Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-10-06
FOOD ADULTERATION AT HOME
AND ABROAD.
A Startling Exhfbit-sgIore Legislatfon
Needed.
From the Philadelphia Press.


Of fare such as the chemists of Paris are wont
TO provide for the second-rate hotels and res
taurants Of that earthly heaven. Butter from
milk, coffee from berries, wine from grapes
vinegar from wine, all the products of the vege
table and mineral kingdom which in the good
old times were used for human food have now
apparently grown out of date, and gastronomy
has become chemical science. Tapioca Ii
made out of potatoes heated In copper and
slightly tinctured with acetate Of copper. The
| same metal gives the beautiful green to pickles
| Fish are kept in state of preservation fol
| some time by embalming them with q mixture
| of chloride of zinc and acetate of aluminium
The butter used for the sauce for salmon or tur
bot thus preserved 10 made Of flour, starch, po
tatOes, cheese, mixed with veal fat, suet lard OF
| other fatty substances, weighted with CLAW
| chalk, gypsum, silicate Of potassium. sulphate
of baryum, colored with chromate of lead, or 8
! ''tinctorial PASTE of various poisons.
Chocolate is manufactured from rice. flour,
peas and beans, olive or almond oil, roasted
nuts, sawdust, cinnabar, red oxide of mercury
minimum, chalk and other mineral substances
| Currant jelly is made Of marrow extracted
from Japanese sea weed; little beet juice OF
carmine is added for color, glucose for sweeten
ing, and a spoonful of syrup for bouquet, and
no one can tell it from that made from currants
| Candies are manufactured from glucose colored
with chrome yellow and other salts of lead, YER
million or sulphate ofmercury, Schecles green OF
arsenite of copper, cobalt blue, orpiment, verdi
girls and gamooge Prussian blue, oxide Of
| zinc, ultramarine, cOchineal, indigo and the
aniline colOrs are comparatively harmless. "a
box of bOn-bons." says our author sis ALWAYS q
box Of colors little sugared"
When it comes to drinkables the chemist IL
still more successful In his authorizations Coffee
used to be made of starch, of potatoes, wheat
oats, carrots or beets. The English now excel
| in preparing real Government Java from caramel
tan-bark, mahogany saw-dust and baked horses
liver. Doctor Hassall, Of London, found only
three specimens of pure coffee in thirty-foul
| samples.
in Bremen and Hamburg the astute Germans
manufacture the genuine Havana cigar boxes,
the lining paper, the pretty ribands which tie
them, and even the nails which fasten them. A
leaf OF genuine tobacco wraps up oak leaves
and the unraveed ends Of old cigars Sent to
Paris, they are stamped and taxed.
FRENCH ADULTERATION
The soda water or settler to take with the
brandy is apt to be poisoned with lead, copper
or brass. In order to cure the indigestion
caused by these homogeneous mixtures the doc
tor advises the melancholy human ostrich to
take pepsine. Pepsine is the digestive princi-
pie extracted from the stomachs of various ami
mails. The indefatigable chemists of Paris now
add to small basis of the real substance gela-
tine, glucose, glycerine and salicyic acid, which
prevents fermentation. Quinine is found to con-
tain boracic acid, chalk and magnesia phosphate
and sulphate of soda and nitrate of potassium,
benzOic and stearic acid, glucose, sugar of lead
and other pOisOns too numerous to mention.
OF course these examples do not halt exhaust
the list of Illegally manufactured foods, drinks,
and drugs. There is scarcely thing sold which
is not initiated to the detriment of the con-
sumner or purchaser. This matter of adultera-
ton is one Of the most important questions of
the day. If in Europe, where eminent chemists
are enlisted by government systematically to
analyZe all goods sold; If in countries where
there is an imperial health Office, where every
Important town has municipal laboratory and
technical commission composed of educated
chemists and physicians, yet the market ia
flooded with deleterious foods. wines and medi-
cines, what must be the state of things in a
country like the United States, where the poor
and the uneducated are almost entirely unpro-
tected2 Massachusetts, thanks to the endea-
yors OF Mr.. George 7. Angel, assisted by Mr..
Charles X. Fletcher and other public-spirited
chemists made innumerable analyses and &C
tually scared the public into protecting them
selves. In comparatively short time a great
improvement was manifest. Sugar became free
from glucose, butter from lard, and flour from
terra alba
But In the west things are worse than ever.
A careful chemist recently made analyses of
food found in Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere,
and was startled and Mortified at the boldness
of the adulterations 1t is time that some ma
tiOnal law was passed. The money wasted in
thousands Of church and charitable enterprises
might better be used in bringing the people to
knowledge of the danger that stares them in
the face. All that is required is definite facts
and public Indignation. The markets might be
cleared OF authorizations in six months if the
people would combine against them.
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