.Am.  Jour.  Pharni. 
June,  1890. 
A  New  Spice  Adulterant. 
277 
Charcoal  is  used  in  the  "black"  biscuits. 
Some  biscuits  having  a  red  color,  such  as  might  have  been  used 
to  adulterate  Cayenne  pepper,  were  seen,  but  it  was  impossible  to 
secure  samples  at  the  time. 
Large  quantities  of  these  spice  biscuits  have  been  delivered  to  a 
spice  house  in  Philadelphia,  and  it  is  not  known  that  any  have  been 
shipped  out  of  the  city.  As  they  are  all  sent  to  the  spice  dealers 
in  the  whole  condition,  probably  on  account  of  the  lack  of  facilities 
for  grinding,  the  samples  of  powders  which  are  presented  were 
ground  by  the  writer  in  a  small  drug  mill,  and  may  only  roughly 
resemble  the  powders  prepared  by  the  spice  millers. 
However,  they  will  serve  to  show  how  closely  the  ground  spices 
may  be  imitated. 
The  sample  labelled  " pepper  mixture"  is  made  up  of  the  "black," 
"white"  and  "br*own"  powders — the  one  labelled  "clove  mixture," 
of  the  "  brown  "  and  "  black." 
"Cracker  dust"  is  said  by  many  investigators  to  be  used  as  a 
spice  adulterant,  and  a  sample  of  this  material  from  the  same 
bakery  is  presented,  although  it  has  never  been  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  these  biscuits.  It  consists  altogether  of  stale  bread 
which  accumulates  in  large  quantities,  and  which  is  thoroughly 
dried  and  ground. 
An  analysis  of  the  spice  biscuits  gave  the  following  results, 
the  "  black  "  and  "  white  "  powders  and  the  original  meal  being 
taken  : 
White. 
Black. 
Meal. 
Soluble  ash  (HC1),  
7-52 
8-27 
3' 
4-98 
2'95 
Insoluble  ash  (HC1),  
trace 
4*45 
3' 
9 '43 
2 '95 
14*51 
i4-5i 
I4-5I 
Residue  after  treatment  with  cold  H20  and 
6 '03 
3-02 
II"02 
75-8 
83-2 
65  *s 
Charcoal  and  matter  insoluble  in  boiling 
H20,  
54*1 
i5'57 
The  ash  consisted  of  Na,  K,  Cu,  Mg,  chiefly  as  phosphates,  with 
