The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-11-20
HOW WE ARE POISONED DAILY.
The Things We Eat, Drink and Wear All
Are Mediums for Conveying POisOns to
Our Systems.

The Things We Eat, Drink and Wear All
Are Mediums for Conveying Poisons to
Our Systems.
From the Cincinnati Commercial
At one of the sessions of the Social
Science Association, which this year met
at Syracuse, N. Y, Mr.. George Il. An
CELL of Boston read an interesting pa
per on the Manufacture and Sale of
Poisonous and Dangerously Adulterated
Articles" These poisons, he said, are
found in our food, our drink, our cloth
ing, in the cooking utensils used in our
kitchens, in the pipes that carry our
water, in the carpets and wall papers
that beautify our houses, and in the col
ored papers and toys which are the play
things of our children. These danger
Gus but cheaper articles are gradually
driving the safer but more expensive
ones out of our markets. As an evil
dence of how extensively groceries were
adulterated he quoted from the report
of the Canadian Commissioner of Inter-
nal Revenue for 1877, in which it was
stated that 81 out of 108 articles ana
lyzed were found to be adulterated.
Very few groceries are wholly pure.
The Grocer's Manual publishes some of
the authorizations. The cream of tartar
found on sale, it says, is seldom more
than ~ per cent. pure, the remainder
being terra aba, or white earth, and
other adulterants. Cayenne pepper is
debased with red ochcr, cinnabar, YER
ymilion and sulphuret of mercury, and
the color preserved by red lead and
Venetian red. Coffee is adulterated
with pea flour colored with Venetian
red: Liquors and wines are generally
made from cheap runs and WHISTLES.
MIX is adulterated with water, flour,
starch, gum, turmeric, chalk, sugar,
carbonate of soda, and cerebral matter:
and cream is made by the use of gum.
Mustard is seldom sold pure. Preserved
meats are colored with ocher and red
lead. Bottles labeled Worcestershire
sauce, etc., are often filled with stuff
Favored with dangerous chemicals.
Soaps contain poisonous coloring mat
ter that produces skin diseases. Teas
are colored and doctored, largely in
New York and Philadelphia, with arsen- |
late OF copper, verdigris, mineral
green, Prussian blue, tale, clay, soap
stone, and numerous other articles. |
Much of the tobacco which men roll like |
Il sweet morsel under their tongues is |
made out of the leaves of other plants.
to which are added chromate of lead. |
oxide of lead, etc. Half the vinegar
sold in the large cities, it is asserted. is
rank poison, made from preparations of
lead, copper and oil of vitriol. These
statements were made in the Manual in
the interest of grocers.
Mr.. Angel says that personal friend,
who Is a partner in one of the largest
tea houses in Boston, and was
for time a resident i'm China, said to
him that neither himself nor anv men,
Der of his firm would drink any thing
but the natural uncolored teas; that
while the teas are usually adulterated
before they reach this country, thew are
further adulterated and poisoned after
they arrive here. The public taste
which demands colored teas sbould
know that some of them contain prussic
acid. England has shut out these
spurious teas, and they are now mostly
beng sent to America. Not only is
ground coffee adulterated, but machines
have been invented and are in use in
-his countrythat mold authorizations into
he form OF coffee berries. Coffee is
often adulterated with chiccory, which is
Itself adulterated with articles more
dangerous. /!
Much of the sugar sold in stores con-
AIMS glucose sometimes called &c grape
ugar'o and muriate of tin. Glucose.
he importation of which increased from
1882 in 1875 to S23S, 500 (and vast ,
Quantities are also manufactured in the 6
United States), is made by boiling corn !
tarch with sulphuric acid Toll of vitrioD, !
nd then mixing it with lime. 1t is c
sed largely to adulterate cane !
lgars and sirups professor R.
!. kedzie, OF the Michigan State
GARD of Health, by analysis, found Is Il
ut of IL specimens of common table I
rups to be made of glucose, one of the p