Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-07-11
WHAT WE EAT,
FOOD ADuLTERATIoNs TO DE LOOKED OUT
FOR BY EVERY HoUsEKEEpER.


The adulteration of food, and the
short measures given in standard ar
ticles of common consumption are at
tracing much attention in scientific
circles, and analysis made recently
give results scarcely likely to be pleas
ant to the economists who have been
using such articles on account of their
cheapness. Professor Sharpless, State
Assay OF Massachusetts, having taken
pains to investigate the breakfast coffee
advertised throughout the country as
the "latest triumph of science and
sold for twelve cents q pound, finds it
to consist of burnt peas and chiekory
mixed, apparently by accident" with
few grains OF coffee while cheap
cream Of tartar is proved to consist
largely OF tartaric acid and terra alba.
This terra alba, or white earth, import
cd from the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, is an ingredient used as a food
adulterant in fearful degree. 1t is,
when pulverized, white and almost
palpable powder tasteless, and looking
like very fine starch. Its presence is
frequently detected in powdered sugar,
which may account for tho fact that
housekeepers, as a rule, do not find
powdered sugar, altoge satisfactory
for cooking purposes.
1t has long been known that cheap
champagne is more closely akin to the
apple than TO the grape that cheap
whisky is often composed of poisonous
chemicals; but then cider impregnated
with carbonic acid gas is not q hurtful
beverage, and the people who drink
cheap whisky arc not usually persons
Of value to the community. When,
however, wo arc told that the agents
employed in rcctifying the syrups used
on our tables by ourselves and our
children, are such powerful chemicals
as sometimes to cat holes in the casks
containing these syrups, we are apt at
least to experience disagreeablo sensa.
tons in rejecting that the coats Of the
human stomach can hardly be less
pcrincuDlo tuan WOOu,
IL is an old and Oft told tale, yet one
which should be repeated again and
again until every rational human be-
ing has il by heart, that so is the food
we eat, so are we ourselves. The in
terror Of our bodies is each chemical
laboratory, wherein, hour by hour and
day by day, the work of assimilation is
going on--old particles of flesh and
blood thrown OIL, and new ones sup
plying their places. With young and
growing animals the process is more
thorough, more assimilation takes
place, and tho laboratory, so to speak,
does more active business. "Men do
not gather grapes of thistles," and
poor food never yet produced strong
muscle nor healthy flesh. Nobody can
be hung for suicide-the crime brings
its own punishmcnt-but child.murdcr
is another affair. We do not hesitate
to say that tho foundation Of most of
the aches and pains felt in after life is
laid in the nursery. Poor food and an
unlimited supply Of candies, which are
half terra alba, hre poor material
whence to produce good bone and
muscle. Nn ~ fr -
But what are We TO do2 asks some
anxious mother. Dear madam, all over
the world the key TO commerce is In
two words-demand and supply. III
these deleterious compounds were lcit
on the shelves of the grocers, manufac-
turors would cease TO produce them.
And without analysis is not their very
cheapness some key to their worthless.
messy How can coffee roasted and
ground be sold for less than the raw
berry at wholesaler Must there not