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A
TREATISE
ON
ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD,
_AND CULINARY POISONS_.
EXHIBITING
The Fraudulent Sophistications of
BREAD, BEER, WINE, SPIRITOUS LIQUORS, TEA, COFFEE, CREAM, CONFECTIONERY,
VINEGAR, MUSTARD, PEPPER, CHEESE, OLIVE OIL, PICKLES,
AND OTHER ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
AND
METHODS OF DETECTING THEM.
_By Fredrick Accum_,
OPERATIVE CHEMIST, AND MEMBER OF THE PRINCIPAL ACADEMIES AND SOCIETIES
OF ARTS AND SCIENCES IN EUROPE.
Philadelphia:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY AB'M SMALL
1820.
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 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 honest man, must excite feelings of regret and
disgust. Numerous 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 eager and insatiable thirst for gain, is proof against prohibitions
and penalties; and the possible 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 convicted 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.
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 perusal.
The design of the Treatise will be fully answered, if the views here
given should induce a 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.
CONTENTS.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD _Page_ 13
EFFECT OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF WATER EMPLOYED IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY 33
_Characters of Good Water_ 37
_Chemical Constitution of the Waters used in Domestic Economy and
the Arts_ 40
_Rain Water_ 40
_Snow Water_ 41
_Spring Water_ 42
_River Water_ 44
_Substances usually contained in Common Water, and Tests by which
they are detected_ 48
_Method of ascertaining the Quantity of each of the different
Substances usually contained in Common Water_ 54
_Deleterious Effects of keeping Water for Domestic Economy, in
Leaden Reservoirs_ 60
_Method of detecting Lead, when contained in common Water_ 69
ADULTERATION OF WINE 74
_Method of detecting the Deleterious Adulterations of Wine_ 86
_Specific Differences, and Component Parts of Wine_ 89
_Easy process of ascertaining the Quantity of Brandy contained in
various sorts of Wine_ 92
_Tabular View, exhibiting the Per Centage of Brandy or Alcohol
contained in various kinds of Wine and other fermented Liquors_ 94
_Constitution of Home-made Wines_ 96
ADULTERATION OF BREAD 98
_Method of detecting the Presence of Alum in Bread_ 108
_Easy Method of judging of the Goodness of Bread-Corn and
Bread-Flour_ 110
ADULTERATION OF BEER 113
_List of Druggists and Grocers, prosecuted and convicted for
supplying illegal Ingredients to Brewers for Adulterating Beer_ 119
_Porter_ 121
_Strength and Specific Differences of different kinds of Porter_ 125
_List of Publicans prosecuted and convicted for adulterating Beer
with illegal Ingredients, and for mixing Table Beer with their
Strong Beer_ 129
_Illegal Substances used for adulterating Beer_ 131
_Ingredients seized at various Breweries and Brewers' Druggists,
for adulterating Beer_ 136
_List of Brewers prosecuted and convicted for adulterating Strong
Beer with Table Beer_ 143
_Old, or Entire Beer; and New or Mild Beer_ 144
_List of Brewers prosecuted and convicted for receiving and using
illegal Ingredients in their Brewings_ 151
_Method of detecting the Adulteration of Beer_ 158
_Method of ascertaining the Quantity of Spirit contained in Porter,
Ale, &c._ 160
_Per Centage of Alcohol contained in Porter, and other kinds of
Malt Liquors_ 162
COUNTERFEIT TEA-LEAVES 163
_Methods of detecting the Adulterations of Tea-Leaves_ 171
COUNTERFEIT COFFEE 176
ADULTERATION OF BRANDY, RUM, AND GIN 187
_Method of detecting the Adulterations of Brandy, Rum, and Malt
Spirit_ 195
_Method of detecting the Presence of Lead in Spiritous Liquors_ 202
_Method of ascertaining the Quantity of Alcohol contained in
different kinds of Spiritous Liquors_ 203
_Table exhibiting the Per Centage of Alcohol contained in various
kinds of Spiritous Liquors_ 205
POISONOUS CHEESE, _and method of detecting it_ 206
COUNTERFEIT PEPPER, _and Method of detecting it_ 211
_White Pepper, and method of manufacturing it_ 213
POISONOUS CAYENNE PEPPER, _and method of detecting it_ 215
POISONOUS PICKLES, _and method of detecting them_ 217
ADULTERATION OF VINEGAR, _and method of detecting it_ 220
_Distilled Vinegar_ 221
ADULTERATION OF CREAM, _and method of detecting it_ 222
POISONOUS CONFECTIONERY, _and method of detecting it_ 224
POISONOUS CATSUP, _and method of detecting it_ 227
POISONOUS CUSTARDS 231
POISONOUS ANCHOVY SAUCE, _and method of detecting it_ 234
ADULTERATION OF LOZENGES, _and method of detecting them_ 236
POISONOUS OLIVE OIL, _and method of detecting it_ 239
ADULTERATION OF MUSTARD 241
ADULTERATION OF LEMON ACID, _and method of detecting it_ 243
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS 246
_Mushroom catsup_ 250
POISONOUS SODA WATER, _and method of detecting it_ 251
FOOD POISONED BY COPPER VESSELS, _and method of detecting it_ 252
FOOD POISONED BY LEADEN VESSELS, _and method of detecting it_ 257
INDEX 261
A
TREATISE
ON
ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD,
AND
CULINARY POISONS.
