The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1888-01-24

4 NAAh7 7A1JCStf ~ -
after l shall try to answer this ques-
ton. HENRY S. TOWNSEND.
FOOD ADULTERATION.
n.-NOtes ON Its History and Legis-
lation.
Tread before the Social Science Club in
December, 1887, by L. l.. Van Slyke, Pro-
fessor of Chemistry, Oahu College.l
We shall be in error if we suppose
that the adulteration of food is an. Of
Tense peculiar to the 10Th century.
There are records left-of ancient sophis-
tications practised by the Greek and
Roman traders. According to well
known tale, Archimedes, the philoso-
! pher of Syracuse, two and half CEN
turtles before Christ, detected the base
metal in the crown of Hero by its
specific gravity and this may be ac-
cepted as the earliest scientific detec-
ton of adulteration. Pliny refers to
the frauds practised by bakers, who
added to their bread a kind of white
earth. In Athens the adulteratiOn of
wine was so great that special in
spector was appointed to detect and
stop the practices. The Romans were
similarly troubled.
The Middle Ages, however, afford the
most abundant and interesting mater
ials for history of adulteration. In
England and in Europe generally from
the 18th century EDWARDS, the bakers,
the. brewers, the pepperers,n and the
winners were most frequently accused
of these practices. In the latter part
of the 18th century, thatwhich would
now be considered high crime became
the favorite amusement of the. leading
citizens, "who would sally forth by
night, in bands of hundred or more,
for an attack upon the houses of their
neighbors. They killed without mercy
every man who came in their way and
We'd with each other in brutality.
SIS as False weights, false meas
ures, false pretences of all kinds were
the instruments of commerce most
generally in use. No buyer would
trust the word of seller, and there
was hardly any class, in which man
might not with reason suspect that his
neighbor intended to rob or even to
murder him.
In England, as early as King Johns
time, restrictions were put upon the
adulteration of bread and severe pen
.alties attached. Regulations were also
early enforced in France to guard
against the adulteration of bread and
other substances. In gl525, a tricky
baker convicted of making Hfalse
bread,n was condemned by the court
to traverse Paris, clothed only in a
shirt, with small loaves hung about his.
neck, and a lighted candle in his hand,
and, in the most public places of the
city, to confess hisicrime and ask mercy,
and pardon of God the king, and jus
tice. In some places in Germany in
the 18th century, bread adIilterator
was put into a basket at the end OF a
long pole, and ducked in a good sized
mud-puddle. AT Bierbich on the
Rhine "a wine sophistieater was COM
.pelled to drink six quarts of his own
connection, and, as might be imagined,
died in the act. AS early as the reign
of Edward the Confessor, brewing bad
beer was declared crime, and the of
fender was taken around the town in
| the cart in which the refuse of the place
had been collected, and to this degra-
dation was often added corporal pun
.ishment.
In the 18th century, we find in many
towns of England an officer known as
the ale-taster,n whose duty it was to
/ INSPECT beer In 1920 for example, the
mayor of YGuildford ordered that the
brewers make a good and useful ale,
and that they sell none until it be
tasted by the ale-taster. The ale was
not only tasted but some of it was split
! on wooden seat, and on the wet place
| the faster sat, attired in leather
brooches. If sugar had been added to
/ the beer, the taster's breeches stuck to
! the seat, so that he could not get up
readily; but if sugar had not been adj
ded. the dried extract was not adhesive.
With the use. of the pOlaTiscope and
modern chemical methods for detecting
and estimating sugar, this method has
fallen into disuse.
In the course of time, the winners
became more skilled and scientific in
their operations. In London they or
ganized into a fraternity of chemical
1 GENERATORS, who did their work under
grOunu III notes. CdNSInsi anu Wall tS
tirements, to conceal their mysterie:
from the eyes and observation of man.
kind. Addison, in the Tdttler, No
13l, ITO, abiding to this fraternity
says: "These subtle philosophers are
daily employed in the transmutatior
of liquors, and by the power of magica
drugs and incantations raise under the
streets of London the choicest product;
of the hills and valleys of France
they squeeze Bordeaux out of the slot
and draw champagne from the apple.
The outcome of the early attempts
to punish adulteration was the intro
duction of the protective legal enact
ments in force in several countries a
the present day.
In France the "Conseil de Salubrite'
or Board of Health was established a
Paris in 1902. Originally it took cog
nizance of adulteration, epigootics, un
healthy trades and later had the di
/ rection generally speaking of public
Z hygiene. For the detection of tn
- foods o,,I Ut ha, anr.,