TO

HIS GRACE

THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND.

MY LORD DUKE,

The interest your Grace takes on
all occasions in promoting the application
of Chemical Philosophy to the useful pur-
poses of life, has emboldened me to lay
before you the present Treatise, which ori-
ginated in a suggestion of your Grace,
while cultivating the study of Experimental
Chemistry in my Laboratory.

Be pleased, My Lord Duke, to
accept this public testimony of profound

A

ii

DEDICATION.

respect and veneration for your Grace's
exalted moral virtues and high intellectual
endowments.

That your Grace may retain,
through a long and happy life, the ardent
attachment to the pursuits of Philosophical
Chemistry, which has so greatly endeared
your renowned name to the votaries of that
important and useful branch of knowledge,
is the sincere wish of,

MY LORD DUKE,

Your Grace's most devoted,

Humble Servant,

FREDRICK ACCUM.

Old Compton Street, Soho.
January the 19th,
1820.

Preface

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Old Compton Street, Soho.

THIS Treatise, as its title expresses, is intended
to exhibit easy methods of detecting the fraudu-
lent adulterations of food, and of other arti-
cles, classed either among the necessaries or
luxuries of the table; and to put the unwary on
their guard against the use of such commodities
as are contaminated with substances deleterious
to health.

Every person is aware that bread, beer, wine,

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PREFACE.

iv

and other substances employed in domestic economy, are frequently met with in an adulterated state: and the late convictions of numerous individuals for counterfeiting and adulterating tea, coffee, bread, beer, pepper, and other articles of diet, are still fresh in the memory of the public.

To such perfection of ingenuity has the system of counterfeiting and adulterating various commodities of life arrived in this country, that spurious articles are every where to be found in the market, made up so skilfully, as to elude the discrimination of the most experienced judges.

But of all possible nefarious traffic and deception, practised by mercenary dealers, that of adulterating the articles intended for human food with ingredients deleterious to health, is the most criminal, and, in the mind of every honet man, must excite feelings of regret and disgust. Numerous

PREFACE.

V

facts are on record, of human food, contaminated
with poisonous ingredients, having been vended
to the public; and the annals of medicine record
tragical events ensuing from the use of such
food.

The eagar and insatiable thirst for gain, is proof
against prohibitions and penalties; and the pos-
sible sacrifice of a fellow- creature's life, is a
secondary consideration among unprincipled
dealers.

However invidious the office may appear, and
however painful the duty may be of exposing
the names of individuals, who have been con-
victed of adulterating food; yet it was necessary,
for the verification of my statement, that cases
should be adduced in their support: and I have
carefully avoided citing any, except those which
are authenticated in Parliamentary documents
and other public records.

## PREFACE.

To render this Treatise still more useful, I have also animadverted on certain material errors, sometimes unconsciously committed through accident or ignorance, in private families, during the preparation of various articles of food, and of delicacies for the table.

In stating the experimental proceedings necessary for the detection of the frauds which it has been my object to expose, I have confined myself to the task of pointing out such operations only as may be performed by persons unacquainted with chemical science; and it has been my purpose to express all necessary rules and instructions in the plainest language, divested of those recondite terms of science, which would be out of place in a work intended for general popular.

The design of the Treatise will be fully answered, if the views here given should induce a

FREFACE.

vii

single reader to pursue the object for which it
is published; or if it should tend to impress on
the mind of the Public the magnitude of an evil,
which, in many cases, prevails to an extent so
alarming, that we may exclaim, with the sons of
the Prophet,

"There is death in the pot."

For the abolition of such nefarious practices, it
is the interest of all classes of the community to
co-operate.

FREDRICK ACCUM.

LONDON,
1820.

ADVERTISEMENT
TO
The Second Edition.

THE sale of one thousand copies of the Treatise on the Adulterations of Food, within one month after its publication, has been a sufficient inducement to reprint the work.

Several additions have been made to the edition now presented to the reader; among which will be noticed, the adulteration of milk—of cinnamon—of isinglass—of Spanish liquorice juice, and of several other articles employed in housekeeping, with the

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X

ADVERTISEMENT.

methods of detecting the frauds.—Some animadversions have also been made on the disgusting practice of inflating butchers' meat and fish; and on the frauds committed in the coal trade.

I embrace this opportunity of offering my public expression of thanks for the flattering compliments which I have received from numerous individuals of high rank and dignified station, and from other distinguished persons, whose opinion and judgment I respect. To those who have chosen anonymously to transmit to me their opinion concerning this book, together with their maledictions, I have little to say; but they may rest assured, that their menaces will in no way prevent me from endeavouring to put the unwary on their guard against the frauds of dishonest men, wherever they

CONTENTS.

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Page</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>ADULTERATIONS OF DRUGS AND MEDICINES, and method of detecting them</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Peruvian Bark</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Rhubard Powder, Ipecacuanha, &c.</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Spirit of Hartshorn, and method of detecting it</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Magnesia, and method of detecting it</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Calcined Magnesia, and method of detecting it</td><td>21</td></tr></tbody></table>

xiv

CONTENTS.

