Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-27

milk to London is not enough to give to each | inhabitant of that vast metropolis more than tablespoonful of pure milk daily.
 Again, in Boston within week, the legisla. tive committee on agriculture has had hear 1 ing on this matter of milk adulteration. The | State assayer was present with two samples of
 milk, one genuine the other diluted with 25
 per cent. of water and colored with annatto.
 In appearance both were equally good and 1 both bore the same test by the Iactometer, @.
 that is, probably the specific quantity had been
 kept up to the standard of pure milk by re.
 moving the lighter cream. This refinement
 in adulteration is the result of legislative
 action which has made tampering with milk misdemea but which has not provided ade-
 quate means for detecting evasions of the law
 or sufficient punishment for the offenders,
 but has the effect to put dishonest dealers on
 their guard and to make them more careful to
 avoid the ppearance of evil
 From aduIterated milk we naturally pass to
 adulterated butter. Curious enough the most
 common adulterant of milk, viz. water, is
 largely employed in the ,sophisticatim of but
 ter. Good butter usually contains from to
 10 per cent. of water, but the butter factors
 understand how to increase the proportions | up to 30 and even 40 per cent Salt, which should exist in good butter to the extent of
 not more than to three per cent. is worked in to the amount of 6, or more per cent. Starch has also been employed to extend very cheap butter. Butter is not infrequently sophisti- cated by admixture of cheaper animal fats, viz, tallow and lard.
 There has recsntlygrown up among us new 1 industry, which is perfectly legitimate, but which easily lends itself in materials, not in morals, to the business of butter adulterations. I refer to the so called oleomargarine manu- facture.
 Oleomargarine is simply beef tallow de- prived of a portion of the more firm and in- fusible fats, and then made to approach the conscience of butter, in further imitation of which it is mixed with milk and annato and churned, the result being product that, when made in a cleanly manner, is fair sub stitute for butter for cooking purposes, and is superior to bad butter for any purpose.
 Sold as oleomargarine this article is well enough, being entirely wholesome and nutri- tious and much cheaper than good butter In England, however, it is known es butterine and in conformity with the suggestions of this significant designation it enters into not little of the butter of commerce or, docked of the last syllable of it's name, is sold as butter pure and simple.
 I have heard it said that oleomargarine, or mixtures in which it was large ingredient, have passed as genuine butter and borne of prizes in some of our recent dairy fairs I cannot vouch for the truth of this statement, but do not regard it as altogether improbable
 Of the great food-staples used in this coun- try sugar is one with regard to which some al6Fm QaS D66u GGC6uLly IA1S6u- 1L mas been widely published that our sugars are diluted or cheapened by mixtures with glucose, an in- ferior sort of sugar and poisoned by tin. I am unable to learn that either of these sub stances have been found in more than very minute and harmless quantities in sugars.
 In syrups the case is otherwise. Glucose, now made from starch, usually that of corn, in large quantities, is employed in constructing factitious syrups, which are cheaper, but are perhaps little or no less nutritious than the molasses and syrups formerly obtained in the making and refining of cane sugar, and need not be inferior in nutritiye value though less sweet Syrups of this sort are extensively sold in our Western States and in some cases have been poisoned by injurious metals, al- though such impurities are probably acci- dental.
 have once met the complaint that white sugar was mixed with 8 suspicious looking blue substance in the form of powder. This was the harmless pigment known as ultra marine, which not many years ago was only known as a rare and costly mineral, but is now manufactured in large quantities. The purest cane or beet sugar that can be obtained by the processes of refining now used has yellowish tint, which is neutralized optically by adding to the sugar very small and ordinarily quite unnoticed proportion of ultra marine. This quality improves the color and beauty of the sugar, and though it is, in the most strict sense, an adulteration, it is not one in con- mon sense.
 Confectionery includes a class of articles that may be regarded as very liable to adulter- ation. In fact candies have been examined of all the colors of the rainbow and colored with nearly all the mineral poisons known to the art. Chromate of lead has been used to give sugar yellow and an orange color red lead and vermillion to produce red tints Prussian blue and vegetable poison-indigo ito make blues while copper and arsenic have been used for producing greens.
 These poisons and almost every kind of known and cheap pigment appear to have been used formerly in England, especially in the decoration of sugar dogs. cats and other saccharine statuary, in the construction of which the workman might often appear to be lifted above the practical ideas that would in- fusnce the mere candy puller, and in an en- thusiastic moment to despise and forget all base considerations of sanitation and toxicolo- gy, in the pure gush of high art, were it not for the undeniable fact that the more express i've and amorphous the image, the more pig ment and poison it is sure to carry.
 In 1872 Dr. Enderman, chemist to the New York City Board of Health, examined a large number of samples of confectionery on sale in that city. He found that white clay, gyp- sum, starch and lamp black were used in some of them to make weight; that chromate of lead, lime and barytes were employed as vel lows; that Prussian blue, ultra marine and va rious vegetable colors were present, but no compounds of mercury, copper or arsenic
 The obvious lesson of these facts is to avoid eolored confectionery, and especially cheap confectionery. I might ndd, avoid all confec- tionery but that advice commonly find to give the least satisfaction where it might be most advantageous to follow.
 The adulteration of meats finds its field in sausages, or potted or canned meats and meat pies. An English health officer of g town near Manchester said twenty-five years ago, as follows: ''We have in Newton five knack- ers' yards, and there is only one in Manches- ter. The reason is they have so much tolera- ton in Newton; and it has been source of great profit to them, because they have the means of selling the best portions of the horse flesh to the makers of potted meats"
 I can say for a fact that the tongues of horses particularly, and the best portions such as the hind quarters of horses, are gen. orally sold to mix with collared bacon or pigs heads, as they are called with us, and for saul sages and polonies (Bolognas).
 I understand also from those who have been in the habit of making them, that horse flesh materially assists the making of sau- sages; it is hard fbrine and it mixes better and keeps them hard, and they last longer in the shop windows Before being sold.
 Whether the current traditions as to the use Of other domestic animals in sausages are cor rect, l cannot say; nor do know whether the sausage makers are at the bottom of all the op-
 
 law. The things most extensively adulterated are articles which are not so much employed for the nutriment they furnish as for their appetizing or stimulating effects, which bring them into the class of luxuries. Everything of this kind is liable to falsifcation.
 Pickles, for example, should consist of cabbage, caulihowers, young beans or other vegetables, preserved in pure vinegar of good strength, with no addition beyond mus tard, salt or pepper. If you want such pickles you had better make them, although of course they can be had in market. Unfortunately, those who make their own pickles following the directions of some of the older cooking books, or practising after the examples of their grandmothers, furnish the cue to the adulter- ators. It was and is custom among New England housewives to prepare their cucum- Der pickles by boiling the vinegar in a brass kettle, or sleeping the cucumbers and vinegar together in brass until they acquire nice green color from the dissolved copper, adding lump of alum to make the pickles firm.
 To make pickles for the market such as you may eat with your oyster stew at the common sulphuric acid is used in place of most of the vinegar, and the dose of copper is administered in the shape of verdigris or blue YitriOl. while the alum is of course addad in