As™ptJeOmber,hl908Q■}        Extracts  of  Vanilla  and  Lemon.  437 
those  of  lemon  and  vanilla,  the  most  popular  of  which  is  vanilla. 
All  classes  of  people,  be  they  the  most  humble  or  the  most  high, 
the  most  democratic  or  the  most  aristocratic,  poor  or  rich,  all  make 
constant  use  of  these  articles  ;  and  yet  for  all  this,  where  is  there 
an  article,  the  true  composition  of  which  is  less  known  or  even  given 
a  thought  by  the  majority  of  consumers  ?  For  this  reason  there  is 
unlimited  opportunity  for  those,  keen  at  deceit,  to  practice  their  fraud 
and  deception  by  putting  out  an  article  which  is  not  only  cheap  in 
the  extreme,  but  is  far  from  being  up  to  the  standard  of  the  U.S. P. 
and  conducive  to  good  health. 
This  is  done  not  only  by  using  cheap  grades  of  material  in  the 
manufacture  of  the  article,  but  by  gross  adulteration  with  substances 
which  were  never  intended  for  internal  administration. 
We  may  take  wood-alcohol,  for  instance.  What  multitudes  have 
been  deceived  into  the  use  of  this  poisonous  drug?  There  is  per- 
haps no  way  of  reckoning  the  damage  to  health  caused  by  its  use 
in  flavoring  extracts  as  a  solvent,  in  place  of  the  true  ethyl  alcohol, 
used  simply  on  account  of  its  cheapness,  and  perhaps  found  Qut  only 
by  some  poor  mortal's  attempting  to  pollute  himself  by  the  use  of  a 
flavoring  extract  as  an  intoxicating  beverage.  As  we  all  know,  a 
number  of  cases  are  on  record  where  blindness  and  even  death  have 
resulted  from  such  a  course  of  action. 
But  even  though  this  be  true,  this  is  not  the  commonest  of  adul- 
terants used  to  lessen  the  cost  of  manufacture,  for  not  only  are  cheap 
grades  of  the  crude  drug  employed,  but  synthetic  methods  are  in 
constant  use  for  the  imitation  of  the  original  and  they  are  far  from 
being  without  success  in  meeting  the  demands  of  the  people.  And, 
we  may  ask,  are  the  manufacturers  not  justified  in  this  practice? 
The  great  majority  of  the  public  custom  at  the  present  time  prefer 
the  flavor  of  a  synthetic  or  adulterated  product  to  that  of  a  strictly 
U.S.P.  formula. 
Cases  are  constantly  occurring  in  which  customers  are  angered 
and  even  feel  insulted  by  being  sold  a  pure  article  at  pure  article 
prices,  expecting  to  receive  something  extraordinary,  when  upon 
trying  their  purchase  declare  it  not  to  be  the  flavoring  desired.  So 
it  is  easily  seen  that  a  dealer  is  almost  compelled  to  have  in  stock 
all  grades  in  order  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  public.  And  why 
this  error  or  deception  of  taste  ?  The  only  way  it  may  be  accounted 
for  is  in  the  fact  that  these  false  grades  have  been  on  the  market 
