178  Drugs  and  Food  Products. 
philanthropist  ?  How  does  it  come  that  it  is  so  cheap  ?  Evidently, 
there  is  something  in  my  coffee  which  increases  the  bulk  and  thus 
cheapens  the  product.  Why  is  the  maple  syrup  I  buy  so  extraordi- 
narily cheap?  Evidently,  there  is  not  much  maple  syrup  in  it." 
You  are  right,  John,  the  maple  syrup  you  buy  at  the  bargain  counter 
is  composed  entirely  of  cane-sugar  and  starch  flavored  with  extract 
of  hickory  bark.  Your  jellies  have  never  inhaled  the  flavor  of  the 
natural  fruit  from  which  they  are  claimed  to  be  made  ;  your  honey 
has  never  been  manufactured  by  the  industrious  bee;  your  li  pure 
refined  lard  "  is  but  a  mixture  of  lard  stearine  and  cottonseed  oil  ; 
in  short,  a  great  deal  you  eat  and  drink  is  altogether  different  from 
what  it  is  claimed  to  be  and  what  you  buy  it  for.  As  a  witty  poet, 
quoted  by  Wiley,  puts  it : 
"  Placid  I  am,  content,  serene. 
I  take  my  slab  of  gypsum  bread, 
And  chunks  of  oleomargarine 
Upon  its  tasteless  sides  I  spread. 
The  egg  I  eat  was  never  laid 
By  any  cackling,  feathered  hen  ; 
But  from  the  I^ord  knows  what,  'tis  made 
In  Newark  by  unfeathered  men. 
I  wash  my  simple  breakfast  down 
With  fragrant  chickory  so  cheap, 
Or  with  the  best  black  tea  in  town  — 
Dried  willow  leaves — I  calmly  sleep." 
Even  a  "  guarantee"  on  the  label  is  no  assurance  of  purity  of  the 
product,  as  the  following  case  illustrates : 
The  "Boston  Baking  Powder"  is  put  up  in  cans  having  on  the 
bottom  the  following  label :  "  All  grocers  are  authorized  to  guar- 
antee bread,  cake,  pastry,  and  all  other  products  made  wherein  our 
powder  is  used  free  from  alum,  lime,  ammonia,  terra  alba,  rochelle 
salts  or  anything  injurious  as  a  result  of  its  use."  "  As  a  matter  of 
fact,"  remarks  the  analyst  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of 
Health  (31  Annual  Report)  "this  brand  of  powder  contains 
alum,  calcium  sulphate  (terra  alba)  and  ammonia.  The  label  is 
somewhat  ingenious,  for  it  will  be  noticed  that  grocers  are  not 
authorized  to  guarantee  the  powder  to  be  free  from  these  products, 
but  what  they  do  guarantee  is  that  bread,  cake  and  pastry  made 
from  this  powder  are  free  therefrom.  This  statement  is  partially 
true  in  that  the  alum  present  in  the  baking  powder  ceases  to  be 
alum  when  found  in  the  bread,  having  been  transformed  into 
