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hard earnings of poverty: it is at the expense of the health and life of the honest artisan they are even now maintained.

Whoever betakes himself at the due season to any of the crowded watering-places that stud the south-eastern coast will find himself not unfrequently jostled by men of coarse aspect, in bright garments of eccentric cut, and fancifully bedecked in all the mosaic panoply of chains, and studs, and rings-living expensively, talking jovially, and faring sumptuously. Those men are the professional poisoners of the nineteenth century.

Should the wary eye of a detective select one of this class, and track him to his London home, he would there haply find him, in the still watches of the night, busily engaged in preparations for his nefarious trade. He would there behold the apron-ed miscreant craftily

compounding, by the aid of worthless or poisonous drugs, the mixture to be vended on the morrow to his pallid and unsuspecting customers.

No doubt it is a serious matter to prefer charges so grave against a numerous class; but our readers will consider our allegations more than justified by a few of the facts we have it in our power to adduce.

Thirty-six samples of sugar were purchased at as many different shops in various parts of London: they were each carefully analyzed, with the following results:

1st. Minute fragments of cane, frequently only discernible by the microscope, were discovered in thirty-five of the specimens; each of which also swarmed with a peculiarly disgusting insect*, resembling, in some respects, a beetle in form, but, if possible, still more loathsome in appearance.

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Acarus Sacchari-A Sugar Insect found in every description of brown sugar.-Magnified 200 diameters. We present our readers with a portrait of this animal: should any doubt its fidelity, they have only to apply a microscope to a few grains of any sample of sugar, and they will see the repulsive original.

2d. In ten cases sporules and filaments of fungi were present.

*This insect is the Acarus Sacchari, or sugar insect: it belongs to the same genus with that troublesome animaleule which infests the palms and bodies of the uncleanly. It possesses great vitality, for it cannot be killed by very warm water, in which it will bear immersion for many hours without injury. Its body is of an egg-shape, is surrounded with stiff bristles, has a powerful and complicated apparatus for seizing and devouring its food, eight legs, each terminating at the extremity in a strong hook. This creature, with its ova and young, abounds in greater or less numbers in every variety of moist or brown

sugar, as the "Lancet" assures us, after an examination of 100 varieties; but the Acarus is never found in lump-sugar, sugar-candy, or in those white and beautiful East-Indian sugars manufactured by filtration.

3d. Grape sugar+ and vegetable albumen were detected in the whole thirty-six sugars, often in considerable amount.

4th. Stony particles, grit, woody fibre, starch, and flour, were found in a variety of in

stances.

So far, indeed, the roguery of the grocer only touches the pocket, without affecting the health of the purchaser; and it is in his power, if he please, to avoid altogether the foul mixtures we have been describing, by rejecting the use of the brown sugars of commerce, all of which may be said to be utterly unfit for human food.

+ Grape Sugar, or glucose, is ordinarily an artificial production, usually made from old rags, potato flour, or starch, by the action of dilute sulphuric acid.

Refined sugar should be substituted for these vile compounds, as the worst lump sugar is beyond all comparison purer, and consequently cheaper, than the best brown sugar that can be bought it is free from the myriads of animalcules with which they invariably abound; it contains no fungi, vegetable albumen, grape-sugar, sand, nor grit; nor indeed have any deleterious matters been detected in its composition. An absurd prejudice against it, we are aware, exists in the minds of some persons, who maintain that it contains less saccharine matter than its brown rival. This, however, is a vulgar error, for which there is no foundation in fact. White, only differs from brown sugar in its freedom from impurities; and as it cannot be seriously contended that the feculent matter, abstracted by the refiner, posseses any sweetening powers, the position sought to be maintained, becomes of course untenable.

