ON  THE  ADULTERATION  OF  CARMINE. 
365 
The  first  eight  samples  were  purchased  at  the  leading  retail 
drug  establishments  of  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west  ends  of 
London.  Number  nine  was  from  a  large  wholesale  perfumer, 
said  to  be  a  manufacturer  of  carmine  ;  numbers  ten  and  eleven 
were  from  a  wholesale  druggist-— they  are  probably  identical, 
though  said  to  be  of  different  qualities ;  numbers  twelve  and 
thirteen  were  from  first-class  artists'  colormen ;  and  number 
fourteen  from  a  West-end  house  generally  noted  for  the  sale  of 
pure  chemicals. 
Differing  as  these  samples  do  in  the  amount  of  adulteration 
practised,  it  is  not  surprising  that  equal  weights  should  differ 
also  in  price.  One  would  expect,  however,  that  the  less  real 
carmine  a  specimen  contained  the  less  price  it  would  be  charged ; 
and  in  some  instances  this  is  the  case,  though,  to  be  sure,  even 
here  we  find  the  percentage  of  real  carmine  decreasing  in  a  far 
greater  ratio  than  the  cost.  But  in  the  other  adulterated 
samples  the  very  reverse  obtains ;  for  the  more  the  money  that 
is  paid  for  them  so  much  the  less  is  there  of  carmine  contained 
in  them  ;  this  is  peculiarly  the  case  in  numbers  five  and  three, 
but  especially  so  in  number  fourteen- — the  sample  from  the 
establishment  noted  for  unsophisticated  preparations — ten  grains 
of  which  cost  seventeen-pence,  but  have  a  real  value,  as  com- 
pared with  number  one,  of  only  five  farthings.  Number  one  was 
taken  as  the  standard  of  comparison,  first  because  it  is  pure,  and 
second  because  it  was  obtained  from  a  West-end  house,  than 
which  there  is  none  in  the  trade  better  able  to  judge  of  the 
price  an  article  should  be  supplied  at. 
It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  foregoing  examination  no  notice 
is  taken  of  the  possible  admixture  of  inferior  with  superior  tint- 
ed carmines,  or  of  the  adulteration  of  carmine  with  other  lakes 
of  a  similar  color.  An  attempt  was  made  to  give  expression  to 
the  varied  intensity  of  color  of  the  several  ammoniacal  solutions 
of  the  carmines,  but  without  any  definite  success.  Of  course,  of 
two  specimens  both  perfectly  soluble  in  solution  of  ammonia, 
that  one  would  be  the  better  which  has  the  deepest  and  richest 
hue,  provided  always  that  equal  weights  of  the  two  have  been 
taken. 
In  conclusion,  this  examination  shows  that,  except  for  the 
use  of  first-class  artists,  carmine  is  nearly  always  largely  adulter- 
