Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-03-08
Thursday, March 8. 1888.
COFFEE, TEA, MILK, SUGAR.
a Brief Chapter on Food and Its Adui'
terationA

N 49,
Dumas, the elder-wao, by the way, was
n great a ~Gourmand as lie was romancist
-"a cup of coffee is the review of the
dinner" NJ. Dumas was right. OF all
Che food adulterations that of coffee is
the most palpable. Not only is the
roasted and ground article adulterated,
but-incredible as it may sound-the
green bean is initiated from common
clay, colored with arsenic. If rumor has
1t correct, there is a green coffee nan
factory in Chicago, where nature is
corrected" by machinery. Mechani-
cal appliances mold, press and dry Cook
county clay into coffee beans, as it is
said, at q cost Of about eight cents a
pound. or course, this artificial coffee
cannot be used in its purity, OF rather
impurity. II is used to mix with the
genuine article, and, strange as it may
sound, the clay bean assumes the same
color in roasting that the natural bean
does
Coffee ROSTERS all over the land ad-
-. nit that they use stale bread in roasting
coffee. Ths bread is freed from its crust
and then cut into small cubes. The
roasters claim that the presence Of this
bread during the process OF the roasting
improves the coffee. OF course, il the
. latter is sod in the bean it is impossible
20 make the customer paw for stale bread.
but il ground the bread becomes part Of
the coffee. Think of NJ. Dumas glow
ing triLute to the after dinner cup, and
then imagine a compound made up as
follows: Chicory, peas, beans, date
stones, biscuits, figs, roasted hominy,
burned sugar, acorns, mangel-wurzel,
dandelion, turnips, parsnips, carrots, rye
and potato flour.
The introduction Of chicory into coffee
b defended by many roasters on the
ground that it really improves the coffee
and docs 10 mischief to the drinker.
But DIR. Hassell, a German authority,
says that clicory in prolonged use is in
furious to health. He claims that the
root-belonging 10 the class Of radishes,
by the way-produces heartburn, cramp
N the stomach, loss of appetite, acidity
in the mouth, constipation with intermit-
tent diarrhoa, weakness Of the limbs,
trembling, sleeplessness, and a drunken
Goudiness of the senses. Professor Beer,
the famous Vienna o%culist, goes SO far as
10 claim that chicory in large doses pro-
duces blindness.
The adulteration of teas are even worse
than those Of coffees. The practice Of
using exhausted tea leaves is so well
known as scarcely TO bear mention.
These exhausted leaves are faced" or
solored, and fixed up with plumbago,
gum, indigo, Prussian blue, turmeric,
China clay, mica, soapstone or French
chalk. sulphate Of lime, rose pink, Vene-
tan red, carbonate Of copper, arsenite
Of copper, chromate and bl-chromate of
potash and carbonate Of lime and mag
nesia. Other substitutes for the genuine
article are leaves OF the elder, willow,
aloe and other plants and trees, lye tea,
paddy husk. sweeping of tea house floors,
sand. quartz, starch and magnetic oxide
Of iron.
The most dangerous Of all food swind-
ling practices is that which lowersIhe
nutritive quality Of milk. Its direct ef-
feet is largely upon infants and small
children. 1t is the opinion of the ablest
medical observers that half Of the infant
mortality in citiesls due to sophisticated
milk. Professor Wiley, Of the United
States department Of agriculture, asserts
that lit is doubtful whether 10 per cent.
OF the milk which reaches the table is
pure" The principal adulterant Of milk
In these modern times is water. The
cream is skinned and water is added to
restore the bulk and weight. The color
Is restored by coloring matter. Flour or
starch, boiled white carrots, milk Of al
monds, Sleeps brains, gum tragacanth,
carbonate Of soda and chrome yellow also
enter into milk as adulteraGts.
There Is practically no limit TO the
sdulteration OF sugar. Cane sugar is
manufactured from grape or starch glu-
cose. wheat and potato flour. tapioca
starch, blood, pipe clay, marble dust.
gypsum, bone dust, lead, iron, lime and
sand. The confectionery sugar consists
Of glucose, terra alba, chalk, arrowroot,
sand, wheat and potato -four, and n.y.
DRAFTED sulphate OF lime. These articles
are colored, rs the case may require, by
oochinoal, indigo ard Prussian blue, car
donates Of copper and lead, white lead.
vermillion, g~amboge. chromates Of lead,
sp green, a~rsenite Of copper, Indian red,
lumber, sienna, Vandyke brown, cobalt,
small, Naples yellow, bisulphate Of mer-
curry, sulphate Of arsenicum, bronze
powders or alloys Of copper and zinc.
, Speaking upon the law concerning
adulterants, Manager Robert NJ. Floyd
remarked; THE English have dealt
with the question Of food adulteration
very ~inteLigently, and, as experience has
shown, very prohtab!y 10 the empire.
Adulteration Of food had grown to nor
nous dimensions some years ago in Eng
land. A parliamentary commission re-
ported that scarcely an article that was
served on the table WINS free from fraudu-
lent ndmixture or was what II pretended
30 be. Tho result was the passage Of an
act Of asimplo and comprehensive nature,
which required that all manufactured
articles Of food should be labeled with a
statement Of all their ingredients. fraud,
upon detection, Icing punished with ex-
treme severity. II coffee contained
ohicory the manufacturer and seller
must make this fact distinctly known.
The proportion Of corn starch e1alnssd