ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, MR. EDGAR RICHARDS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, January 23, 1890. SOME FOOD SUBSTITUTES AND ADULTERANTS. Reprinted from Bulletin No. 5, Chemical Society of Washington. WAYSII I XU'rOX, I). C.: 1890. ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, Mr. EDGAR RICHARDS. Delivered January 23, 1890. SOME FOOD SUBSTITUTES AND ADULTERANTS. ' Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: In his address before this Society last year our late President, Dr. J. H. Kidder, presented the subject of AIK as one of the " two necessities of life which," he said, "are absolute" and "which we cannot live without," namely : "food (including water) and air." It is more especially to a certain class of foods, whose increasing consumption and sale has of late years attracted public notice, that 1 wish to call your attention this evening, namely that of cheap and wholesome food substitutes; which are also frequently used as food adulterants. Our bodies are like a furnace and require fuel and air to sustain the heat of combustion, by the constant renewal of fresh material and the elimination of the waste products. The form, whether solid or liquid, of animal or vegetable origin, in which we supply this fuel depends largely on local circumstances, climate, education, etc., and as long as the food employed goes to furnish the proper amount of fuel material for the maintenance of the body temperature, life is sustained. The extent of the consumption of any new food will evi- dently depend on how it fulfills this requirement as a fuel, and by its pleasing appearance, its palatability, its capacity to appease hunger, its wholesomeness, and its relative cheap- ness attracts public attention. If the new food is a manu- factured product its cheapness will depend upon the possi- 2 BULLETIN OF THE bility of its production on a large scale from relatively cheap materials. From want of reliable information in regard to the ma- terials employed in most new food products there is a general feeling of uncertainty and insecurity on the subject. People as a rule imagine that any substance used as an adulterant of, or a substitute for, a food product is to be avoided as it- self being injurious to health, and when they hear that a certain food is adulterated, or is a food substitute, there is im- mediately a prejudice excited against the article which it takes time and familiarity to allay. A moment's reflection ought to show that it would be directly contrary to the food manufacturer's interest to add to, or substitute anything for, a food product which would cause injurious symptoms, as in that case his means of gain would be cut off by the refusal of consumers to buy his product. It is true that the un- scrupulous manufacturer or dealer does not hesitate to cheat his customer in the interest of his own pecuniary profit and gain, but he docs not want to poison him. Where through carelessness or ignorance injurious substances, such as the arsenic, copper, aniline, and other metallic and organic poisonous salts sometimes used for artificial colours, are added to foods their presence is promptly revealed by the dangerous symptoms which they call forth in the consumer. About a year ago the case of the Philadelphia bakers, who added chromate of lead to colour some of their cakes and thus caused the death of several persons and serious illness in nearly everyone who ate any of these products, will be recalled by many present. The great majority of substances used for food adulterants or substitutes consist of cheap and harmless substances which are not injurious to health, as the following list of those most commonly met with in the principal food products will show. This list has been compiled from the Reports of the State Boards of Health, the returns of the British Inland Revenue Department, the Reports of the British Local Gov- ernment Board, and those of the Paris Municipal Laboratory. CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 3 Table I. Food Products and their Chief Adulterants. FOOD PRODUCT. ADULTERANTS. Milk Water, removal of cream, addition of oleo oil or lard to skimmed milk. Butter Water, salt, foreign fats, artificial colouring mat- ter. Cheese Lard, oleo oil, cottonseed oil. Olive Oil* Cottonseed and other vegetable oils. Beer. Artificial glucose, malt and hop substitutes, sod- ium bi-carbonate, salt, antiseptics. Syrup Artificial glucose. Honey Artificial glucose, cane-sugar. Confectionery Artificial glucose, starch, artificial essences, pois- - onous pigments, terra alba, gypsum. Wines, Liquors Water, spirits,artificial colouring matter, fictitious imitations, aromatic ethers, burnt sugar, anti- septics. Vinegar Water, other mineral or organic acid. Flour, Bread Other meals, alum. Baker's Chemicals* Starch, alum. Spices* Flour, starches of various kinds, turmeric. Cocoa and Chocolate Sugar, starch, flour. Coffee* Chicory, peas, beans, rye, corn, wheat, colouring matter. Tea Exhausted tea leaves, foreign leaves, tannin, in- digo, prussian blue, turmeric, gypsum, soap- stone, sand. Canned Goods* Metallic poisons. Pickels Salts of copper. * For list of adulterated brands see Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1889, p. 181-1. 