San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-08-07
ICE CREAM AND CANDY.
POPULAR PALACES CONCERNING
THEIR POISONOUS ADULTERaTIoNS.

The Trouble Not in the Freezer Nor tn
Flavoring - The TyrotoIioon Theory
Terra Alba and Glucose-Ptonaines 4,
Canned Meat.
Many people are naturally inclined to oe
ieve the worst, to imagine that they ar,
being poisoned by the water they drink anc
the food they eat. II they can find state
ments which seem to bear out their theories
they are only too anxious to faunt them in
the faces Of their more reasonable friends
with a triumphant ~ told you So" The
time is coming, however, when ali this will
be changed-thanks to the public schools,
where the pupils receive a certain amount of
instruction in the natural sciences They
viii be better fitted to judge of scientific
facts when they 60 out into life.
During the summer months persons are
frequently reported as poisoned by eating ice
cream. The statement is still often wror civ
made in such cases that the trouble was
caused by leaving the cream over night in the
freezer, and that it had absorbed some of the
zinc or tin of which the freezer was made.
That is a plausible explanation, and one
which, as rule, satisfies the popular mind
OF course, everybody understands that the
metallic salts are poisonous, and, knowing
this. it is only necessary to show that it is
possible for them to be present, to convince
the average person that they are the actual
cause of poisoning. To create the violent
symptoms of acute metallic poisoning it would
be necessary to take into the stomach quite
large quantity of the harmful agent enough
to cause in most cases an unpleasant taste in
the mouth, so much so as to render any
article of food unpalatable The quantity of
poisonous material which could be dissolved
from freezer by ice cream is very small,
and where suspected cream has been analyzed
only traces have been found,
When the fact that metallic poison was not
the cause of these cases had been repeatedly
demonstrated, it was, of course, necessary to
look for another probable explanation. It
had oeen noticed that in the majority of the
cases OF the poisoning by ice cream the
tayoring used was vanilla. That substance
was then suspected Accurate and minute |
SSesagation by scientific men showed the |
CO., =" ct Chg theory, however, for over two
thirds thirds Of al, the cream gade was favored
with vanilla, or tonka, CHI ssEsssssrsNS :,
and hence the prevalence of the substal r.
the suspected samples was simply a coinci-
dence. Within few years it has been demon
strated that, whenever specimens of cream
alleged to have caused poisoning have been
obtained and examined by competent observ-
ers, they have shown the presence of poi
sonous substance called tyrotoxicon, which
has been extracted from the cream, and
when given to animals caused precisely sim
liar symptoms to those in the persons made
ILL., The isolation of this substance really
settled the question, for by assuming it
10 be the cause of poisoning, every objection
raised in the case OF the metallic or vanilla
theories could be answered. The same vio-
lent symptoms bave often beep observed
ffter eating cream cakes and lemon pies.
both Of which, as generally made by bakers,
contain a paste made of corn starch. As
IS well known, the cheaper kinds of ice cream
with which the greater number of cases of
poisoning occur-are also largely made of
that material. This fact is in itself a strong
in favor of the tyrotoxicon theory.
ryrotoxicon is the product of an organism
which can be cultivated artifcially, and a
medium such as corn starch jelly would be
more favorable to its growth than simple
frozen cream.
A few words in regard to the symptoms Of
this kind of poisoning will not be out of
place, although they have been, some time
since, given in these columns. Soon after
eating anything which contains this sub
stance harsh metallic taste Is noticed, and
violent pains in the stomach, vomiting with
much effort, and GOODNESS of the limbs and
body follow. When these symptoms are OBJ
served an emetic of mustard water should at
once be given and a physician summoned.
Matter vomited should be saved and shown
TO him, as it will greatly aid him in arriving
at the probable cause of the trouble. Similar
cases of poisoning arise after eating cheese
that sometimes contains tyrotoxicon, and
it was in cheese the poison was first dis
covered.
The discussion of ice cream naturally calls
up the subject of candy, and here, too, the
general public is at fault. Unpopular writer
ON adulteration would consider that he had
done his duty unless he had devoted large
part of his discussion to candy. Quite a har-
rowing picture can be drawn of the tons of
terra alba and glucose used, while the list of
poisonous chemicals to be found practically
exhausts chemical nomenclature But the
facts are far different from this overdrawn
picture. Beyond the use of glucose for sugar,
which is, perhaps allowable, since it is GER
tainly not more deleterious, and the use of
terra alba, which cannot be defended on any
grounds, the candy of the present is freer from
adulteration than almost any common
article of food Beyond a doubt there
are occasionally to be found cases of
poisoning caused by injurious coloring
but in the vast majority Of
cases the real cansa is from eating too larre |