274  Commercial  Glucose  and  its  Uses.     {Am  junT  lin?™' 
glucose ;  besides  numerous  "  dry  starches  "  used  by  laundries,  confec- 
tioners, and  in  many  other  industries,  as  well  as  for  household 
purposes. 
At  present  prices,  commercial  glucose,  a  syrup  containing  about 
80  per  cent,  of  the  pure  carbohydrates  in  solution,  sells  at  about  234 
cents  per  pound  (26  to  28  cents  per  gallon),  or  at  about  2.7  cents  per 
pound  of  actual  dissolved  substance.  Is  its  sole  use  that  of  an  adul- 
terant of  better  food  materials,  as  some  food  reformers  claim?  Is 
glucose  used  to  adulterate  our  ordinary  grocery  sugars  ? 
It  is  well  known  in  the  history  of  the  industry  that  some  thirty 
years  ago  a  Chicago  concern  spent  some  millions  of  dollars  and  much 
valuable  time  in  trying  to ■  adulterate  fine-grained  white  sugars  with 
solid  grape-sugar  of  high  quality,  made  from  starch,  but  the  attempt 
failed  miserably,  simply  because  the  stuff  would  not  stay  mixed 
and  the  grains  "  set  "  in  a  solid  mass  after  a  short  time.  In  years 
gone  by,  glucose  was  also  much  used  to  mix  with  cheap,  poor-grade 
molasses,  making  a  brighter,  more  attractive  product  which,  so  im- 
proved, could  be  sold  at  the  price  of  higher  grade  molasses.  This 
form  of  adulteration  is  so  easily  detected  that  it  is  rarely  resorted  to 
in  these  days  of  pure  food  legislation.  The  last  case  which  came 
to  the  writer's  notice  was  one  of  a  New  York  molasses  dealer  who 
was  heavily  fined  for  having  a  few  per  cent,  of  commercial  glucose 
in  his  molasses,  although  his  defence  was  a  plausible  one — that  the 
glucose  was  some  accidentally  left  in  the  barrel,  old  glucose  barrels 
being  much  used  for  tropical  molasses  shipments. 
Glucose  is  now  used  in  a  legitimate  manner  to  mix  with  cane- 
sugar  syrup  in  the  proportion  of  85  per  cent,  of  glucose  to  15  per 
cent,  of  syrup,  a  little  salt  and  sometimes  vanillin  being  added  to 
improve  the  flavor.  The  cane-sugar  syrup  is  usually  refinery  mo- 
lasses ("  barrel  syrup  "),  which  imparts  the  principal  flavor.  These 
mixed  syrups  are  sold  openly  as  glucose  or  "  corn  syrups,"  and  as 
their  flavor  is  superior  to  the  original  molasses  there  seems  to  be 
no  reason  why  they  are  not  wholesome  food  products  for  legitimate 
trade,  even  though  some  people  there  are  who  prefer  the"  flavor  of 
the  syrups  made  from  the  natural  cane  juices  and  are  willing  to  pay 
the  higher  price  for  such.  Certainly,  such  glucose  syrups  are  prefer- 
able to  the  average  grocery  molasses,  either  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  epicure  or  the  sanitarian. 
Commercial  glucose  is  used  in  large  quantities  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  cheap  jams  and  preserves.   Apple  cores  and  skins  from  fruit 