4 BULLETIN OF THE WATER. Ordinary potable water is not generally considered either externally or internally " injurious to health," yet it is prob- ably the most common adulterant used. We find, indeed, in the Canadian " Adulteration Act " that: " If water has been added " to milk, " it shall be deemed to have been adulterated in a manner injurious to health" (Section 15). The watering of milk is everywhere recognized as not only a fraud but also a grave misdemeanor, if not actually a crime. This is the food on which the whole population under one year old is fed ; and where the mother cannot supply the proper nourishment for the child she must depend for its bringing up on cow's or other milk. It is self evident that a pint of watered milk does not contain the same amount of nutrition as the same volume of whole milk, so that a child or invalid might be actually starved to death if compelled to rely on the former for its sole sustenance. The placing of watered and skimmed milk on the market should, in all large cities, call forth the active exertions of their Health Departments to supervise and as far as possi- ble suppress their sale. The skill of the milk adulterator has kept pace with the march of improvement and to-day we find centrifugal ma- chines, costing over $200, placed on the market designed solely to manufacture, from skimmed milk and oleo oil and lard, an artificial cream or milk, depending on the amount of animal fat added, which, it is stated, can be used for all purposes in which the genuine article is employed. A de- scription of such machines will be found in Engineering, vol, 44, 1887, p. 478, and in the catalogues of the dealers. OLEOMARGARINE. Within the past few years two artificial food products made from what had hithertofore been considered waste products of the large slaughter houses have come prominently before the public and established a legitimate place for themselves as perfectly wholesome articles of food. Oleomargarine and "refined" or "compound lard" are now found on sale in CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 5 most cities of this country and Europe. Against the former there has been a large amount of legislation directed with a view of controlling its production and sale, and with the unexpected result of increasing both. Whatever may have been the production of oleomargarine in this country before the National law went into effect we have no reliable statistics, but since the 1st of November, 1886, we have the monthly statements of the manufacturers, duly attested under oath, of the quantity of oleomargarine made and removed from the factories, tax paid for domestic consumption or in bond for export, each day of the month. These statements also give the quantity and kind of mater- ials employed in the manufacture, and the names and ad- dresses of the parties to whom the oleomargarine is sold or consigned. The following table shows the monthly quantity of oleo- margarine produced in this country since Nov. 1, 1886, to Nov. 1, 1889: Table II. Showing the quantity of Oleomargarine produced, withdrawn tax paid, for export, and lost or destroyed in manufactories, monthly, from November 1, 1886, to November 1, 1889. Month. Quantity produced. Withdrawn tax paid. Lost or destroyed. With- drawn for export. On hand Nov. 1, 1886 Pounds. 181,090 Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. November 3,188,261 2,986,241 10.878 6,747 December 3,073,263 2,956,827 296 67,189 1887. January 2,804,096 2,720,235 3,056 144,535 February 2,779,855 2,716,759 9,182 60,500 March* 3,568,254 3,512,138 12,472 96,499 April 2,839.358 2,780,307 6,866 149,838 Mav 1,885,027 1,769,954 2,210 136,523 June 1,375,423 1.301,108 6,267 62,701 Julv f 1,208,638 1,170,136 1,191 33,240 August 2,425,226 2,296,238 601 110,990 September 2,703,256 2,568.007 262 68.917 October November . 3,082,935 3,003,715 3,256,028 2,915,016 2,862,321 3,120,393 1,979 92,201 148.899 78,500 December - * Highest for the year. f Lowest for the year. 6 BULLETIN OF THE Month. Quantity produced. Withdrawn tax paid. Lost or destroyed. With- drawn for export. 