The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-02
CHEMISTS PLAY THE
ROLE OF DETECTIVES
Government Employees Watch
Food and Drink for Harm
full Adu!terations.

Uncle Sam has many detectives besides
those employed in the secret service
Some are chemists, who pursue offenders
by means of retorts and test tubes. For
the purpose of deduction they substitute
chemical analysis and the evidence they
gather is in the form of molecules and
atoms.
These sleuths lately have had great
deal of trouble with the manufacturers of
soft drinks Some of these .'non-alco-
holie, beverages contain am9 nest as IS mu uc
cially true in parts of the country where
there are prohibition laws. Beer masquer:-,
AIDES as hop pop and Quaker, Beer
while stronger tipple is concealed under
the labels of proprietary medicines.
The most desperate and resourceful ruff
| fan celebrated in the novels OF the fam
in his DISCUSSES as the Demon Rum, who
is continually pursued by the laboratory
| detectives of the treasury. No sooner. do
they strip off his mask in one place than
customers he is the most difficult to catch,
and sometimes he is able to evade pursuit
aftogether-by resorting to the older dodge,
for example. Cider is the only alcoholic
beverage that is not taxed. When sold fer
mented, in bottles, it contains ordinarily
or 5 per cent Of alcohol, but this amount
gar-sufficiently, indeed, to render the
beverage quite intoxicating. In this form
it is sold and the profit of the manufac-
ture, who pays, no taX. IS great.
large percentages of alcohol, are hardest
to deal with. In many cases it is diff
cult to determine whether they are bona
fde remedies or beverages in disguise.
A bottled compound that is really nau-
seous in flavor will pass inspection.
though it be actually above the PROOF OF
whisky, while another preparation, rela-
lively non-spirituous. but of agreeable
taste, will be bounced upon and taxed.
More interesting even than the ques-
ton of alcohol in mon alcoholic" bever-
fr1A
recently has presented some decidedly
novel problems. Congress has placed
tax of 10 cents a pound practically pro-
hibitive) on artificially colored butter of
of this counterfeit kind, whereas, when not
colored it has to pay only one-fourth OF q
cent a pound. People will not buy 1T
unless it has the real hue of butter, and
to find some way of evading the law.
They manage 1t by employing what
they call natural means for coloring the
pose the fat OF steers, which is. white,
they use that Of old cows, which is quite
yellow, thus giving to the oleomargarine
a suitable tint. Another method adopted
OIL" which is of vivid orange. yellow. to
the substance. The packers have been
accustomed to resort to this trick. but:
as an Improvement on it, the palm oil
is now put into the cottonSeed oil, which
is an important constituent of the artifi-
cial butter of today
There IS simple process by which
any housewife may determine whether
her butter is the real stuff or oleomarga-
rine All she has to do is to put little
of 1t in a frying pan. held over the fire.
Butter will bubble up and keep on bub-
! bling and foaming because OF the air i;
contains. Oleomargarine on the other
hand, when thus treated, will Immediately
disolve into an oil with almost no bub-
bling.
The public at large is altogether ig-
norant as to the meaning of the term
renovated butter" though something
like e, 000.000 pounds of the product were
sold in this country during the last year.
immense quantities Of butter are unsal-
able, having turned rancid or modify,
or because the stuff was so poor In the
first place. and of such material the bulk
is collected in small lots by grocery stores
in provincial districts. 1t is not wholly
valueless. because it can be put through
a process that will render it marketable
at price, and though some of it is only
a shade better than soap fat, even the
worst of 1t is worth something.
The laboratory detectives analyze sam
pies of this renovated butter in order to
make sure that it is not aduterated and
| that it does not contain more than the
| proper percentage of water. Another part
| Of their business is to detect the falsifi-
! cation of wheat flour, with which as much
as 90 per cent of corn meal is sometimes
mixed. They protect not only the govern
| ment. but the public as well from cheats,
| and the savings they effect in single
! twelvemonth run up into the millions of
| dollars.