Proceed we now to follow the investigations of the Analytical Commission in the subject of Coffee. These are prefaced by the following apt remarks:

The urchin who filches a bun, a penny-piece, or the value of one, breaks the law, and is liable to punishment, and even imprisonment. Is it to be supposed, therefore, that the cunning and systematic adulterater of our food and drink, who robs us not only of our money, but sometimes of our health and strength, is less guilty? that he is to be allowed to violate the law with impunity in his daily dealings, and not only to go unpunished, but to carry about with him, as at present he commonly does, in his intercourse with his fellows the undeserved reputation of an honest man? That the law, while it rigorously punishes the trivial offender, should allow the greater criminal to go at large unscathed, is an insult to common sense.

honesty, of profit and loss: it is also sanitary-one of But the question is not merely one of honesty and dishealth, and even, in some cases, of life itself, of which many proofs might be readily adduced.

Thus, the physician, having planned the diet of his patient, too often finds his well-grounded hopes frustrated through the nefarious practice of adulteration.

The retail grocers are not ordinarily in the habit of introducing into sugar, for the purpose In one case he orders arrow-root and isinglass: the of adulteration, substances of an entirely first is very commonly adulterated with potato, or some different nature. They have, however, recourse, other farina; whilst for the second is substituted some illon an extensive scale, to systematic proceedings, more difficult of detection, and equally dishonest in their results.

"These proceedings consist in the artful admixture, in various proportions, of sugars of different qualities and prices, none of which are very pure, and some highly impure; an article being thus manufactured, presenting a tolerable appearance to the eye, but really of very great impurity." This is effected by what is termed mixing, or "handling."

Sugars as imported contain a large amount of impurity; but the sugar purchased of the retailer not only contains two or three times that amount of extraneous matters, but is still further deteriorated by a large addition of water and molasses. Looking, therefore, at the question in an economical point of view, independently of all ideas of health, cleanliness, and purity, it is obvious that the public are heavy losers by the purchase of the cheap, darkcoloured, heavy, clammy sugars.

As the use of the microscope is now so general, we may add, before dismissing this subject, that an instrument of ordinary power will suffice to indicate, even to an unpractised eye, the presence of woody fibre, of sugar insects in every stage of their existence, granules of starch, fungi, &c. ; while a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry will enable the experimentalist to detect in a moment, lime, grape-sugar, albumen, &c.

Sugar, in a state of purity, is light-coloured, highly crystalline, large-grained, and very dry, not in the slightest degree sticky, nor liable to stain nor even moisten paper in which it is enclosed.

prepared form of gelatine.

In another case he prescribes strong coffee or tea, it may be to counteract the effect of some narcotic poison: the one is adulterated with a large quantity of chicory, and the other consists of exhausted tea-leaves re-dried. Examples like these, affecting strength, health, and sometimes life, might be multiplied to almost any extent; but these few observations are sufficient to shew the vast interests involved in the consideration of the subject of the adulteration of the food and drink consumed by the public.

COFFEE presents a striking instance of the enormous extent to which adulteration is unblushingly carried. It has, indeed, been ascertained that a far greater quantity of heteroge

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turing in this way a spurious commodity, and knowing that by the uninitiated, "richness" or depth of colour in his matutinal beverage is regarded as an infallible sign of purity and strength, prepares from the coarsest kind of brown sugar a substance known in the trade as "coffee-colourer," or "black-jack."

This material is largely used, not only by the retail dealer, but also by the inn and coffeehouse keepers "who employ it to cover and conceal the poverty and nauseous character of the filthy and abominable compound which many of them vend, at a penny and a pennyhalfpenny per cup, under the much-abused name of coffee."

The "Lancet" informs us that from thirtyfour samples purchased for experiment in the first instance, the following results were obtained.

1. All but three were adulterated with chicory. 2. Twelve contained roasted corn.

3. In two, beans and potatoe-flour were discovered.

4. Fifteen samples contained, besides chicory, roasted corn, beans, and potatoes. 5. In many instances the amount of coffee present was very small; and in others not less than one-fifth, fourth, third, or half of the whole article.