1888. Pounds. ' Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. January 3.058,955 2,918,868 - 117,781 February 3,057,149 3,003,515 126,168 March* 3,940,727 3,824,672 2,998 155,761 April 3,273,453 3,062,396 1,537 251,994 May 3,185,127 2,817,292 - 327,726 June 2,130,318 1,930,311 995 174,021 July f 2,084,317 1,925,762 185 155,200 August 2,301,769 2,209,782 727 153,285 September 2,776,465 2,611,693 167,787 October 3,462,123 3,734,878 3,368,418 80,785 November 3,509,408 175,965 December* 4,181,317 4,025,336 10 109,385 1889. January 3,607,753 3,353,350 137,123 February 3,523,381 3,266,245 1,000 228,191 March 3,047,875 3,077,831 - 70,424 285,948 April 3,057,841 2,886,481 May 2,310,945 1,575,362 2,114,678 70 126,223 Junej- 1,514,658 1,442,094 - 58.579 95.580 July 1,770,146 - August 1,975,773 1,914,016 4,973 49,222 September 2,274,456 2,130,648 167,826 October 4,072.333 3,668,057 688 190,385 On hand Oct. 31 429,219 Total for 3 years 101,786,888 96,251,191 68,443 4,662,638 Total first year 31,114,682 29,692,966 55,260 1,029,880 Total second year 35,530,146 33,655,423 6,442 1,937,907 Total third year 35,132,060 32,902,802 6,741 1,694,851 Table II-Continued. * Highest for the year. f Lowest for the year. During this period the number of factories has decreased from 37 to 21, notwithstanding which fact the production and sale has increased steadily. It is produced by expensive machinery in the large factories in such quantities that it can be sold nearly the whole year round at a less price than butter, although the high rate of tax paid by both the manufacturers and dealers, which is, of course, ultimately paid by the consumer, necessarily increases the market price. CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 7 In the spring and early summer months the price of dairy butter is generally cheaper than oleomargarine and conse- quently less of the latter is made and sold during that time. In July the production of oleomargarine reaches its lowest limits for the year, and obtains its highest in March. The system followed by the Internal Revenue Bureau is such that each manufacturer's package can be traced from the time it leaves the factory till it reaches the hands of the retailer or consumer, or leaves the country. The High rate of tax demanded from the manufacturers and dealers was undoubtedly intended to be nearly or quite prohibitory; when compared to those paid by other special tax payers, rectifiers, brewers, etc., as shown in the following table, the amounts are from 3 to 10 times as high : Table III. Hate of special taxes, per annum. - OLEOMAR- GARINE. LIQUORS. TOBACCO MANUFAC- TURED. Distilled. Malt. Manufacturer $G00 00 $200 00* $100 OOf $6 00 Wholesale dealer 480 00 100 00 50 00 30 00+ Retail dealer 48 00 25 00 20 00 2 40 * Rectifier of 500 barrels, or more, per annum, t Annual manufacture 500 barrels or more, j Peddler of tobacco, first class. It is undoubtedly a fact that if the retailer's tax was as low as that for tobacco the manufacturers of oleomargarine would pay the same to have at least one dealer to handle their goods in every village and town in this country. As it is, in the Chicago district, where there are seven factories, there were 974 retail dealers doing business in April, 1889, compared with 726 the April previous; in the Boston dis- trict, with its one factory, there were 460 retailers in April last year, and 405 at the corresponding time in 1888; in the Connecticut district, with four factories, there were 424 in 1889 and 384 the year previous, and in Michigan, with no 8 BULLETIN OF THE factory, there were 290 and 267 respectively for the same periods. These four collection districts contain over one-half of the total number of retail dealers doing business at the close of the last special tax year (April 30, 1889). This would seem to indicate that where the public has been brought in unprejudiced contact with oleomargarine, as sold on its own merits, they have found it palatable and suitable to their wants. I have been in retail stores in the lumber and mining regions of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in Boston, Chicago, and elsewhere, where as much as one-half to one ton of oleomargarine is sold per week, in quantities of less than 10 lbs. to any one purchaser at one time, put up in packages duly branded with the word " Oleomargarine," as required by the law and regulations. It may interest you to know that there was consigned to retail dealers and pre- sumably sold in Washington, between January 1,1889, and December 1, 1889, 130,584 lbs. of oleomargarine, as shown in the following table: Table IV. Showing monthly shipments of Oleomargarine from five manu- facturers direct to retail dealers in Washington, D. C., from January 1, 1889, to December 1, 1889. Month. Lbs. Oleomargarine. January 10,270 February 28,223 March 6,227 April 8,108 May 12,372 June 6,808 July 6,826 August .. 8,466 September 13,872 October 12,844 November 16,568 Tot a i 130,584 CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 9 The ingredients which enter into the manufacture of oleo- margarine are: 1, " Neutral" or leaf lard, used in the pro- portion of from 25 to 60 per cent., made from the leaf fat of freshly-slaughtered hogs; 2, " Oleo oil," used in the propor- tion of from 20 to 50 per cent., made from the caul and suet fats of freshly-slaughtered beeves; 3, some liquid vegetable oil, as cottonseed, sesame, peanut, used in the proportion of from 5 to 25 per cent., made by crushing the seeds and ex- tracting the oil by pressure or solvents ; 4, milk or cream, used in the proportion of from 10 to 20 per cent.; 5, butter, used in the proportion of from 2 to 10 per cent., generally bought from the best creameries for its fine flavour; 