Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-09-29
ADUL TIONS AND SUB
STITUTIONS.

WIFI lueli COHee SuOulu uuuOuDleuIy
be allowed to do so although, for one
who knowingly use= coffee 30 unadul-
terated, pr: r:bably there are a dozen who
do it without knowing. So. too, in re-
gard to those who use oleomargarine
instead of dairy butter, taking the for
mer knowingly on account of its lower
price, ar because a good article of but
| ter may not be obtainable. There al.e
many other deteriorations, adultera-
tions and substtutions which are also
| allowable, if not even entirely h rm-
less, provided, as between manufactu-
rer, dealer, and consumer, there be a
correct understanding as to the article
dealt in, and no attempt at deception
is practiced The difficulty is that de-
ception in some form, or at some stage,
seems to be an invariable accompani-
ment of this kind of business. The
manufacturer may not deceive the large
dealer, who is supposed, equally with
himself, to be an expert from the large
dealer to the retailer, and from the lat
ter to the consumer, however, the op-
portunities for deception, without the
commission of any fraud in the eye of
the law, are wonderfully increased
Perhaps one of the most successful
of the comparatively new adulterations
is that of the use of glucose, made from
corn, for the adulteration of sugar and
sirup supposed to be made from the
sugar cane. Considerable prominence
has been given to this matter on ac-
count of trial which took place in
Buffalo in July, the suit growing out
of a difference as to the ownership of
stock in a company which had made
immense profits out of the business.
Glucose, or starch sugar, is not neces-
sarily harmful, but it has very little
sweetening power Mr.. r. G. Kedzie,
the president of the Michigan State
Board of Health, in a recent report,
gives list of the seventeen table SIR
ups he had examined, of which only
two were less than half glucose, while
most of them were more than three
quarters, and four were all glucose.
One gallon of sirup is estimated to have
the sweetening power of All gallons
of glucose sirup. The writer concludes,
however, that there is comparatively
little glucose in 'granulated' and crush
ed sugars, of which he had examined
many samples, although he found it
easily in many samples of light brown
sugars He says: "The existence of
clean, well-deined, non-coherent crys-
tails, free from foury dust, is good evil
dence of tie absence of glucose from
commercial sugars" and adds: "In the
common candies, where the crystalline
form is purposely avoided as far as pos
sible, glucose is often used in large
quantities.
The case assumes much graver as
pect, however, when we come to the
sophistication of drugs, and all that
class of articles known to our n,ateria
medica, where single instance of
adulteration or substitution may put
health of life in jeopardy The Nation.
al Board of Health has, therefore, done
well, in the absence of any yellow fever
damage this year, to devote some at
tention to this subject, and they have
accordingly issued pamphlet in rela-
tion thereto, embodying report fur
nished by Mr. c. Levitt Diehl, on De-
teriorations, Adulterations, and substi-
tutions of Drugs The writer, after
mentioning the practical difficulties at
tending the collection of specific infor-
nation in regard to particular drugs,
to determine how general may be the
adulteration, proceeds to set forth
mainly such facts az are recorded in
the current literature of the last twen-
ty-five or thirty years, most of it c>m-
ing within the published proceedings
of the American Pharmaceutical Asso
ciation Previous to l848 large impor-
tations of adulterated and inferior
drugs were thrown on our market, but
in that year Congress passed law to
regulate such importations, and design
ed to exclude inferior and adultera ed
drugs. Under this law the special ex
aminer' for the port of New J. York, at
which most of the importations had
been made, had occasion, during the
first ten months, to reject about 10000
pounds of drugs, such as rhubarb,
opium, jalap, gamboge, senna, yellow
bark, iodine, croton oil, sarsaparilla,
etc, while from 1848 to 1857 the same
examiner rejected over 900, 900 pounds
of unsafe, adulterated, and improper
drugs and medicines 1t was at once
demonstrated that the law had been of
great benefit, for the quantity of drugs
rejected within short time after the
appointment of the examiner was much
larger than brief period later, and
continued to diminish for several years.
The record of drugs rejected is not now
kept, but the same law is in force, al
though it is complained that it is not
as effective as it should be, because the
examiners are not always appointed
solely with reference to their fitness
for the Office
The National Board of Health have
no remedy to recommend for the pres
ent state of things, but from the print
ing of their report, and the diffusion of
such information as is here presented,
much good may ultimately result. The
National Government can exercise
more care, or make more stringent reg
ulations if that be necessary, to prevent
importations of inferior or adulterated
drugs, but what seems even more neces-
sary than this is uniform action by the
various State Legislatures to mere ef-
fectually control the manufacture and
the dealings in class of goods where
the detection Of inferiority or delete
rious adultera-ions are generallyso diff
cult, and where any fraud is likely to
have direct effect on the health of the
community.-Scientifc american.
A GREAT BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTED.
The great work of reconstructing the
famous railway suspension bridge
across the Niagara river has just been