The date at which these investigations were made was about the latter end of 1850; at which time the Analytical Commissioners forbore from publishing the names of the dishonest tradesmen, but very justly furnished those of two houses at which a genuine article could be procured.*

The subject was subsequently resumed, after an interval of some months, and with results that reflected little credit upon the trade. The public, however, can scarcely be too grateful to those gentlemen who, disinterestedly assuming the unpleasant functions of a vigilant sanitary

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Fragment of roasted Chicory-root, taken from a sample police, enable purchasers to avoid all dealings

of adulterated Coffee, shewing the cells of which it is principally constituted. Magnified 140 diameters.

(Drawn with the camera).

neous substances dignified by that appellation is annually vended throughout the country than has ever been imported. In some counties chicory is cultivated to an enormous extent, for scarcely any other purpose than that of fraudulent admixture with coffee. Corn, beans, and potatoes, after having undergone a process of torrefaction, or charring, are also employed in the same service. It will be seen from the subjoined engravings that by the aid of the microscopic lens these different substances are as plainly distinguishable in a given sample, as farthings, shillings, and sovereigns, in a heap of coin, would be to the unaided eye.

But the grocer, not content with manufac

with those tradesmen whose disreputable prac

*Messrs. Knight, 83 Gracechurch-street, and Mr. Betts, 262 Oxford-street.

We have pleasure in adding to this honourable list the names of Messrs. Ridgway, 4 and 5 King William-street, City; Mr. Sharpe, 44 Bishopsgate-street Within; Mr. Deane, 4 Shoreditch High-street; Messrs. Fortnum and Mason, 181 Piccadilly; Messrs. Branscombe and Co., 88 Pall Mall; Messrs. Dann Johnston, 84 New Bondstreet; Messrs. Payne, 328 Regent-street; Mr. Staniforth, 138 Oxford-street; Mr. W. Holland, 127 Oxfordstreet. The coffee purchased at all the above shops was found, at the time that the investigations of the "Lancet" were made, to be perfectly genuine; and during the past month, when we set on foot a similar scrutiny, the samples we purchased presented unmistakeable evidence of purity.

advertisements, and handbills, denounce most loudly the As might be anticipated, those dealers, whose puffs,

iniquities of their brethren, proved to be themselves the

most audacious impostors.

tices have been so clearly demonstrated." Forty-two samples of coffee, from as many different venders, were again subjected to careful analysis.

Out of the forty-two, eleven only were unadulterated the remaining thirty-one were all made up with chicory-in many cases constituting the chief part of the article. In two cases a substance resembling horse-chesnut, and an amorphous substance, probably used for colouring, were detected. These unanswerable statements suffice to shew to what a fearful extent, fraud is hourly committed through the vile system of selling a factitious article in lieu of the genuine commodity. At the same time it is obvious that the exposures published by the "Lancet," some six months previously, had the effect of preventing grocers from using other spurious articles besides chicory in the " of their trade."

course

Now, an opinion we know is widely prevalent that chicory is both wholesome and nutritive: our non-medical readers, therefore, may start on learning that it possesses powerful medical properties, and has long been included in the materia medica. From a variety of experiments instituted for the purpose, it appears that "for some hours after drinking the infusion (at breakfast) each individual complained of heaviness, drowsiness, a feeling of weight at the stomach, and great indisposition to exertion; in two, headache set in; and in the third, diarrhoea." From these and other facts which we have ourselves elicited, we have no hesitation in pronouncing the roasted chicory-root to be decidedly unwholesome and pernicious. That being the case, it would be obviously absurd to determine what amount of nutriment it is capable of yielding. At any rate, if these alleged properties did exist, they would not excuse the retail dealer in foisting off upon his customers, at the rate of 1s. or 1s. and 4d. per lb., an article which literally costs him, at the wholesale price, not more than 3d. per lb. But unfortunately chicory chicane ends not here. Will it be credited that this worthless drug itself can hardly be procured unadul

terated.