6, salt, and 7, annatto or other colouring matter. Some factories employ no vegetable oils in their oleomargarine, preferring to use a larger proportion of " neutral " lard with a small amount of butter to obtain the desired butter consistency. In the higher grade of " creamery butterine " the proportions of oleo oil are reduced, the vegetable oils are discarded, and butter is used to make up the charge for the churn. The method of manufacture closely resembles that used in ordinary butter making, except that the churn is steam jacketted and the animal fats used are previously melted before being placed in it. From a personal inspection of some of the largest factories I am convinced that the greatest cleanliness is observed throughout all the operations ; that nothing but the freshest animal fats are used ; that machinery is employed as much as possible and large quantities worked at a time to reduce the expense. The factories are as well arranged as the best creameries, and it is to the manufac- turer's interest to produce a palatable and wholesome pro- duct, which is, however, not intended to compete with "gilt- edge " butter. OLEO OIL. Owing to the construction of the Attorney General of section 2 of the oleomargarine law the Internal Revenue officers exercise no control over the production and sale of 10 BULLETIN OF THE oleo oil, although the Commissioner has recommended that Congress amend the law in that regard. From inquiries that were made, over a year ago, by the collectors of Internal Revenue there was found to have been produced during the year ended June 30, 1888, 09,023,795 lbs. of oleo oil in nine States. There was used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, as stated in the manufacturers' returns, 12,205,800 lbs. during that period, and 30,140,595 lbs. were exported, leaving- 27,211,400 lbs. used otherwise. As oleo oil is sold at a much higher rate than tallow it is presumable that this large quantity is used in some other food products, as emulsified cream and cheeses. There is a special provision in the law in regard to the use of any unwholesome material or product in the manufacture of oleomargarine, but no sample has ever been submitted to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue under it. From the testimony and investigations of the most prominent chemists, both here and in Europe, there is a consensus of opinion that oleomargarine when made from fresh fats and in a cleanly manner is a perfectly wholesome article of food. COMPOUND LARD. Ill the manufacture of oleo oil there is left behind on the filter presses a hard white or slightly yellow fat, the beef or oleo stearine. This for many years was sold to the candle and soap makers, but is now used in the extensive manufac- ture of "refined" or "compound lard," by being melted and mixed with some cottonseed oil and a little leaf lard until the mixture has attained the desired consistency.* From the testimony given before the Congressional Lard Committee, " Prime steam lard " is about as disgusting a mixture as can be imagined. The entrails and other viscera, head, feet, in fact every part of the animal which contains the faintest traces of fat, are dumped into the rendering tanks and live steam turned on until all the fat is thoroughly * My thanks are due to Messrs. Fairbank & Co., of Chicago, for a set of samples illustrating the manufacture of compound lard. CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 11 melted out. The liquid is then allowed to cool, the water containing a highly savoured mass of impurities is run off, and the remaining fat is tierced or canned. If it smells too " loud " it is washed with hot water, allowed to cool, and then repacked. The oleo stearine and cottonseed oil mixture is prepared from clean and wholesome materials and does not suggest any such filthy practices as " prime steam lard." The manu- facturers are generally abandoning the designation of " re- fined " and are now calling such mixtures "compound lards." COTTONSEED OIL. The enormous and constantly increasing production of cottonseed oil in this country is noteworthy as showing to what an extent it has come to be employed as an article of food both here and abroad. The principal domestic con- sumption of the oil is in the manufacture of "compound lard." It is also used as a substitute for, and an adulterant of, olive oil for cooking and table use, and in medicinal preparations. It is employed instead of the more expensive animal and vegetable oils in the mining regions for the miners' lamps. There are 125 mills in operation, with a capital, invested in the South, estimated at $25,000,000; twelve thousand hands, receiving $24,000, are employed per day. The amount of seed crushed last season was 875,000 tons; yielding on an average 37| gallons of crude oil per ton.