Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-09-22
FOLLY TO BE WISE.
EFFECTS OF KNOWING TOO MUCH
CONCERNING DlETETICS.

Butter. Cheese and Vinegar - Coffee,
Sugar and MIX Water. Wine and
B-eT~-And Even the Air We Breathe
All Are Dangerously Fraudulent.
More people derive pleasure from eating
and drinking than from any other source.
Persons in all conditions Of life think and
talk about the Joys of the table" But II
a man wishes to thoroughly enjoy good
meal it is certainly folly to be wise" II
lac knows anything about chemistry, II
be has looked through amagnifying-g glass,
II he has studied the reports of the differ
ent boards of health. and is a reader of
the various journals devoted to dietetics
and adulteration, the chances are that he
will have a very poor appetite for the most
costly feast that can be prepared. AS
fast as the various dis hes are brought on
, he falls to thinking of what he has read
of their composition and preparation.
He knows, or at least he thinks he
knows, that the substance on the butter
plate Is extracted from beef suet and
colOred with an extract of annotto. He
is suspicious that the cheese is a villain
Gus compound Of the curd Of SKINNED
milk and "doctored" lard He is
quite certain there is sulphuric acid and
living eels IN the vinegar he puts on his
lettuce, and Is equally confident that the
olive oil was extracted from cotton seed.
He has good reasons for believing that
the diminutive fish known as sardines
are nothing but baby hsrrings," caught
by Maine fishermen, whose honest indus
try Mr. Blaine is trying to protect. He
thinks the beverage known as coffee is a
decoction Of chicory, that the sugar he
puts in 1t is glucose and that the milk
he adds is largely made up of chalk and
water. This water he knows to be fear
fully impure, containing all manner Of
organic and inorganic, living and dead,
substances He is fearful that 1t con-
tains the germs Of typhoid fever or con-
sumption. He has been Informed that
there are half a dozen poisons in every
kind Of sauce, that every kind of canned
vegetable is unwholesome, and that sew
eral death-producing varieties Of fungus
are attached to most fresh fruits. He has
also read that all the dried fruits brought
from countries on the Mediterranean sea
are liable to contain cholera germs.
DANGER IN THE DRINKS.
OF the wine, brandy, and beer on the
table he has still greater fear, He has
read that half the wines In the market
are made of rhubarb or unmarketable
raisius, that the liquors are clarified by
means Of fish-glue and colored with log
wood or cochineal He has recently seen
an account of how champagne is made in
New York out of stale Jersey cider and
carbonate of soda at a cost of about 8
cents per quart bottle. Brandy he has
learned, is made from crude alcohol, dye
stuffs, and fiavoring extracts. At one
time he wondered how France produced
so much brandy every year when the
grape crop was failure half the time;
now he knows how 1t is done. Lately he
has been reading up" about beer. He
has learned that hops and barley malt do
not necessarily enter into its composition,
but that pretty good article, as beer
goes in this country, can be made of
glucose, Hcorice, glycerine, gelatine,
aloes, salicyiic or tartaric acid, bicarbcn-
ate OF soda, and cucculus Indicus. Ice
water he knows is harmful, so he de-
clines all manner Of drinks and eats very
sparingly, rejecting everything but the
most simple kinds of food. He derives
less pleasure from banquet for which
the charge is SO per plate than the un-
scientific rustic does from meal OF