The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

1000 salt. The next process is to wash it frequently with milk; the manufacture being completed by the addition of a small quantity of sugar. The result is styled " Epping butter ;" the sale of which yields the ingenious manufacturer a pro fit of one hundred per cent., while his shop gets the credit of being supplied with genuine Epping butter from the first-rate dairies. Rancid Cork butter is converted into fine salt by being well mixed, when in a half iluid state, with water and salt. Bread, beyond the unwholesome properties resident in very inferior qualities of flour, is most commonly adulterated with alum. In brown or moist sugar a natural process of adulteration commonly goes on which partly spares the dealer the trouble of exercising his ingenuity. A disgusting little insect is bred in it, known as the sugar acarus, approaching " in organisation and habits to the louse and " the itch-insect." Here is a hint for poor tea-drinkers : The acarus sacchari clings to life with great tenacity, for warm water does not always kill it. Hence those who sweeten their drinks with brown sugar, must swallow several of these disgusting insects in a living state, for the heat of the beverage is not sufficient to destroy them. It appears that these insects produce a disease of the skin, well known as the "grocers itch." We read : To this disease all grocers are not equally liable, but those particularly who are engaged in the " handling " of sugars, as the warehousemen. Now the scams sacchari actually belongs to the same specie as the acarus scabei, or itch-insect, than which it is larger, and possessed of an organisation still more formidable and forbidding. Dr. Hassall reports that these insects were present in thirty three out of thirty-six brown sugars he purchased, and in nineteen sam ples were present in considerable numbers. He comes to the conclusion that " the brown " sugars of commerce arc, in general, in a " state wholly unfit for human consumption." The purchasers of sweetmeats, principally the most helpless and sensitive class of the community—children--fare about the worst : Every investigstion that has been made int) the colour. ing matters used by confectioners for the adornment of their sweetmeats has invariably ended in the discovery of poisons of the most destructive and deadly nature. We must remember that these sweetmeats are principally pur chased by children, whose organisation is the more sus ceptible to their influence. The usual defence of this in iquitous custom is, that the mineral poison is used in extremely small proportions. But this would only serve to prolong the agony of the child; for it will, nevertheless, most certainly produce disease, and, if persevered in, even tually death. The only choice rests, therefore, between sudden and lingering death. The preparations of lead, copper, arsenic, are what is called by medical men accumu lative poison, or poisons which are, little by little, taken up by the s stem, until their full effects become manifested. Dr. Hassell purchased one hundred and one different kinds of sweetmeats, as comfits, sugared almonds, imitations in sugar of bacon, fruit, &c.; and in colouring these sweets, he found that one hundred and forty poisonous colours had been used. Chromate of lead oc curred in fifty-nine, red lead in twelve, and white lead in four instances. Fatal results often follow from partaking of these kinds of trash : In September, 1847, three adults and eight children were taken to Marylebone Workhouse, having been seized with vomiting and retching after eating some coloured confer• tionary. Only twopenny worth had been purchased, and eleven persons had shared it, yet the symptoms appeared within ten minutes of its being taken. The poisonous colours had been made from verdigris. _ _ At Nottingham, twenty persons were poisoned at a public dinner through partaking of a blancmange, the top of which was coloured with arsenite of copper (emerald green). One of them lost his life. Another case is mentioned by Dr. Letheby. In May, 1850, two little girls were taken to the London Hospital, suffering from the effects of poison. They had bought some sugar ornaments and coloured confectionary from a Jew in Petticoat•lane, and soon after eating them, they were seized with vomiting pains in the stomach, and burn ing of the mouth. On analysing the vomited matters, there wad abundant evidence of the presence of arsenic, copper, lead, iron, all of which metals had been derived from the confectionary of which the children had partaken. On making inquiry, Dr. Letheby was informed that between thirty and Forty children had been attacked in a similar way, after purchasing sweetmeats from the Jew in question, who was not acquainted with the poisonous nature of his merchandise ; for he had purchased it, so he stated, as the refuse stock of a large and very respect- able " firm in the City. In the adulteration of spirits (especially gin) vitriol seems to he most commonly used ; a great proportion of the old crusted port dis posed or is a vile compound of spoiled cider, elderberries, oak sawdust, logwood, rhatany wood, and catechn. Brandy or spirits of ino is added to supply strength. THE PRESS. The sick fare as badly with their drugs as children with their sweets. Consumptive patients hoping for recovery from cod-liver oil are treated to An extract from refuse fish : It is known that, even in Newfoundland, the livers of all kinds of fish are taken. and the oil imported to this country as the pure cod-liver oil. We have been informed that there exists at the present time in England a manu factory for the production of the so-called cod-liver oil, which is nothing more than the oleaginous material ex tracted by pressure from any kind of refuse fish which has been rendered unsaleable, either from decomposition or over abundance. Calomel is often adulterated with chalk, and jalap with " powder of post,' the medical term for sawdust. Opium, which if pure would be worth 20s. per pound, is commonly sold in the drug market at 4s. In face of all these facts—which though not new are conveniently brought together in this little volume—what is to bo done? Go vernment inspection is the most obvious remedy, and it is that which the author recom mends : In France, if the practice of adulteration commenced earlier than in England, its suppression commenced earlier also. There the head of the analyst has been fol lowed rapidly by the hand of the law ; and no sooner did the French chemist demonstrate the fatal extent to which numerous articles of diet were being sophisticated, than the French Government occupied itself with the punish ment of the adulterators, and directed that the police should use all possible efforts for discovering them. But in Eng land the only protecticu for the public, under the present laiasepfaire system of government, is that afforded by pub lications, in which the means of detecting adulterations are clearly indicated. Any attempt at fraud on the part of the customer is punished by law, and, above all, is easily detected. The bad shilling is at once recognised, and nailed to