Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-03-01
sOHus DELlcACIEs.
How Science is CrowdiDg Nature at
the Banquet Table.
Chemistry's Triumph Tn Pleas
ing the Palate
Philadelphia Times.


The reporter at last asked DR.. Left
mans opinion on the subject. The
chemist had never heard Of arti6cia.
eggs. but said there was nothing i'm.
posslble'sbout the story. He thought
the resources. Of chemistry could turn
out Very fair imitation Of genuine
egg. The she'll might be made o.
paper pulp, with the addition of q
little plaster Of paris; the lining mem
brane OF very fine tissue paper soaked
In parafiine; the white OF gelatine OF
glue reduced tothe proper consistency
and the yolk Of COCOA butter and cot.
tonseed oil, which. if mixed in certain
proportions, would form a globule
which might be colored by any harm
less matter, and would hang suspended
in the gelatine,. The problem OF get
ting the egg into the shell, however,
he let for the inventors to solve.
The genius of our fathers exhaused
itself 10 such vain and proftless frauds
as carving wooden hams and nutmegs,
sharpening shoe pegs into oats, sanding
sugar and initiating milk with wster
and chalk. The chemistry Of the
present goes away ahead of this; it is
not satisfied with clumsy limitations,
but makes clever substitutions. and
a very attractive table might be spread
with appetizing viands that would not
contain trace of the articles they
represented. Give a chemist glu-
cose, gelatine, plaster of paris, few
vegetable oils and his choice of
essential others, and he will initiate
almost anything so as to deceive sight,
taste aud smell. The glucose, as is we'll
known, is an imitation of sugar made
from corn starch, and is quite as
harmless, though not as sweet as cane
sugar. The gelatine can be made out
OF old boots, leather scraps, parings of
hoots and fragments of horns, or
almost any other animal substance,
The vegetable oils are wholesome
and the others are used in
very small proportion.
Milk is rarely initiated out and out
though it is sometimes thickened with
calves brains, and occasionally thinned
with water; hut ice cream is favorite
subject of the imitator's genius. The
basis of great deal of the cheaper
kind is either gelatine or olive Lutter
which is thickened with corn starch
sweetened with glucose, and favored
with the appropriate others.
GumdrOps, the iavorite confection.
cry OF very young ladies, are properly
made of gumarabic and sugar, but
nine tenths OF those sold are made Of
gelatine and glucose, and some, il is to
be feared, OF actual glue. Imitation
icorice is made of glue, mixed with
certain cheap gums, colored with lamp
black and favored with the ever handy
,thers.
The homely but toothsone cane
'yrup OF our childhood, is now almost
extinct. 1t has been driven from the
market by glucose syrup, which is also
he basis OF artificial maple syrup
md imitation honey, the cells Of
he latter being made of para.
inc. Whether cane syrup or
glucose. however, it does equally we'll
ior making artificial coffee, which is
of corn or other grain
oasted In nolasses and ground. Eek,
ract OF coffee" is a liquid obtained
rom this decoctiOn, but as this decep |
ion has become pretty generally
lnown. other devices have been
ldopted to beguile the public, and a
,atent was taken out in England some
ime ago for making artificial coffee
'eans. The specific atoms called for a
MIXTURE OF genuine coffee and chicory.
up together and compressed
" suitable machinery into the well
lnown shape Of coffee in the grain.
The fruit butter man buys up old
Tried apples. boils them to a pulp.
md, with his little bottles Of ether
proceeds TO make of them all sorts of
ruit butters-apple, peach, pear.
plum, ounce, grape or whatever is de.
'lred-comes forth from his kettle as
,eadily as the required wine comes
.orth from the coOjurer's magic bot>
lie. Does he want preserves Of small
ruits2 They come forth at his call,
ully initiated, even to the seeds,
which are imported from EDglaud-a
lille, hard, black seed, grown, II is
aid, expressly for this purpose. For
ellies nothing more is needed than
selatine, come simple coloring matter
md little ether Of the proper flavor
md it is charged that the shrewd
makers will slip an occasional seed
MO the jellies to remove all suspicion
hat they might have been made from
I'D boots instead of ripe and luscious
Ferries.