272 
Food  and  Drug  Adulteration. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1909. 
meat  products,  such  as  hamburg  steak.  In  1904,  after  a  protracted 
trial  of  a  prominent  meat  dealer  who  was  prosecuted  for  using 
these  substances  in  hamburg  steak,  a  verdict  of  guilty  was  ren- 
dered by  the  jury.  This  verdict  was  subsequently  confirmed  by 
the  Supreme  Court  and  since  that  time  but  one  case  of  adulterated 
hamburg  steak  has  been  observed  in  numerous  samples  which  have 
been  investigated. 
Glucose  as  a  substitute  for  cane  sugar  in  preparing  certain 
articles  of  food  has  long  been  recognized  as  a  legitimate  addition 
to  food  products  where  its  presence  is  not  concealed.  Until  about 
three  years  ago,  however,  the  glucose  found  upon  the  market  was 
bleached  by  a  chemical  process  whereby  the  finished  product  was 
contaminated  with  sulphurous  acid,  very  frequently  to  the  extent 
that  candy  made  with  such  glucose  was  observed  to  leave  a  sulphur 
taste  in  the  mouth  and  throat.  The  Pennsylvania  Dairy  and  Food 
Department  made  an  investigation  of  this  condition  of  affairs,  par- 
ticularly with  relation  to  candy,  although  this  same  quality  of  glu- 
cose was  used  in  table  syrups,  cheap  preserves,  and  other  articles 
of  food  as  well,  and  after  inaugurating  several  hundred  individual 
prosecutions  against  retail  dealers  the  matter  was  adjusted  by  the 
glucose  manufacturers'  assuming  the  responsibility  for  the  payment 
of  all  fines  and  a  promise  of  withdrawal  of  all  bleached  glucose 
from  the  Pennsylvania  market.  At  the  present  time,  therefore, 
glucose  and  all  products  into  whose  composition  it  enters  are  en- 
tirely free  from  sulphurous  acid. 
The  Department  is  now  waging  a  relentless  warfare  against 
the  sale  and  use  of  decaying  and  decayed  eggs  in  food  products.  It 
seems  almost  incredible  that  an  article  so  nauseating  as  a  partly 
decayed  egg  should  be  used,  but  such  has  been  found  to  be  the 
case.  It  is  stated  that  in  baked  products,  particularly  in  some  kinds 
of  cakes,  the  odor  and  flavor  of  the  partly  decomposed  eggs  bakes 
out,  and  from  samples  which  have  been  submitted  to  me  this  state- 
ment seems  to  be  true.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  partly 
decomposed  eggs,  even  if  palatable  food  products  can  be  prepared 
from  them,  must  necessarily  be  unwholesome,  and  possibly  the  use 
of  such  eggs  is  a  contributing  factor  in  the  obscure  cases  of 
ptomaine  poisoning  which  are  sometimes  reported,  and  which  upon 
investigation  lead  to  no  definite  conclusion.  The  inadequacy  of 
existing  legislation  is  at  present  responsible  for  the  failure  to 
suppress  the  evil,  and  too  much  cannot  be  said  in  condemnation  of 
