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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
This Treatise, as its title expresses, is intended to exhibit easy methods of detecting the fraudulent adulterations of food, and of other articles, 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, and other substances employed in domestic economy, are frequently met with in an adulterated state: and the la
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PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Of all the frauds practised by mercenary dealers, there is none more reprehensible, and at the same time more prevalent, than the sophistication of the various articles of food. This unprincipled and nefarious practice, increasing in degree as it has been found difficult of detection, is now applied to almost every commodity which can be classed among either the necessaries or the luxuries of life, and is carried on to a most alarming extent in every part of the United Kingdom. It has been pursu
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REMARKS
REMARKS
It requires not much reflection to become convinced that the waters which issue from the recesses of the earth, and form springs, wells, rivers, or lakes, often materially differ from each other in their taste and other obvious properties. There are few people who have not observed a difference in the waters used for domestic purposes and in the arts; and the distinctions of hard and soft water are familiar to every body. Water perfectly pure is scarcely ever met with in nature. It must also be
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Adulteration of Wine.
Adulteration of Wine.
It is sufficiently obvious, that few of those commodities, which are the objects of commerce, are adulterated to a greater extent than wine. All persons moderately conversant with the subject, are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose of brightening their colour; that Brazil wood, or the husks of elderberries and bilberries, [27] are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red Port of a pale, faint colour; that gypsum is used to render cloudy
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Adulteration of Bread.
Adulteration of Bread.
This is one of the sophistications of the articles of food most commonly practised in this metropolis, where the goodness of bread is estimated entirely by its whiteness. It is therefore usual to add a certain quantity of alum to the dough; this improves the look of the bread very much, and renders it whiter and firmer. Good, white, and porous bread, may certainly be manufactured from good wheaten flour alone; but to produce the degree of whiteness rendered indispensable by the caprice of the co
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Adulteration of Beer.
Adulteration of Beer.
Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favourite beverage of the inhabitants of London, and of other large towns, is amongst those articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently committed. The statute prohibits the brewer from using any ingredients in his brewings, except malt and hops; but it too often happens that those who suppose they are drinking a nutritious beverage, made of these ingredients only, are entirely deceived . The beverage may, in fact, be neither
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Counterfeit Tea-Leaves.
Counterfeit Tea-Leaves.
The late detections that have been made respecting the illicit establishments for the manufacture of imitation tea leaves, arrested, not long ago, the attention of the public; and the parties by whom these manufactories were conducted, together with the numerous venders of the factitious tea, did not escape the hand of justice. In proof of this statement, it is only necessary to consult the London newspapers (the Times and the Courier) from March to July 1818; which show to what extent this nefa
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Counterfeit Coffee.
Counterfeit Coffee.
The fraud of counterfeiting ground coffee by means of pigeon's beans and pease, is another subject which, not long ago, arrested the attention of the public: and from the numerous convictions of grocers prosecuted for the offence, it is evident that this practice has been carried on for a long time, and to a considerable extent. The following statement exhibits some of the prosecutions, instituted by the Solicitor of the Excise, against persons convicted of the fraud of manufacturing spurious, a
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Adulteration of Brandy, Rum, and Gin.
Adulteration of Brandy, Rum, and Gin.
By the Excise laws at present existing in this country, the various degrees of strength of brandy, rum, arrack, gin, whiskey, and other spiritous liquors, chiefly composed of little else than spirit of wine, are determined by the quantity of alcohol of a given specific gravity contained in the spiritous liquors of a supposed unknown strength. The great public importance of this subject in this country, where the consumption of spiritous liquors adds a vast sum to the public revenue, has been the
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Poisonous Cheese.
Poisonous Cheese.
Several instances have come under my notice in which Gloucester cheese has been contaminated with red lead, and has produced serious consequences on being taken into the stomach. In one poisonous sample which it fell to my lot to investigate, the evil had been caused by the sophistication of the anotta, employed for colouring cheese. This substance was found to contain a portion of red lead; a method of sophistication which has lately been confirmed by the following fact, communicated to the pub
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Counterfeit Pepper.
