Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-11-06
ApuLrERAT1oN OF FOOD AND
FLUIDS.

An English periodical (Cdsseli's Nag
o-ine) tells a not very agreeable story
abou, the extent Of a%dulteration prac-
tieed in England in articles of food and
drink. In the poor quarters Of London
the bread is made from damaged -four,
mixed with potatoes. The butter is
mixed with lard, and colored with an
ua,o. Sausages are made Of diseased
meat. Tea is compounded Of sand, tea
dust, dirt and leaves mixed together with
gum. Coffee is mixed with chicory,
mangol wurtzel, roasted chestnuts and
bullock's blood. As the statement in
relation to coffee is o curious as we'll as
disgusting one, we quote it in full:
"Our authority for this last state
ment is a work by Mr.. G. P. Simmonds,
entitled Coffee as it is, and as it ought
to be- in which he says {: In various
parts of the metropolis, but more espe-
cially in the east, are to be found 'liver
bakers These men take the livers of
oxen and horses, bake them and grind
them into a powder, which they sell to
low-priced coffee shopkeepers Mt from
fourpence to ~siXpence o pound, horses
liver coffee being the highest priced.
1t may be known by allowing the
coffee to stand until cold, when a thick
pellicle of skin will be found on the top.
He adds, it goes farther than coffee,
and is generally mixed with chicory and
other vegetable limitations Of coffee
The analytic commission of the Lancet,
DR.. Hassall, actually has tested this
horrible stuff, which we will believe
without his assurance to possess a very
disagreeable animal SMELL The puz-
zle is how people a be found to drink
such horrible decoctions even in the
poorest coffee houses"
Milk is adulterated with water. That,
however, is a device not confined to
England. Pickles are colored by boil
ing a slip of copper with them. Sweet
meats and bottled fruit are colored with
copper, logwood or beet root. Candy
is colored with poisonous ingredients,
such as cromate of lead, oxide of lead
and arsenite Of copper. Jargonel pear
drops and essence of pine apple are
made from a preparation Of ether and
rancid cheese and butter. Arrow root
is made Of potato flour and sago meal.
Honey is adulteratcd with -four starch
and sugar starch. Mercury is falsiied
with lead, tin and bismuth opium with
a dozen ingredients; gentian with pois.
aconite and bella donna; rhubarb
with gamboge, and castor and cod-liver
oils with common oils that have nc
medicinal virtue. Condiments have
long offered q fine field to the adultera.
tor. Illustrations are thus given:
"Mustard, for instance, is never sold
pure. Out of forty-two samples analysed
by DR.. Hassall, every one vas adulter-
ated with wheaton flour, and colored up
with tumerie. Sulphuric acid is very
strong in the vinegar-cruet, and in the
pepper castor we find together with pure
pepper a large percentage Of flour,
ground rice, and-what does the reader
think2-linseed meal; n poultice inter-
nally with every bit Of beef we put in
our mouths. Cayenne is universally
falsiied-deal sawdust and brickdust
to give it bulk, and red-lead to give il
color. Curry-powder also receives this
poisonous ad%ulteration."
The adulteration of fluids is treated
at length. Here we have green v%itriol,
alum, salt, salts of steel, quassia, alder
berries. oil of cinnamon, cayenne pep
per, almond oil, sulphuric acid, etc.,
etc. In reading these things we. are
forced to believe that there is indeed a
blissful ignorance which it would be
folly to eulighten, unless people are
resolved to eat and drink within starva-
ton limits.