCIATION. 45 
radish; apples, pumpkins, and molasses in preserves • lin¬ 
seed meal, different flours, ship-bread, and mustard husks in 
pepper; potato starch in sago; water, cayenne, burnt 
sugar, etc., m rum , rice flour, sand, and glucose in sugar • 
molasses, cochineal, armenian bowl, and other coloring 
matters in various sauces ; flour and starch in soices ; sand 
magnetic oxide of iron, spent leaves, and foreign leaves in’ 
tea; arrowfoot and clove stalks in cloves; ship bread in 
pimento; spent bark in cinnamon ; water and burnt sugar in 
vinegar; molasses, water, and salt in porter and stout • 
glycerine in beer; and things innumerable in honors and 
wines are adulterations that touch the economy of every 
household, if they do not bring a visitation of the doctor 
and involve the services of an undertaker. 
THE EFFECT OF THESE ADULTERATIONS ON HEALTH AND 
TRADE. 
On Health: From dangerous adulteration a few die. 
Deleterious adulterations cause or intensify the ill-health of 
many. It is not necessary to translate in popular language 
long, chapters from the National Pharmacopeia, from a 
treatise on materia medica and therapeutics, from a stand¬ 
ard work on toxicology, or from an authorative system of 
medicine, in a vain attempt to estimate, even approximately 
the number of deaths and the amount of sickness caused 
by adulterations of food and drink. The articles used in 
adulteration are known, and the effects of such articles 
when taken into the human body are known. Other 
essential factors, quantity employed, percentage of admix- 
ture, chemical modifications by culinary processes, habits of 
individual, etc., are unknown, and conclutive generalizations 
become impossible. Speculation in the midst of such chaos 
tends, on the one hand, to sensational exaggeration, and on 
the other hand, to be little a real public danger. Here 
as elsewhere, the true scientist awaits facts, and avoids alike 
the creation of a public panic or the infusion of a false sense 
of public security. 
On Trade:— It is not necessary that mankind should 
eat and drink things dangerous to life and injurious to health 
that trade may flourish. In fact, trade flourishes best under 
a policy of honesty. Tradesmen and the community are 
mutually responsible for the evils of adulteration. The peo- 