* SOME QUEER PREJUDICES. A large proportion of the articles suitable for food and produced in all countries is wasted annually because of people's prejudice against them. The old saws: "what is one man's meat is another man's poison", and " there is no accounting for taste," are trite but warranted by the facts. We do not object to eating a live oyster but prefer all our other meats dead and undergoing putrefaction to a slight ex- * This information was kindly furnished me by Mr. A. D. Fulton, Editor of the " Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter," in a letter dated Dec. 28, 1889. 12 BULLETIN OF THE tent in order to rid of the " toughness," as it is generally called, produced by the rigor mortis. Some people like to let the putrefaction proceed further until the meat is "gamey." The Texan cowboy eats goat's meat in preference to that of the cattle and sheep he is herding. Young puppies, rats, and bird's nests are considered delicacies by the Chinese. Frog's legs and snails are among the highest priced dishes served at Delmonico's, Except the bones and hide every part of an animal slaughtered for food is eaten by most civi- lized nations; the brain; tongue; blood in the shape of black pudding and sausages; the liver; heart; lungs; stomach as tripe; the pancreas, thyroid and sublingual glands are called sweetbreads and considered a great deli- cacy; the feet in the way of jellies and pickled ; the intes- tines as sausage covering, etc., etc. In the markets of Paris there is a steady demand for horseflesh as food. The Arabs and other nomadic tribes prefer mare's or camel's to cow's milk. Many people would as soon eat a snake as an eel, yet the latter commands a higher price than most fish in many parts of the world. Lobsters, who are the scavengers of the sea, are eaten by people who would not touch pork. The Esquimaux, who eats blubber and other solid fats, and the native of the tropics, who " butters " his bread with a liquid vegetable oil, have the same object in view, viz : to supply a concentrated form of fuel. The squirrel is con- sidered a great delicacy in many parts of this country but is not eaten in England. The vain efforts of Prof. Kiley some years ago to induce the starving people of Kansas to eat the food they had at their doors; grasshoppers, sorghum and millet seeds, and squirrels, himself setting them the example, will be recalled by many present. COOKING. From experiments made by Jensen, in the laboratory of the University of Tubingen, it appears that raw meat is much sooner digested than cooked meat. Cooking, as far as animal food is concerned, has the effect of making it more CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 13 pleasing to the taste, but is unnecessary; whereas, with cer- tain vegetables, especially those composed principally of starch, as grain and potatoes, it is required to fit them for use. The proper preparation of food is one that has not re- ceived the attention it demands. A badly cooked meal is more apt to disorganize the system than to prove nutrituous and beneficial. The general teaching of cookery in our schools, both public and private, to girls would undoubtedly result in much improvement in this regard. GLUCOSE. In April, 1882, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue address a letter to the President of the National Academy of Sciences, requesting " the appointment of a committee of the Academy to examine as to the composition, nature, and properties of the article commonly known as ' glucose ' or ' grape-sugar.' ' In the Report on this subject, made in Janu- ary, 1881, the committee, consisting of Professors Barker, Brewer, Gibbs, Chandler, and Remsen, from the results they had obtained, summed up briefly as follows : " 1st. Starch-sugar as found in commerce is a mixture, in varying proportions, of two sugars, called dextrose and mal- tose, and of dextrine, or starch-gum. Dextrose was discovered in grapes by Lowitz, in 1792, and was first prepared from starch by Kirchhoff, in 1811. In 1819, Braconnot prepared it from woody fibre. Maltose was first recognized as a dis- tinct sugar by Dubrunfaut, in 1847, in the product of the action of malt on starch. No dextrose is thus produced, according to O'Sullivan." " 2nd. The process of making starch-sugar consists, first, in separating the starch from the corn by soaking, grinding, straining, and settling; and second, in converting the starch into sugar by the action of dilute sulphuric acid, this acid being subsequently removed by the action of chalk. To make the solid,' grape-sugar,' the conversion is carried further than to make the liquid, 'glucose.' After clarifying, the liquid is concentrated in vacuum-pans and is decolorized with bone-black." " 3rd. The starch-sugar industry in the United States 14 BULLETIN OF THE gives employment to twenty-nine factories, having an esti- mated capital of five millions of dollars, consuming about forty thousand bushels of corn per day, and producing grape- sugar and glucose of the annual value of nearly ten millions of dollars. In Germany, in 1881-'82, there were thirty-nine factories of tliis sort, consuming over seventy thousand tons of starch, and producing about forty thousand tons of starch- sugar." Since this Report of the National Academy was printed, the number of starch-sugar factories in the United States has decreased to twelve, with a capital invested estimated at from twelve to fifteen million dollars, consuming about fifty thou- sand bushels of corn per day and having an annual produc- tion of 450,000,000 lbs., valued at ten million five hundred thousand dollars.