Counterfeit Pepper.
Black pepper is the fruit of a shrubby creeping plant, which grows wild in the East Indies, and is cultivated, with much advantage, for the sake of its berries, in Java and Malabar. The berries are gathered before they are ripe, and are dried in the sun. They become black and corrugated on the surface. This factitious pepper-corns have of late been detected mixed with genuine pepper, is a fact sufficiently known. [104] Such an adulteration may prove, in many instances of household economy, excee
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Poisonous Cayenne Pepper.
Poisonous Cayenne Pepper.
Cayenne pepper is an indiscriminate mixture of the powder of the dried pods of many species of capsicum, but especially of the capsicum frutescens, or bird pepper, which is the hottest of all. This annual plant, a native of South America, is cultivated in large quantities in our West-India islands, and even frequently in our gardens, for the beauty of its pods, which are long, pointed, and pendulous, at first of a green colour, and, when ripe, of a bright orange red. They are filled with a dry l
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Poisonous Pickles.
Poisonous Pickles.
Vegetable substances, preserved in the state called pickles, by means of the antiseptic power of vinegar, whose sale frequently depends greatly upon a fine lively green colour; and the consumption of which, by sea-faring people in particular, is prodigious, are sometimes intentionally coloured by means of copper. Gerkins, French beans, samphires, the green pods of capsicum, and many other pickled vegetable substances, oftener than is perhaps expected, are met with impregnated with this metal. Nu
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Adulteration of Vinegar.
Adulteration of Vinegar.
Vinegar, as prepared in this country, from malt, should be of a pale brown colour, perfectly transparent, of a pleasant, somewhat pungent, acid taste, and fragrant odour, but without any acrimony. From the mucilaginous impurities which malt vinegar always contains, it is apt, on exposure to air, to become turbid and ropy, and at last vapid. The inconvenience is best obviated by keeping the vinegar in bottles completely filled and well corked; and it is of advantage to boil it in the bottles a fe
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Adulteration of Cream.
Adulteration of Cream.
Cream is often adulterated with rice powder or arrow root. The former is frequently employed for that purpose by pastry cooks, in fabricating creams and custards, for tarts, and other kinds of pastry. The latter is often used in the London dairies. Arrow-root is preferable to rice powder; for, when converted with milk into a thick mucilage by a gentle ebullition, it imparts to cream, previously diluted with milk, a consistence and apparent richness, by no means unpalatable, without materially im
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Poisonous Confectionery.
Poisonous Confectionery.
In the preparation of sugar plums, comfits, and other kinds of confectionery, especially those sweetmeats of inferior quality, frequently exposed to sale in the open streets, for the allurement of children, the grossest abuses are committed. The white comfits, called sugar pease, are chiefly composed of a mixture of sugar, starch, and Cornish clay (a species of very white pipe-clay;) and the red sugar drops are usually coloured with the inferior kind of vermilion. The pigment is generally adulte
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Poisonous Catsup.
Poisonous Catsup.
This article is very often subjected to one of the most reprehensible modes of adulteration ever devised. Quantities are daily to be met with, which, on a chemical examination, are found to abound with copper. Indeed, this condiment is often nothing else than the residue left behind after the process employed for obtaining distilled vinegar, subsequently diluted with a decoction of the outer green husk of the walnut, and seasoned with all-spice, Cayenne pepper, pimento, onions, and common salt.
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Poisonous Custard.
Poisonous Custard.
The leaves of the cherry laurel, prunus lauro-cerasus , a poisonous plant, have a nutty flavour, resembling that of the kernels of peach-stones, or of bitter almonds, which to most palates is grateful. These leaves have for many years been in use among cooks, to communicate an almond or kernel-like flavour to custards, puddings, creams, blanc-mange , and other delicacies of the table. It has been asserted, that the laurel poison in custards and other articles of cookery is, on account of its bei
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Poisonous Anchovy Sauce.
Poisonous Anchovy Sauce.
