New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-21


The following article from the Financial Chron
Gle shows what high prices for food brings us to:
High prices for food leads to the introduction of
injurious substitutes and authorizations. At the
present time an unusual number of articles of
food in daily use are badly adulterated Common
scandal for years has assigned to the milk vended
from the wagons a reputation by no means credit
able to the salesman. Whiting, flour, water, and
many other things have been found to constitute
the ingredients Of the product which confiding
persons have supposed to be elaborated by the
mammary glands OF the COW. Cream is mythical
affair altogether.
Butter has also been found to be extensively
adulterated in England About fifteen years ago
the owners of the London Lancet employed
Arthur Hill, Hassel and others, to investigate the
matter of the adulteration Of food and published
the results of their experiments in a series of
papers, The scales and test tubes were en-
pioyed in the endeavOrs to determine the quality
and ingredients of the various staple articles en-
plOyed in diet by the inhabitants Of the British
metropolis DR.. Hassal afterwards embodied the
results of his labors in a volume which is declared
to be very cyclopedia of dishonesty.
No less than forty-eight samples of butter were
examined by these Investigators and their discov-
cries were recorded at full length. They ascer-
tanned that about one.ffth of the whole weight
consisted Of salt and water the water having
been stirred up with the butter rendered half fluid
by heating. Potato -four was also detected
The adulteraton of coffee is more notorious.
Chlccory and dandelion are commingled with it /;
and, indeed, peas, barley, sweet corn, wheat are
substituted in its place. Even the chiccOTy itself
is too valuable to escape analogous treatment.
Dr. Hassa and his associates examined thirty four
samples of the prepared sort, and found carrot
parsnip, beet, BEANS acorns, roasted corn, biscuit
powder and burnt sugar.
These gentlemen examined forty-two specimens
Of coffee, finding thirty-one to be adulterated
purely with chiccory twelve chiccory and roasted
corn; one with beans, and one with potato -four
bat f Tor lai1 pTaaS ND "a la
composed almost entirely of chiccory; the g finest
Java coffee" consisted of half coffee, much roasted
| corn, and little chiccory; superb coffee" was
principally chiccory and roasted corn fine Plan
tation Ceylon'' was almost entirely chiccory ;
| q fine Java" was heavily charged with chicCory
and potato; 'delicious drinking coffee" was
Chiccory and roasted corn.
The more imposing the name the grosser the
counterfeit appears to have been. We remember
some months since to have been presented with q
sample OF made coffee the flavor of which greatly
resembled that of charred wood and its effect upon
| the stomach was anything butagreeable. Indeed
in this country as well as elsewhere, there but
two certain plans to follow to. obtain real coffee
to witness the grinding Of it, or to purchase it
whole and grind it at home. Nevertheless, there
are honest coffee merchants occasionally.
| The same remark applies with equal justice to
the trickery played upon tea. The Chinese adu-
terise itthemselves before selling it to the "out-
side barbarans' by mixing it with ash and palm
leaves. The English are largely in the practice Of
! 3
mixing them with solution Of gum and drying
them; after which, by adding rose pink and black
lead to faceo them, they are made into black tea,
and by using copperas, they have green tea.
| The leaves of the BEECH elm chestnut, plane,
oak, willow, poplar, hawthorne, sumach, holly and
sea, are used mere less in the work of adultera-
ton. Black tea, however, does not appear to
| suffer much in reputation in this manner; but OF
| green teas this cannot be said, Of course, it is
not necessary to remark that the difference be-
tween green and black teas consstsiu the peculiar
manipulations given them by the Chinese.
| Chocolate has also become notorious by reason
of its adulterations. Flour appears to be the
principal ingredient employed for this purpose
starch, sugar, cocoanut oil, lard, tallow, sweet
oehre and chalk, have also been used.
The very mode of preparing it affords facilities
which the dishonest could not leave alone. The
proclivity is unfortunate, for the beverage is
cheaper and more wholesome than its rivals.
The cowuptions of sugar are less numerous, and
| are confined principally to confectionery. Gam,
boge, starch, flour, pipe clay, plaster Of Paris,
chalk, and even copper, lead and mercury are
used in the preparation of cheap candies.
! Wheat flour is generally sold in this country in a
| pure condition, owing to its cheapness. But in
| England, it has been found upon analysis to yield
such queer constituents as white corn meal, potato
-four plaster of Paris, ground bones, chalk, rye,
| bean, pea, and rice -four, Bread, however, is
| badly aduterated There is some reason for our
people to adopt the suggestion of the French
tiger, Marat, and hang up the bakers at their own
| doors. The bread which they serve becomes I'M
| paatable when but few hours old, owing to the
improper ingredients employed in its prepare
| ton.
Alum either pure or mixed with salt is ia.
milar article in the manufacture, making inferior
-four white, and enabling it to absorb larger
quantity of water.
The remedy for these evils is an important topic
for consideration. Legislation has often been pro
posed, but we cannot quite agree with those who
regard it as panacea of human ills, Indeed, il
is hardly possible to establish in any large oommu
, nifty, like Boston, New York. or Philadelphia, a
| system by which unwholesOme or adulterated ar
tiGles would be excluded from the markets.
| Besides we are people jealous of much gov
erning. We prefer to be cheated in the weight OF
quality of our bread, the quantity of our berries
the constituents of our milk or even in the lngre
dents which constitute our eot1ee or wine to The
alternative of an espionage into our habits ant
employment. The surveillance which in many
! European countries exposes every mans most ri
wal acts TO the cognzance Of government, woult
be resented by us as an objectionable outrage OF
personal rights. We prefer to take our chance
with the petty knaveres of our neighb0rs II
5 hourly contact with the nformer, the policeman 0
the magistrate. IS
: We are of opinion that the best method of pro
tecuOn against the practice of adulterating tn
diHerent articles of food is to insure its cheapness
Only when prices are high is there liability of tan
: penng with spurious ingredients. By no mean
should government lay its imports and excuses upO
} the hecessarles OF life, exposing its citizens t
such frauds, and to the evils of such artificial fan
2 inc The cheapness of food is also of the utmo,
Importance to the public health. Mr.. Farr, tn
$ Registral General of England reviewing the table
of mortality of London, from 1902 till 1900. asce
+ tanned that in ninety eight years when provision
were relatively cheap the number of deaths WI
less than in ninety eight years when the price
were higher; thus demonstrating the existence
the law.
) Mr. tow speaks of two bad seasons in succe
/ sion, 1892 and 1898, when the poorer inhabitant
of that city siCkened rom their endeavors to sui
a sist on apples and nuts for want of better food
showing that cheapness of food is essential to tn
= public health. If the East Indian pestilene
scourges our cities during the present year, as