It is almost universally mixed up with either roasted carrot, parsnip, mangel wurzel, beans, lupin seeds, corn, dog-biscuit, burnt sugar, red

* It may, indeed, be safely affirmed that the praiseworthy exertions of the "Lancet" have, in less than two years, done more to check the fraudulent adulteration of food, than all the clumsy and expensive apparatus of the Excise, since its first establishment.

†The great increase of late years of renal disorders is by many eminent medical men attributed to the increased consumption of chicory; and Professor Beer, of Vienna, one of the most experienced oculists of the day, designates chicory-coffee as one of the causes of amaurotic blindness, one of the most dreadful forms of that malady.

earth, horse-chesnut, Venetian-red, oak-bark tan, mahogany sawdust, dried blood, baked horse's liver, &c. With regard to the last pleasing substitutes for "the finest Mocha," we will quote a passage from Mr. P. L. Simmonds's useful little work.*

"In various parts of the metropolis, but more especially in the east, are to be found liver-bakers. These men take the livers of oxen and horses, bake them, and grind them into a powder which they sell to the low-priced coffeeshop keepers at from 4d. to 6d. per lb.-HORSE'S LIVER COFFEE bearing the highest price. It may be known by allowing the coffee to stand until cold, when a thick pellicle or skin will be found on the top. It goes further than coffee, and is generally mixed with chicory and other vegetable imitations of coffee"

A natural inquiry will here suggest itself"How are we, without availing ourselves of the skill of a professional analyst, to know, whether the infusion which we imbibe at morning and at eveningtide is really what we tremblingly hope it to be, or whether it is in fact as heterogeneous in its material as that mysterious mixture denominated London porter,' or the still blacker abomination historically known as 'Spartan broth.""

In reply, we beg to assure those whose fears we have aroused, that, to ensure perfect security, they have only to purchase the berry unground: if they wish for it in the highest perfection, they should obtain it unroasted, as all the coffee sold in this country has its delicate aroma utterly destroyed by the excessive torrefaction to which it is subjected. Above all things, however, the ground coffee sold in packets, bottles, or canisters, should be seduously avoided: it can scarcely be said to resemble in any particular the genuine article.

For the benefit of those who are necessitated

to buy their coffee ground, who are unable to purchase it from any of the dealers already enumerated, and who have not a microscope at command, we may mention, that if the suspected powder be placed lightly on the surface of water, should it contain chicory or roasted corn, they will speedily descend; whereas the coffee, owing the essential oil it contains, will repel the water and float on the surface. Again, chicory-powder, in a few seconds, will impart to the water a deep brown hue; pure coffee hardly colouring cold water until after a length

ened immersion. A solution of iodine added to a cold decoction of chicory, deepens its colour materially, though it can scarcely be said to impart to it a blue tinge.

Before searching with the microscope for roasted corn in coffee, it is advisable to break up the fragments well with the point of a needle. We might, were we so disposed, readily fill with the enumeration of the many pages

"Coffee as it is, and as it ought to be."

rogue

1

ries of London grocers, in the article of coffee: we must, however, refer those of our readers, who are desirous of following up the subject, to the pages of the "Lancet," and also to a certain "Blue book," the revelations in which are calculated to excite still stronger feelings of disgust than the Analytical Sanitary Commission have yet roused.

As might be supposed, such commodities as bear a higher marketable value than those above enumerated, offering, as they do, still stronger inducements for adulteration, are shewn to be subjected to still more noxious combinations. Thus, the powdered ginger of the shops is found to be commonly made up of sago-meal, potato-flour, wheat-flour, ground rice, cayenne pepper, mustard-husks, and turmeric powder. Cinnamon is largely adulterated with cassia, baked flour, and sago-meal. Nutmegs, M. Chevallier informs us,* are sometimes mixed with riddled nuts, eaten by insects, and become brittle; the small apertures are then closed with a kind of cement, formed of flour, oil, and the powder of nutmegs. This paste has even served to fabricate false nutmegs, inodorous and insipid. The workmen of Marseilles make them of bran, clay, and the refuse of nutmegs. "Some years since," says M. Jobard of Brussels," a vessel arrived from Canton with a cargo of nutmegs, made of white wood, perfectly imitated." The mustard of the shops is mixed up with radishseed, rape-seed, wheaten-flour, turmeric-powder, and capsicum pepper. Black and white pepper are adulterated with linseed,mustard-seed,wheatflour, pea-flour, sago-meal, pepper-dust, and factitious pepper-berries.

