The morning call., 1892-01-20
room ADULrEKArIoxs.

metal.
FOOD ADULTERATIONs
At the request OF the State Department,
i'm view Of the probable renewal Of the at
tempts Of 1883 ana 1854 to devise uniform
laws against the adulterat9n Of food, the
United States Consul General nj Berlin has
transmitted TO the publication bureau Of
the consular reports the text IF the law in
force in Germany on the subject Of food
adul,erati0n, together with decisions Of the
courts interpreting its provisions. 1t IS in
the main q copy Of the English statute OF
1879, which vas the example followed in
this country by the Legislatures Of New
York, M8ss1c husetts and New jersey.
l. couleTs upon the police the power to
supervise the trade in articles Of food and
drink, 30 seize suspected articles and have
them analyzad; and it imposes on the sell
ers Of adultarated articles penalties which
are graduated according to the amount Of
mischief which Tie authorizations may do.
Speaking generally. any one who, for pur-
poses OF deceit, adulterates articles OF food
or drink, or who sells, under q name that is
calculated to deceire articles which are i'm
tati0ns, 5 liable TO 1ae and imprisonment
II the aJu.terated or imitation article is cal
Culated to i0iure the pablo health a term
Il imprisonment in the peniteutiary is
added. Thus. II Wine-makeTs in New / OTk
and New jersey who manufacture a liquid
ont OF drugs. and sell il under the name Of
California wine, happened to live in Ger
many they would be fined, Imprisoned, and
possibly consigned to the ueuitentiary; and
a like fate would Defau the Gamers Of Ohio
" Illinois who put up fruit under the name
of California canned fruit and sell it as
such.
The appendix TO the German law emu
merate5 the articles which aIe usually adul-
teratsd in Germany, and the substances
with which they are adulterated. Thus
-four is mixed with the meal Of peas, beans,
corn and potatoes, which are harmless;
also, with gypsum, chalk, alum aud mag
nesia which are Injurious. CGnfecti0neTies.
jelies and fruit juices are aduiterated with
chemical pos0ns 20 give them color Sau-
sages occasionally contain meat taken from
diseased animals or animals which have
died a natural death. To milk, chalk, gyp-
sum, starch aud -four are sometimes added,
ia some cases rendering the milk unwh0le-
some, in all lmpairing It's aumentary value.
Iallow is occasionally mixed with butter
Beer is adulterated with starch sugar
glycerine and salicylic acid. Wine is altered
by an admixture Of colorug matter from
dye stuffs, gypsum, alum, lead salts. ether
aud other drugs. Coffee is mixed with sand,
chIcory. rye and other beans. while tea is
busted with tale, soapstone and gypsum. and
tea leaves which have been used are some
times dried and sold over again. Chocolate
- -fT
shells, carbonate Of lime aud ocher. AL these
aduterati0us are pronounced Illegal by the
German Law; the police may seize samples of
them on piciOn, and If they are found 10
be adulteTated the vender iuCurs the penal
ties specified in the law.
When the last agitation against food adul-
teration broke out in this country, just ten
years ago, chemical analysts reported that
there we're few articles on the market
which were absolutely dangerous TO health,
but that adulteTation was common. Thus
spices were mixed to an extent of about CO
per cent by other spices, and in a few rare
cases with acids; ground coffee with chic
OTy, rye and other cereals; tea with leaves
Of other plants; syrup with glucose and
grape sugar; milk to an extent Of 90 per
cent with water, alkaline salts and preserva-
tiYes; baking powders to an extent Of a
per cent with gypsum and starches; olive oil
with cott0H-seed oil and peanut oil; butter
with other fats. Feeble efforts were made In
several States to check tie Illicit industry
a few prosecutions were instituted in New
York and Pennsylvania, but practically the
result was nil.
The laws failed because the machinery for
their enforcement broke down. In France,
Germany and even in England people sub
nit patiently TO police interference with
their business. In this country q grocer
would rebel If an officer Of a board Of health
demanded samples Of his teas. coffees and
spices. He would fall back on his personal
rights and challenge the authority Of the
board 70 prevent his going on cheating or
poisoning his customers. So long as this
condition Of public opinion endures it will
be idle to pass laws to prevent aduteration
They can only become effective when the
public have been educated 10 understand
that the aduiterat0r is public enemy, and
that every citizen must surrender something
Of his individual rights for the public good
How largely everything in market is adulter-
ated may be Inferred from q story which
was told when the German law was passed.
a chemist selected three samples, one of
sugar, one OF -four, one Of dY poison, and
put fly on each; the only fly which sur
yived was the one which had fed on fly
poison.