Several samples which we have examined of this fish sauce have been found contaminated with lead. The mode of preparation of this fish sauce, consists in rubbing down the broken anchovy in a mortar: and this triturated mass, being of a dark brown colour, receives, without much risk of detection, a certain quantity of Venetian red, added for the purpose of colouring it, which, if genuine, is an innocent colouring substance; but instances have occurred of this pigment having been adulterated with
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Adulteration of Lozenges.
Adulteration of Lozenges.
Lozenges, particularly those into the composition of which substances enter that are not soluble in water, as ginger, cremor tartar, magnesia, &c., are often sophisticated. The adulterating ingredient is usually pipe-clay, of which a liberal portion is substituted for sugar. The following detection of this fraud was lately made by Dr. T. Lloyd. [113] "Some ginger lozenges having lately fallen into my hands, I was not a little surprised to observe, accidentally, that when thrown into a co
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Poisonous Olive Oil.
Poisonous Olive Oil.
This commodity is sometimes contaminated with lead, because the fruit which yields the oil is submitted to the action of the press between leaden plates; and it is, moreover, a practice (particularly in Spain) to suffer the oil to become clear in leaden cisterns, before it is brought to market for sale. The French and Italian olive oil is usually free from this impregnation. Olive oil is sometimes mixed with oil of poppy seeds: but, by exposing the mixture to the freezing temperature, the olive
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Adulteration of Mustard.
Adulteration of Mustard.
Genuine mustard, either in powder, or in the state of a paste ready for use, is perhaps rarely to be met with in the shops. The article sold under the name of genuine Durham mustard , is usually a mixture of mustard and common wheaten flour, with a portion of Cayenne pepper, and a large quantity of bay salt, made with water into a paste, ready for use. Some manufacturers adulterate their mustard with radish-seed and pease flour. It has often been stated, that a fine yellow colour is given to mus
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Adulteration of Lemon Acid.
Adulteration of Lemon Acid.
It is well known to every one, that the expressed juice of lemons is extremely apt to spoil, on account of the sugar, mucilage, and extractive matter which it contains; and hence various means have been practised, with the intention of rendering it less perishable, and less bulky. The juice has been evaporated to the consistence of rob; but this always gives an unpleasant empyreumatic taste, and does not separate the foreign matters, so that it is still apt to spoil when agitated on board of shi
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Poisonous Mushrooms.
Poisonous Mushrooms.
Mushrooms have been long used in sauces and other culinary preparations; yet there are numerous instances on record of the deleterious effects of some species of these fungi , almost all of which are fraught with poison. [114] Pliny already exclaims against the luxury of his countrymen in this article, and wonders what extraordinary pleasure there can be in eating such dangerous food. [115] But if the palate must be indulged with these treacherous luxuries, or, as Seneca calls them, "voluptuous
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Poisonous Soda Water.
Poisonous Soda Water.
The beverage called soda water is frequently contaminated both with copper and lead; these metals being largely employed in the construction of the apparatus for preparing the carbonated water, [117] and the great excess of carbonic acid which the water contains, particularly enables it to act strongly on the metallic substances of the apparatus; a truth, of which the reader will find no difficulty in convincing himself, by suffering a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas to pass through the wate
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Food poisoned by Copper Vessels.
Food poisoned by Copper Vessels.
Many kinds of viands are frequently impregnated with copper, in consequence of the employment of cooking utensils made of that metal. By the use of such vessels in dressing food, we are daily liable to be poisoned; as almost all acid vegetables, as well as sebaceous or pinguid substances, employed in culinary preparations, act upon copper, and dissolve a portion of it; and too many examples are met with of fatal consequences having ensued from eating food which had been dressed in copper vessels
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Food Poisoned by Leaden Vessels.
Food Poisoned by Leaden Vessels.
Various kinds of food used in domestic economy, are liable to become impregnated with lead. The glazing of the common cream-coloured earthen ware, which is composed of an oxide of lead, readily yields to the action of vinegar and saline compounds; and therefore jars and pots of this kind of stone ware, are wholly unfit to contain jellies of fruits, marmalade, and similar conserves. Pickles should in no case be deposited in cream-coloured glazed earthenware. The custom which still prevails in som
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