Out of twenty-eight samples of cayenne pepper subjected to analysis, twenty-four were unadulterated, and twenty-two of these contained mineral colouring matter. In thirteen samples, RED LEAD was present, often in large and poisonous quantities.

Venetian red, red ochre, brick dust, or some other analogous ferruginous earths were contained in seven samples.

Cinnabar, vermilion, or sulphuret of mercury, was detected in one sample.

Six of the samples consisted of a mixture of ground rice, turmeric, and cayenne, coloured either with red lead, or a red ferruginous earth. Six other samples contained large quantities of salt, sometimes alone, but more frequently combined with rice and a red ferruginous earth, or with red lead.

One of the samples was adulterated with a large quantity of the husk of white mustard-seed. Two literally contained nothing but rice coloured with red lead or a ferruginous earth. Red lead and vermilion, or sulphuret of mer

* "Dictionnaire des Alterations et Falsifications des substances Alimentaires, Médicamentenses et Commeriales."

cury, are, as most people are aware, highly poisonous : both-unlike the majority of other noxious compounds which, when received into the system, are at once expelled-remain in the body, gradually accumulating, during a protracted period, their baneful influence, until at length the peculiar symptoms which distinguish their presence in large amount unmistakeably appear. "Thus, however small the daily dose taken, the constitution is yet liable, by the repetition of the dose, to suffer, sooner or later, from the poison, and to become permanently affected."

"But the quantity of red lead and mercury introduced into the system in adulterated cayenne pepper is by no means inconsiderable, since it commonly forms a large portion of the article. Some idea of the amount of these substances frequently present may be formed from the fact, that in a pinch of cayenne, moistened and diffused over a white plate, or a piece of glass, they may be distinctly seen by the eye alone.

"What punishment, we would now inquire, ought to be inflicted on the parties guilty of the crime of mixing these deleterious substances with an article of diet. The case made out, we submit, is one which, for the sake of the public health, strongly demands the interposition of mits a less crime than he who, by tricking our food, robs the Legislature. The man who steals one's purse com

us of health."

Out of twenty-six samples of curry powder submitted to microscopical and chemical examination, seven only proved to be genuine.

Nineteen, or nearly four-fifths were shamefully adulterated. In nine samples ground rice, in very large quantities, was present. In one, potato flour was detected. Salt, in eight. That highly poisonous metallic oxide, or red lead, was detected in eight other samples.

In one sample, the adulteration consisted of red lead in combination with salt and potato-flour.

"The above results do not give the whole of the adulterations to which the twenty-six samples have been subjected, since they do not include the ferruginous earths, which were shewn, in our article on cayenne, to be so frequently employed to impart colour to that substance. In consequence of the large and variable quantity of iron present in genuine curry-powder, it is not easy accurately to determine in what cases that metal exists in excess. The ferruginous earths consist of alumina, in combination with a small and variable amount of iron in the condition of red oxide."

The

Now, since curry powder is consumed in such considerable quantities, its adulteration with red lead, &c., must be productive of the most terrible results in thousands of cases. evil, all along being unsuspected, only becomes apparent when too late to be arrested or combated by the physician's art.

The "Lancet" has not yet taken cognizance of the wine trade, nor of the numerous tricks connected with that branch of business.

The public, whatever suspicions they may now entertain, will, we can predict, be somewhat astounded when they learn to what an extent their favourite vinous fluids are continually drugged.

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