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 pursued by men, who, from the magnitude and apparent
respectability of their concerns, would be the least obnoxious to public
suspicion; and their successful example has called forth, from among the
retail dealers, a multitude of competitors in the same iniquitous
course.
To such perfection of ingenuity has this system of adulterating food
arrived, that spurious articles of various kinds are every where to be
found, made up so skilfully as to baffle the discrimination of the most
experienced judges.
Among the number of substances used in domestic economy which are now
very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished--tea, coffee,
bread, beer, wine, spiritous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar,
mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence.
Indeed, it would be difficult to mention a single article of food which
is not to be met with in an adulterated state; and there are some
substances which are scarcely ever to be procured genuine.
Some of these spurious compounds are comparatively harmless when used
as food; and as in these cases merely substances of inferior value are
substituted for more costly and genuine ingredients, the sophistication,
though it may affect our purse, does not injure our health. Of this kind
are the manufacture of factitious pepper, the adulterations of mustard,
vinegar, cream, &c. Others, however, are highly deleterious; and to this
class belong the adulterations of beer, wines, spiritous liquors,
pickles, salad oil, and many others.
There are particular chemists who make it a regular trade to supply
drugs or nefarious preparations to the unprincipled brewer of porter or
ale; others perform the same office to the wine and spirit merchant; and
others again to the grocer and the oilman. The operators carry on their
processes chiefly in secresy, and under some delusive firm, with the
ostensible denotements of a fair and lawful establishment.
These illicit pursuits have assumed all the order and method of a
regular trade; they may severally claim to be distinguished as an _art
and mystery_; for the workmen employed in them are often wholly ignorant
of the nature of the substances which pass through their hands, and of
the purposes to which they are ultimately applied.
To elude the vigilance of the inquisitive, to defeat the scrutiny of the
revenue officer, and to ensure the secresy of these mysteries, the
processes are very ingeniously divided and subdivided among individual
operators, and the manufacture is purposely carried on in separate
establishments. The task of proportioning the ingredients for use is
assigned to one individual, while the composition and preparation of
them may be said to form a distinct part of the business, and is
entrusted to another workman. Most of the articles are transmitted to
the consumer in a disguised state, or in such a form that their real
nature cannot possibly be detected by the unwary. Thus the extract of
_coculus indicus_, employed by fraudulent manufacturers of malt-liquors
to impart an intoxicating quality to porter or ales, is known in the
market by the name of _black extract_, ostensibly destined for the use
of tanners and dyers. It is obtained by boiling the berries of the
coculus indicus in water, and converting, by a subsequent evaporation,
this decoction into a stiff black tenacious mass, possessing, in a high
degree, the narcotic and intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry
from which it is prepared. Another substance, composed of extract of
quassia and liquorice juice, used by fraudulent brewers to economise
both malt and hops, is technically called _multum_.[1]
The quantities of coculus indicus berries, as well as of black extract,
imported into this country for adulterating malt liquors, are enormous.
It forms a considerable branch of commerce in the hands of a few
brokers: yet, singular as it may seem, no inquiry appears to have been
hitherto made by the officers of the revenue respecting its application.
Many other substances employed in the adulteration of beer, ale, and
spiritous liquors, are in a similar manner intentionally disguised; and
of the persons by whom they are purchased, a great number are totally
unacquainted with their nature or composition.
An extract, said to be innocent, sold in casks, containing from half a
cwt. to five cwt. by the brewers' druggists, under the name of
_bittern_, is composed of calcined sulphate of iron (copperas), extract
of coculus indicus berries, extract of quassia, and Spanish liquorice.
It would be very easy to adduce, in support of these remarks, the
testimony of numerous individuals, by whom I have been professionally
engaged to examine certain mixtures, said to be perfectly innocent,
which are used in very extensive manufactories of the above description.
Indeed, during the long period devoted to the practice of my
profession, I have had abundant reason to be convinced that a vast
number of dealers, of the highest respectability, have vended to their
customers articles absolutely poisonous, which they themselves
considered as harmless, and which they would not have offered for sale,
had they been apprised of the spurious and pernicious nature of the
compounds, and of the purposes to which they were destined.
