Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-09-03
at ashlngtun standard
FOOD FEACpS
TIT eu.vEF1-L Use OF LINE AND ALL v
Iv,HrAr BAKING r0WpE'~.

Many food tra'ii.. >nct - cher!
r...,,,. - w...rcd milk, 'lli.""' Il 'h'E
g, ~ ...ll.. IN Il c''i.l'n'r' al s'hs''
,,..,,. n tolerated tcraust' hey d" not
uart,.nlA.ly affect tl4e h.l't OF the
,.,.n,n.r. but when All article Ike
h.Iiu, ,,,w,i, r. that enters largely INTO
tn,. ,,.I al every lunIly, and IL rtiled
u,on tor the healthiul PREPARATION OF
almost every meal, IL so made a. 10
carry highly injurious. II not ranklv
,r,i.uuous, elements int" the bread 10
thu. imminent danger OF the entlre
community, it il the duty OF the press
TO dcnounce the practice IN the most
emphatic terms.
Among recent important discoveries
by the food ANALYSTS is that by Prot.
Mott the l.. = Government Chemist,
oi LARGE amounts OF lime and alum
in the cheap baking powders. THESE
are one the mos, dangerous, and the
other thu most useless adulterants yet
found in the lowgrade, inferior baking
powders. Ii is startling fact that OF
over one hundred different brands Of
baking powder $" far analyzed, COM
prising all those sold in this vicinity,
not one of them, with the single ex-
ception of the Royal Baking Powder,
was found free from both lime and
alum. The chief service Of lime is to
add weight. 1t is true that lime, when
subjected to heat gives off a certain
amount of carbonic acid gas, but
quick-lime is left-a caustic so powerful
that it is used by tanners to eat the
hair from hides of animals, and in dis
secting to more quickly rot the flesh
from the bones of dead subjects. A
small quantity Of dry lines upon the
tongue, or in the eye, produces painful
effects; how much more serious must
these effects be upon the delicate
membranes of the stomach, intestines
and kidneys, more particularly OF in
fants and children, and especially when
the lime is taken into the system day
after day, and with almost every meal.
This is said by physicians to be one Of
the chief causes of indigestion, dys-
pepsia, and those painful diseases Of
the kidneys now SO prevalent. In
stances of the most serious affections
of the latter organs from drinking
lime waters found in some sections OF
the West are noted in every medical
journal.
Adulteration with lime is quite as
much to be dreaded as with alum,
which has heretofore received the most
emphatic condemnation from every
food analysist, physician and chemist,
for the reason that, while alum is prob
ably partially dissolved and passed off
in gas by the heat OF baking, it is inn
possible to destroy or change the ma
ture Of the lime in any degree, so that
the entire amount in the baking pow
der passes, with all its injurious pro-
perties, into the stomach. When We
state that the chemists have found
twelve per cent, or one-eighth of the
entire weight of some samples OF bak-
ing powder analysed, to be lime, the
wickedness of the adulteration will be
fully apparent.
Pure baking powders are one OF the
chief aids to the cook in preparing
perfect and wholesome food. While
those are to be obtained OF well-estab-
lished reputation, like the Royal, OF
whose purity there has never been and
cannot be question, it is proper to
avoid all others.