the counter ; but the poisonous adulterations practised upon food remain too frequently undiscovered, until their effects are shown in the indisposition or, perhaps, serious illness of the consumer. Milk is often taken jfrom diseased cows, and there should be inspectors for milk sellers : The only way to remedy the evil is by the appointment of Government inspectors, empowered to enter the cow sheds at any time, and visit the owners with severe fines, or, better still, with imprisonment, whenever they are found to be in an uncleanly or unhealthy condition. Government inspection is demanded for all trades ; but for this purpose an army of Go vernment spies would have to be distributed through the country, and as confessedly the excise officers are much less vigilant than they should be, what security is there that the new inspectors would be more vigilant in the dis charge of their duties° Centralisation would extend itself, until the people, thinking it needless to exercise vigilance for themselves, would trust wholly to the Government for protection, and perhaps be worse served than ever. Still what is to be done? The prosperous classes may be allowed to take care of them selves. If they deal with disreputable trades men, or expect commodities below their just value, the fault is their own. But can we blame the poor for endeavouring to save a halfpenny per pound on sugar, or for going to the baker who announces a fall in bread before his fellows ? Must children continue to be poisoned without interference, and the sick be suffered to die through want of the medicines which might recover them ? In the end we fear we shall have to come to Government inspection, for statutory enactments without some machinery to enforce them would be a dead letter. The point is whether society cannot do something for its own protection. We have societies for most useful purposes. Why should there not bo an anti-adulteration society ? A few Dr. Hassalls, active and skilful, and above the reach of corruption, might pro long by some years the average duration of life, and save the public millions of money now spent only to purchase disease and death. The Legislature would in that case no doubt supply laws to punish traders who except for the universality of their practices would be justly regarded as malefactors. This seems the only remedy that can be suggested. Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament. By Alfred Barry, M.A. London : J. W. Parker and Son. IN this volume Mr. Barry, a son of Sir Charles Barry, the architect, and himself now }lead Master of the Leeds Free Grammar School, takes frequent occasion to mention thu SATURDAY, gations which he owes to the teaching of Mr. Maurice. Tile book shows that the acknow ledgment is just. It perpetually reminds us of that compromise between modern latitu dinarianism and ancient orthodoxy which is a leading characteristic of Mr. Maurice's writings. He wishes to retain the integrity of Scripture, yet to give Scripture, from his point of view, a rationalistic interpretation, and the result is a kind of confusion infinitely more puzzling than the difficulty which the commentary was intended to remove. As with the master so with the disciple. Mr. Barry appears to consider that he has only to darken that which was obscure to produce light. He undoes knots by adding new coils to the string. Mr. Barry tells us that his chief object has been, not to supply an " apology " for the Bible, in the style of some German theologians, but that the Scriptures may be willingly studied, " to suggest a few leading principles, to indi• " cate, where necessary, the bearing of the " chief difficulties which perplex a thoughtful " reader, but most of all to trace the evolution "of the great scheme which gives to the " whole of the Bible so true a unity." He insists on the progressive nature of God's system of government, and quotes with ap probation the reply of Hooker to the Puritans, who insisted on the immutability of God's positive laws—" that though God's truth be in " itself above all change, yet that the declare)- " tions of it to men must from the nature of " the case adapt themselves to mutable beings, " and thus admit of change both in form and " degree." We once heard a dissenting minis ter express himself that the books of the Old Testament are as the large letters of a child's primer—the rudimentary teaching by which hereafter the mind may be expanded. With this view, the question is still whether the facts recorded are to be accepted as literal facts ; or are to be explained away as delusions, affecting those whom they con cerned at the time as truths ; or are to be treated as mere types and figures of truths . The teaching of Mr. Maurice and his follow ers, if we rightly apprehend it, accepts all these principles of interpretation. It insists on the literal truth of Scripture, yet gives to it an esoteric interpretation. For this reason probably Mr. Maurice is popular among the Unitarians in this country. They see that he leans towards rationalism, and they are inclined to claim him as one of them selves, though the sympathies of Mr. Maurice, apart from his peculiar views of Scripture truth, incline him more towards the spiritual. ism ani authority of the High Church party. Mr. Barry, following in the track of his master•, says that " the description of Divine " things must be more or less imperfec:, " because they must generally be symbolical; " the exhibition of Divine truth, even con " cerning ourselves, must be partial, giving us " very often views from opposite sides which " seem inconsistent, because we cannot take "in the whole." On the next page he illus trates his meaning by that part of the Scrip ture narrative which has been much can vassed—the command of Joshua that the sun should stand still : When we are told that the " sun stool still," not merely is there no assertion of the sun's absolute motion, but we are not told, because it does not concern us to know, whe ther the revolution of the earth was checked, or whether by some extraordinary refraction or meteoric effect the appearance of sunlight was continued. The only point of consequence is, that the day was miraculously prolonged ; the language need only be such as to convey that truth clearly. Similarly, to take a less famous instance, when we are told that the rainbow was " set in the cloud," after the flood, as a sign; the important point is the fact of the sign and its meaning, but whether the appearance of the rainbow then first found place, or, having existed before, was only made a sign then, is a matter of speculation and curiosity. This principle of interpretation, it is obvious, admits of great latitude. If we may suppose that the day was only prolonged by a meteor, or false sun, we may suppose, by a very slight further stretch of this principle of interpreta tion, that the senses and minds of the Israelites were merely impressed with an idea that the sun stood still, which would, for them, be exactly the same thing as if the sun had really stood still. Another rationalist might carry the principle further, and assert that as the narrativo was written fur future gomera-