The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-11 00:00:00

IIIE ADULL,ILATION OF FOOD.

Dr. Letheby lately delivered a lecture before the Social
Science Association on " The Preservation and Adultera-
tion of Food ;" Dr. P. Le Neve Foster in the chair.

The lecturer said the im;ortance of the subject couta
.lot be doubted. The preservation of food would enable
nations to provide against want, and so to equalise distri-
bution that the excess of one country might supply the
deficiency of another. Thousands and thousands of tons .
of meat were annually wasted which might be preserved
and used as wholesome food. In South America alone
2,000,000 of bullocks were slaughtered annually for their
bones and hides ; in parts of Australia legs of mutton
were often sold, salted, at 3s. per dozen. Meat could, in
Tact, be supplied in this country in any quantity at 3d.
per pound, if proper steps were taken to effect that most
most desirable end. The only process formerly used for
preserving meat was the rude and barbarous method of
gave an impetus to inquiry was
salting it. That which
the wants of those who took part in the Arctic Expedition,
And who were obliged to carry food. The Admiralty
offered -a re ward for the best means of preserving meat,
and several were discovered. From 1691 until 1857, 121
patents were taken out on the subject of preserving meat.
Of these 116 bad been granted during the present century,
and over 100 during the last forty years. Twenty-six
of them related to the process of drying, 31 to
the exclusion of atmospheric air, 8 b the covering
.if the meat with an impenetrable varnish, and 1:3
to the injection of saline matter into the meat. There
were three conditions necessary to putrefaction : there
must be much moisture ; next, atmospheric air ; and next,
a temperature ranging from 40 deg. to 200 deg. If any one
these three conditions were absent putrefaction ceased,
and all the patents rested upon that principle. The
lecturer then referred in detail to the principle of the
patents in the several methods to which he had
alluded, and explained the process in each case—referring
frequently to diagrams and specimens of the meat or other
article of food preserved. The use of unsound meat, he
said, was more injurious than that of any other kind of
unsound food. In the three City markets there were
400 tons of meat received from all parts of the coun-
try and from abroad, and sold daily. The seizure
last year amounted to no less than 288,0001 b., or 129 tons.
Only one part in 750 was seized, whereas it had been calcu-
lated that, taking all the markets in the country, only
one part in every five sent to market was sound. Since
his (Dr. Letheby's) new regulations as one of the in-
spectors had come into force no less than 700 tons of
unsound and diseased meat had been seized in the City,
together with 19,000 fowls, 207 quarters of venison,
millions of fish, and thousands of bushels of shrimps,
oysters, whelks, and mussels. On the Continent they
had ascertained to a nicety the effect of eating meat
affected with parasites by administering it to criminals
under sentence of death. They needed a practical test of
the effect of eating unsound meat in this country, and
Lis suggestion was that every farmer detected sending in,
and every butcher detected selling such, should be made
to eat it. The adulteration of food was carried on to a
'great extent. Adulteration was resorted to with three
objects—first, to increase bulk ; next, to give false strength
to the material ; and next, to improve its appearance. Alum
was found in bread to increase the water in it, so that a sack
of flour, instead of making 04 loaves, should make 100 ; then
water was put into m ilk ; dripping i nto butter. Ostend butter
wasmanufactured at Bow— gelatin ewes ingeniously put upon
isinglass, chicory into coffee, sulphuric acid into vinegar,
and tea was faced with black lead. These were only a,
few of the articles which were adulterated with the ob-
ject he had stated. In the olden time there existed a law
that the trader convicted of adulterating any article in
which he dealt was made to walk in the public thorough.
fare with a specimen of the article on his breast, and a
label—" This is adulterated, and I am the fellow that did
it." For the second offence he was drawn on a hurdle ;
and for the third he was put in the pirory, and hlajzoing
license re yoked.