Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-07-10

FROM the New YORK Courier and Enquirer.
What shall we eat, what shall we Drink,
and WherewithaI shall we be CIothedg
About the clothes there is no difficulty Will
we be clothed in homespuni Homespun we can
have in abundance, we can know il when we
see II, to be homespun, and can, therefore, put
~ on with confidence, and feel that in homespun
we are really clothed Will we be clothed in
purple and fine linen' Purple and fine linen
also we can have in abundance If we have the
money or credit to get them, and when we put
them on we can know TO certainty that the
purple is purple, and the fine linen is fine linen
and that neither ono nor the other is a base imi-
tation. But what shall we eat and drink that
is the question. When we eat and drink do we
ever know what we are eating and drinking
The last number Of the London Quarterly Re
rie,c says that in England the people seldom
know what they really eat and drink Hear the
Quarterly OH "Food and its authorizations, and
then wonder what piece of work is man, If
he wlthstands the assaults Of such vilanous com
pound.
Take the crute-frame and analyse It's contents
Gut OF forty-two samples of mustard, bought by
Dr. Hassell, all were more less adulterated
with wheaton flour for bulk, and turmeric or In
dian saffron for color. Vinegar suffers double
adnlteration; it is first watered, and then pun
gency is given to it by the addition Of sulphuric
acid small quantity Of the acid is allowed by
law, but this is often trebled by the victuallers
Now 1or the pepper; among the milder forms Of
the aduiteration OF pepper are wheaton flour,
ground rice, ground mustard seeds, and linseed-
meal. But this is too genuine an article for some
markets, and it is accordingly mixed with the
dirt OF pepper-dust swept up from. the floor of
pepper warehouses. These are simply dirty and
fraudulent adulterations Of black pepper, but in
Cayenne pepper cruet there is deadly poison.
Out OF twenty eight samples, submitted for ex-
animation, no less than twenty four were adul-
terated with white mustard-seed, brick-dust, salt,
ground rice, and dead dust by way Of giving
bulk, while for COLOR the article used was neither
more or less than red lead and often in poisonous
quantities.
we pass over what the Quarterly says in refer
ence TO sausages, merely remarking, that wit
ness, examined on oath before the Smthfeld
Market commissioners, testified, that lie was GER
tain if one hundred carcasses of cows were living
dead in the neghborhood of London, he could
get them all sold within twenty -four hours, no
mailer lchai they died Of. Next comes bread
The old authorizations of bread, such as plaster Of
Paris, bone dust, clay, sulphate of copper, Sc,
have vanished with free trade, but authorizations
still remain. When loaf is marked under the
market price, it is certain that it is made from
Hour ground from inferior and damaged wheat.
In order to bring this up to the required color,
and destroy the sour taste which often belongs TO
1t, the bakers introduce mixture called in the
trade lizards" and 'sstufi," which is nothing
more than alan and salt kept prepared in large
loaves OF bread, bought in every quarter of the
metropolis of London, DIR. Hassall did not find
one free from the aduteration of alum, and in
some Of the samples he found large quantities
We come now to the tea table, and according
to the Quarterly, there is death in the teapot
Ihere IS no such thing as pure green tea TO be
met with in England. Ii is adulterated in China
and the English themselves have learned 10 adul-
terate it at home with all the cunning of the
Aslatic. The beautiful blush bloom of the real
green tea is exactly initiated by the Hong mer-
chants, and black tea is openly coored in the
neighborhood of Canton, in the most wholesale
manner The materials used in coloring green
tea are Prussan blue and gypsum. Mr. Robert
Fortune, in his work, "The Tea Districts of China
and India, ascertained precisely the quantity of
Prussian blue and gypsum used in dying green
tea To l4z lbs were applied mace % candle
reens OF tins colorng matter, or rather than
an ounce To every hundred pounds of colored
green tea consumed in England and America,
the consumer actually drinks more than half "a
pound of Prussian blue and gypsum. Of fifty
samples OF green ten a~'lysed by DIR. Hassal all
were adulterated the tea called Gunpowder-
both black and GREEN'S almost entirely a manu-
featured article--the former being called s.scen-
ted caper. Both have large admixture Of
what is termed "lye tea, - or a compound of sand
DIRT, adust, and broken down portions of other
leaves worked together with gum into small no.
dulles This compound contains forty-five per
cent OIL earthly matter, and Is manufactured both
In England and China for the express purpose of
tea. When mixed with s'scented
caper" it is "faced" with black-lead; when with
Prussian blue; tumeric and French
chalk give it the required bloom. Illicit tea is
also often mixed with solution of gum and
quantity Of copperas.
Such being tea, we turn for consolation To cof-
fee, bnt it is only avoiding Scylla to fall into
Charybdis. Coffee is adulterated even more than
tea Chicory is one of the chief materials used
Tor The adulteration. Ia twenty-eieht samples
tested, chicory constituted the main part of the
SO -caled coffee. Red earth, roasted horse-chcst-
nuts, and baked horses and buocks Rrers are also
used IN the adulteration of coffee. These last are
ground into powder and so mixed with chcory
and other vegetable limitations of coffee As for
milk, the pump contributes not the only adultera-
-ion Aannato flour, starch, and trcaclc are in
the milk -pan and the cream-jug. In brown sugar
here are hundreds of what is called the sugar
insect, and with white sugar there is mixed albu-
men Of bullock blood. Pickles are made TO look
| bright green by means Of verdigrs, and cheap
,onfectioners color their confectons with arsenite
1f copper, chromate of lead and other equally
ieady poisons. The authorizations of liquors are
90 numerous to give in detail. II will be enough
o say that logwood often enters largely into the
composition of Port wine, sulphate of zinc and
white vitriol into that Of London gin, and the
'ature Of brandy is often extremely complicated
n the ramiication Of its drugs. So much for the
london Quarterly authorizations Of food and
rink in Great Britain. We do not Relieve that
hey prevail to so great extent in this country
'ut il is well even here to look into, if we can
What we eat and what we drink.