The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-26
STEALING THE STAFF OF LIFE.
A FIERCE HATTIE TO SECURE PURE
BREAD ron THE AMERICANS.


titles as an Adulterant Of wheat
Flour. rs Corn Is sometimes 70
Fer Cent. Cheaper Than Wheat.
The Man Who Eats the Brend
Made From THIS AduIterated
Flour. is Robbed of 80 Per Cent. of
the Life-Giving Powers of the
Urend-The Food of the Chinese
Iaborer Has Practically the
same Food value as That Found
in AduIternted Flour.
New York. June 23-There are a good
many people in this world interested in
bread from the standpoint of food as well
as the standpoint Of health Adulteration
in food products Is an offense. or, If you
desire a stronger term, crime, which
is being fought by municipalities, by
states. and by nations with fiercer de-
termination than ever before to bring the
battle to a finish.
Leaving out of consideration the occa>
sional use of various kinds of finely pow
dered earths, etc, it is worth while con-
sidering the kind of adulteration now prac-
tl2ed in the manufacture of flour, from
which the American laboring man gets his
staff of life.
No doubt the men VINO adulterate their
wheat flour with cornstarch console their
consciences with some such reassurns
thought that the adulterant is not only
not poisonous, but uninjurious in its ele-
ments. and yet they are guilty Of the
most despicable piece of robbery known
since meanness began, and those who eat
It to the extent that the laboring men
of the United States eat bread simply en-
ter upon a certain. and not so very pro-
longed. period of starvation.
How AduIteratiOn Is Detected.
But FIRST a word or two as to this
edulteraten and how the scientific men
are discovering it-how they are working
to render such adulteration as this In the
future a practical impossibility.
The starch of the -four of every wheat
berry and every corn kernel differ always
and essentially as they come under the
microscope. Take a sample OF honest Hour
and YOU will find every tiny grain to
the last hundredth that comes into your
field OF vision as you move the slide be-
low the lens, roundish in shape, every one
of them, If cut in twain, showing a series
Of conceutric circles, and transverse
section indicating the general form of
pair of dumbbells.
When the corn STARCH, IKE Nut wheat
starch, has been washed clear of all other
elements, every grain TO the fartherest
millionth, instead of being round. is an
guiar full of corners, the fiat body OF the
grain usually showing from five TO six
sharp angles In the center of the grain
the lines are not circular, as in the wheat
but straight, starting from a well-dehned
spot in the heart of the grain of starch
and radiating out in perfectly straight
lines in each grain.
Each one of these grains is inclosed in a
wall of cellulose. The character of the
starch on the interior of each is precisely
the same, whether of corn or wheat In
the wheat -four, however as nature has
given 1t to man in the wheat kernel
there is just the right proportion OF
starch for the needs of the human system,
mixed with other ingredients which go 10
give the system its strength.
why AduIteration Pays.
When the men who want 10 adulterate
their -four find that wheat costs 81 and
corn % cents a bushel, it is very nat
ural thing. following the bent of a crook
ed mind to mix the corn starch with the
-four starch. The two are OF precisely the
same character as 10 appearance, etc.
But the detective is there. too. and, aid
ed by that chief of all detectives, Mother
Nature the scientific chemist takes the
adutrated -four washes il in cold water
SO that every part of the gluten of the
-four is cleared out, and then. placing a
tiny portion of the flour or. as it now
stands. starch. in a little tube. he puts 1t
in solution, colors il with iodine a beau
tiful purple puts drop between the thin
pieces of glass for his slide, tucks It Under
the microscope and there, swimming to-
gether side by side as purple as a sunset
in the land of the midnight sun, are the
two types of starch grains, hundreds of
them, the one round, the other angular.
the one having concentric rings on its in
terror, the other with lines as jagged as
the greenish radiations from a fractured
pane of glass.
1t isn't a question of theory, but one of
very cold, hard fact The scientific chem
ist especially the agricultural chemist,
such one as Prof. Henry Snyder of the
state experiment station of the College of
Agriculture in the University of Mime
sofa, doesn't have 10 depend upon any the
cries. He takes a Sample of perfectly
pure wheat -four tests II, finds the grains
Of starch of the one type. He takes a
sample Of pure corn starch -four, the
grains are all of one type and wholly differ
ent. He takes a sample of flour adulterat-
ed with corn starch and the two types APP
pear. There is nothing left to chance.
But the adulterator knows his business.
He has invented machinery which so rolls
and powders the corn starch that, in some
the corn starch blends into the wheat -four
starch. This would seem to be a blending
beyond the power of the detective. But it
is not. Prof. Snyder has been carrying on
experiments which show that he will In
the future-and, an fact, has already reach
ed some decidedly satisfactory results--be
able to detect the fraud even here. for by
an iodine test he can tell the difference be-
tween a flour composed of mixed corn and
wheat starch grains even after the cell
walls Of the grains are broken down. BY
far the greater proportion of all the adult
teration, however, is quickly discernabse
by the other test.
Is This AduIterated Flour Harmful :
A good many people have asked this
question, but the answers have been, in
many cases, quite vague-just such indefi-
mite answers as would be apt TO suit the
man who is aduTteratlng.
There are three main elements In the
wheat -four which make II the staff OF
life when il become bread-ash. for the
formation of bone; starch for the heat OF
she body; gluten. or, in another word pro-
tein, for the production OF muscle. The
gluten is made up of two substances glu-
ten and gliadin. The gliadin binds the
-four together and makes il dough, the