* "4th. Starch-sugar is chiefly used in making table-sirup, in brewing beer as a substitute for malt, and in adulterating cane-sugar. It is also used to replace cane-sugar in confec- tionery, in canning fruits, in making fruit-jellies, and in cooking. Artificial honey is made with it; and so, also, is vinegar." " 5th. Starch-sugar represents one distinct class of sugars, as cane-sugar does the other; the former being obtained naturally from the grape, as the latter is from the cane and the beet. Starch-sugar, which is a term chemically synony- mous with dextrose and glucose, when pure, has about two- thirds the sweetening power of cane-sugar. By the action of the dilute acids, both cane-sugar and starch yield dextrose. In the case of starch, however, dextrose constitutes the sole final product." " 6th. The commercial samples of starch-sugar obtained by the committee showed a fairly uniform composition on analysis. The liquid form, or 'glucose,' contains from 34.3 to 42.8 per cent, of dextrose; from 0 to 19.3 per cent, of mal- tose ; from 29.8 to 45.3 per cent, of dextrine, and from 14.2 to 22.6 per cent, of water. The solid form, ' grape-sugar,' gave from 72 to 73.4 per cent, of dextrose; from 0 to 3.6 per cent, of maltose; from 4.2 to 9.1 per cent, of dextrine, and from 14 to 17.6 per cent, of water. Three specimens of *This information was kindly furnished me by the American Glucose Co., of Buffalo, N. Y., in a recent letter, December, 1889, who also sent samples of liquid and solid glucose. CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 15 especially prepared 'grape-sugar' contained 87.1, 93.2, and 99.4 per cent, of dextrose, respectively. The last of these was crystalline anhydrous dextrose." " 7th. Of mineral or inorganic constituents, the samples of starch-sugar examined contained only minute quantities. The total ash formed in the 'glucose' was only from 0.325 to 1.060 per cent.,and in the 'grape-sugars', only from 0.335 to 0.750 per cent. No impurities, either organic or inorganic in character, other than those mentioned, were detected in any of the samples examined." " 8th. The elaborate experiments upon the fermentation of starch-sugar would seem to be final on the question of the healthfulness, not only of glucose itself, but also of the substances produced by the action of a ferment upon it. Large quantities of a concentrated extract from the fermen- tation, representing from one-third to one-half a pound of starch-sugar, were taken internally by the experimenter, and this repeatedly, without the slighest observable effect. This result, rigidly applied, holds of course only for those sugars which, like this, are made from the starch of Indian corn, or maize." From the foregoing facts the Committee reached the fol- lowing conclusions : " First, that the manufacture of sugar from starch is a long established industry, scientifically valuable and commercially important; second, that the processes which it employs at the present time are unobjec- tionable in their character, and leave the product uncon- taminated ; third, that the starch-sugar thus made and sent into commerce is of exceptional purity and uniformity of composition, and contains no injurious substances; and fourth, that though having at best only about two-thirds the sweetening power of cane-sugar, yet starch-sugar is in no way inferior to cane-sugar in healthfulness, there being no evidence before the Committee that maize-starch sugar, either in its normal condition or fermented, has any deleterious effect upon the system, even when taken in large quan- tities."* * "Report on Glucose, prepared by the National Academy of Sciences, in response to a request made by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 'Washington, 1884." 16 BULLETIN OF THE SOME OTHER ADULTERANTS. The use of flours and starches of various kinds-wheat, corn, rye, peas, beans, etc.-as food adulterants cannot be considered injurious to health, however much the public may be cheated in the purchase of such adulterated articles of food, as ground spices, coffee, etc., they are not poisoned by their consumption. It is a question how much a pur- chaser is himself to blame, in his endeavor to secure a " bar- gain," when he demands a quantity of any given material at less than it can be purchased at wholesale in the market, that he compels the unscrupulous manufacturer to make a compound which has never more and generally less than the proportion of the genuine material represented by the price asked. Many articles of food spoil in transportation, and under the plea of preventing further fermentation resort is had to antiseptics, such as salicylic acid, sulphite of soda, borax, etc. These