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Page</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Adulteration of Calomel, and method of detecting it.</td><td>22</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Syrup of Buckthorn, Worm-Seed, and Arrow Root Powder.</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Essential Oils, and methods of detecting it.</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>ADULTERATION OF PAINTERS' COLOURS, and methods of detecting it.</td><td>26</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Ultramarine, and method of detecting it.</td><td>27</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Carmine, and method of detecting it.</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Madder and Carmine Lake, and method of detecting it.</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Antwerp Blue, and method of detecting it.</td><td>ib.</td></tr></tbody></table>

CONTENTS.

XV

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Page</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Adulteration of Chrome Yellow, and method of detecting it..................</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of White Lead, and method of detecting it..................</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Vermillion, and method of detecting it..................</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>ADULTERATION OF VARIOUS ARTICLES USED IN HOUSE-KEEPING..................</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Soap, &c..................</td><td>ib.</td></tr><tr><td>FRAUDS PRACTISED IN THE COAL TRADE..................</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>DISGUSTING PRACTICE OF RENDERING BUTCHERS' MEAT, FISH, AND POULTRY, UNWHOLE SOME..................</td><td>36</td></tr><tr><td>General Remarks on the Adulteration of Food..................</td><td>41</td></tr></tbody></table>

xvi

CONTENTS.

Page

IMPORTANCE OF THE PURITY
OF WATER EMPLOYED IN
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

43

Characters of Good Water.

49

Easy method of curing Hard Water
Chemical Constitution of the Waters
used in Domestic Economy and the
Arts.

52

53

Rain Water.

ib.

Snow Water.

54

Spring Water.

56

River Water.

60

Thames Water.

62

Substances usually contained in Common Water, and Tests by which they are detected.

66

Deleterious Effects of keeping Water
for Domestic Economy, in Leaden
Reservoirs.

74

Method of detecting Lead in Water.

86

CONTENTS.

xvii

Page

ADULTERATION OF WINE..... 92

Crusting of Wine Bottles, and other nefarious Artifices committed by fraudulent Wine Merchants...... 96

Dangerous Adulteration of Wine with poisonous Substances........ 102

Accidental Impregnation of Wine with Lead.................. 105

Test for detecting the deleterious Adulterations of Wine........ 108

Method of detecting extraneous Co-lours in Red Wine........ 111

Specific Differences of various kinds of foreign Wines........ 113

Chemical Constitution and Component Parts of Wine........ 115

xviii

CONTENTS.

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Page</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Method of ascertaining the Quantity of Spirit contained in various sorts of Wine...</td><td>117</td></tr><tr><td>Per Centage of Alcohol contained in various kinds of Wine, and other fermented Liquors</td><td>120</td></tr><tr><td>Chemical Constitution of Home-made Wines</td><td>122</td></tr><tr><td>ADULTERATION OF BREAD...</td><td>125</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Bread with Alum..</td><td>127</td></tr><tr><td>Adulteration of Bread with Potatoes</td><td>133</td></tr><tr><td>Method of detecting the presence of Alum in Bread...</td><td>139</td></tr><tr><td>Method of judging of the Goodness of Bread-Corn and Bread-Flour..</td><td>142</td></tr><tr><td>ADULTERATION OF BEER...</td><td>145</td></tr><tr><td>Early practice of adulterating Beer with Substances noxious to Health, and rapid Progress of this Fraud.</td><td>148</td></tr></tbody></table>

CONTENTS.

xix

Page

<table><tbody><tr><td>Druggists and Grocers prosecuted and convicted for supplying illegal Ingredients to Brewers for adulterating Beer</td><td>158</td></tr><tr><td>Remarks on Porter</td><td>161</td></tr><tr><td>Strength and Specific Differences of different kinds of Porter</td><td>166</td></tr><tr><td>List of Publicans prosecuted and convicted for adulterating Beer with illegal Ingredients, and for mixing Table Beer with their Strong Beer</td><td>171</td></tr><tr><td>Fraudulent Practice of adulterating Beer with substances not deleterious to health</td><td>173</td></tr><tr><td>Illegal Ingredients seized at various Breweries and Brewers' Druggists' Adulteration of Strong Beer with Small Beer</td><td>181</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>185</td></tr></tbody></table>

XX

CONTENTS.

Page

<table><tr><td>List of Brewers prosecuted and convicted for adulterating Strong Beer with Table Beer....................</td><td>189</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Remarks with regard to the Origin of the Beer called Porter..................</td><td>191</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Composition of Old or Entire Beer..</td><td>194</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Fraudulent Practice of converting<br/>New Beer into Old or Entire Beer</td><td>196</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Fraudulent Practice of increasing<br/>the intoxicating quality of Beer...</td><td>199</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Brewers prosecuted and convicted<br/>for receiving and using illegal Ingredients in their Brewings...........</td><td>201</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Method of detecting the Adulteration<br/>of Beer....</td><td>207</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Method of ascertaining the Quantity<br/>of Spirit contained in Porter, Ale,<br/>or other kinds of Malt Liquors....</td><td>209</td></tr></table>