deserve mention as being additions to foods of a class of substances used to cloak carelessness in manufacture and otherwise, and producing in many cases deleterious effects on the human economy. In France and Germany the use of such antiseptics as salicylic acid in food products is pro- hibited, although in the latter country such addition is tol- erated when the food product is exported to countries where such use is not forbidden. LEGISLATION ON FOOD ADULTERATION. The adulteration of food, generally being aimed at the pocket and not at the health of the consumer, ought to be easily remedied, one would suppose, by legislation. On, however, turning to our different State laws on the subject, I am sorry to say that most of them are drawn up in a fol- low-the-leader style, under the popular but erroneous im- pression that any substance used as an adulterant of or a substitute for a food product is necessarily injurious to health, with the consequence that these laws are, with very CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 17 few exceptions, merely dead letters.* New York and Massa- chusetts have laws nearly identical in wording and whose enforcement is entrusted to their respective Boards of Health. In the former State the law has proved a failure, because in an action brought to obtain "an injunction against the sale of certain Ping Suey teas it was hold by the court, in refus- ing to grant the same, that, although the teas in question had been clearly shown to be adulterated with gypsum, Prussian blue, sand, etc., it was likewise necessary to prove that the effect of these admixtures was such as to constitute a serious danger to public health." f In Massachusetts, how- ever, the law has been enforced with vigor by the State Board of Health, and the yearly reports show a diminution in the percentage of adulteration of the samples submitted to analysis. In this country the British " Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875," with all its imperfections, has served as a model for our legislation, and until we have a general law on the sub- ject drawn up with clear definitions of adulteration and ad- equate means for the enforcement, by the co-operation of State and National authorities, of its provisions in regard to this class of fraud, the food sophisticator will pursue the even tenor of his way undisturbed. The European Continental legislation on this subject is much superior to the English act.J Under Continental statutes every dealer is held re- sponsible for the quality of his merchandise, whether of for- eign or domestic origin, and every food material must be sold under its true name; artificial products imitating a natural product must be properly labeled in a conspicuous and legible manner; all unwholesome foods are confiscated and destroyed without compensation to the owner; and adulterations generally are considered acts of fraud. Suitable * For list of State laws on food adulteration see Report of the Commis- sioner of Internal Revenue, 1888, p. CCIX. f Battershall: Food Adulteration and its Detection, p. 8. New York, 1887. J For copies of European laws on food adulteration see Reports of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for 1888 and 1889; and for a summary of their leading features see Science, 1889, vol. 14, p. 308. 18 BULLETIN OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. police supervision and control are provided for the enforce- ment of these statutes, and although these laws are some- what of a paternal nature they are much more effective than any we have. The average American repudiates the idea of a paternal government supervision over his affairs or anything tainted with the idea. He realizes that he is a full-grown man and a sovereign, and that, therefore, he is perfectly competent to take care of himself and no cheat or swindler can ever get the better of him. He may be willing to support, even to clamor for, a legislative measure to regulate the production or sale of a food product provided it advances his particular business interests. He would, however, regard with apathy any general law that would guarantee to the public the lib- erty of purchasing pure food, with a reasonable certainty that they were not imposed upon in their purchases, if it was incumbent on him to take the necessary steps to execute its provisions by bringing samples for analysis, etc. It may be, however, that some day he will reach the con- clusion that his individual smartness, great as it may be, is not sufficient to wage successful warfare against the food sophisticator's combinations, which have made this country for years the choice dumping-ground of the frauds of Europe, Asia, and Africa. When this happens we may hope that the proper laws will be passed to suppress the fraud, and that we, the chemists of the country, will have opened to us a new field of usefulness; a field in which we ought to put forth our best efforts, with the constant aim to maintain the purity and wholesomeness of the food for suffering humanity.