For instance, I have known cases in which brandy merchants were not
aware that the substance which they frequently purchase under the
delusive name of _flash_, for strengthening and clarifying spiritous
liquors, and which is held out as consisting of burnt sugar and
isinglass only, in the form of an extract, is in reality a compound of
sugar, with extract of capsicum; and that to the acrid and pungent
qualities of the capsicum is to be ascribed the heightened flavour of
brandy and rum, when coloured with the above-mentioned matter.
In other cases the ale-brewer has been supplied with ready-ground
coriander seeds, previously mixed with a portion of _nux vomica_ and
quassia, to give a bitter taste and narcotic property to the beverage.
The retail venders of mustard do not appear to be aware that mustard
seed alone cannot produce, when ground, a powder of so intense and
brilliant a colour as that of the common mustard of commerce. Nor would
the powder of real mustard, when mixed with salt and water, without the
addition of a portion of pulverised capsicum, keep for so long a time as
the mustard usually offered for sale.
Many other instances of unconscious deceptions might be mentioned, which
were practised by persons of upright and honourable minds.
It is a painful reflection, that the division of labour which has been
so instrumental in bringing the manufactures of this country to their
present flourishing state, should have also tended to conceal and
facilitate the fraudulent practices in question; and that from a
correspondent ramification of commerce into a multitude of distinct
branches, particularly in the metropolis and the large towns of the
empire, the traffic in adulterated commodities should find its way
through so many circuitous channels, as to defy the most scrutinising
endeavour to trace it to its source.
It is not less lamentable that the extensive application of chemistry to
the useful purposes of life, should have been perverted into an
auxiliary to this nefarious traffic. But, happily for the science, it
may, without difficulty, be converted into a means of detecting the
abuse; to effect which, very little chemical skill is required; and the
course to be pursued forms the object of the following pages.
The baker asserts that he does not put alum into bread; but he is well
aware that, in purchasing a certain quantity of flour, he must take a
sack of _sharp whites_ (a term given to flour contaminated with a
quantity of alum), without which it would be impossible for him to
produce light, white, and porous bread, from a half-spoiled material.
The wholesale mealman frequently purchases this spurious commodity,
(which forms a separate branch of business in the hands of certain
individuals,) in order to enable himself to sell his decayed and
half-spoiled flour.
Other individuals furnish the baker with alum mixed up with salt, under
the obscure denomination of _stuff_. There are wholesale manufacturing
chemists, whose sole business is to crystallise alum, in such a form as
will adapt this salt to the purpose of being mixed in a crystalline
state with the crystals of common salt, to disguise the character of
the compound. The mixture called _stuff_, is composed of one part of
alum, in minute crystals, and three of common salt. In many other trades
a similar mode of proceeding prevails. Potatoes are soaked in water to
augment their weight.
The practice of sophisticating the necessaries of life, being reduced to
systematic regularity, is ranked by public opinion among other
mercantile pursuits; and is not only regarded with less disgust than
formerly, but is almost generally esteemed as a justifiable way to
wealth.
It is really astonishing that the penal law is not more effectually
enforced against practices so inimical to the public welfare. The man
who robs a fellow subject of a few shillings on the high-way, is
sentenced to death; while he who distributes a slow poison to a whole
community, escapes unpunished.
It has been urged by some, that, under so vast a system of finance as
that of Great Britain, it is expedient that the revenue should be
collected in large amounts; and therefore that the severity of the law
should be relaxed in favour of all mercantile concerns in proportion to
their extent: encouragement must be given to large capitalists; and
where an extensive brewery or distillery yields an important
contribution to the revenue, no strict scrutiny need be adopted in
regard to the quality of the article from which such contribution is
raised, provided the excise do not suffer by the fraud.
But the principles of the constitution afford no sanction to this
preference, and the true interests of the country require that it should
be abolished; for a tax dependent upon deception must be at best
precarious, and must be, sooner or later, diminished by the irresistible
diffusion of knowledge. Sound policy requires that the law should be
impartially enforced in all cases; and if its penalties were extended to
abuses of which it does not now take cognisance, there is no doubt that
the revenue would be abundantly benefited.
Another species of fraud, to which I shall at present but briefly
advert, and which has increased to so alarming an extent, that it loudly
calls for the interference of government, is the adulteration of drugs
and medicines.
Nine-tenths of the most potent drugs and chemical preparations used in
pharmacy, are vended in a sophisticated state by dealers who would be
the last to be suspected. It is well known, that of the article Peruvian
bark, there is a variety of species inferior to the genuine; that too
little discrimination is exercised by the collectors of this precious
medicament; that it is carelessly assorted, and is frequently packed in
green hides; that much of it arrives in Spain in a half-decayed state,
mixed with fragments of other vegetables and various extraneous
substances; and in this state is distributed throughout Europe.
But as if this were not a sufficient deterioration, the public are often
served with a spurious compound of mahogany saw-dust and oak wood,
ground into powder mixed with a proportion of good quinquina, and sold
as genuine bark powder.
Every chemist knows that there are mills constantly at work in this
metropolis, which furnish bark powder at a much cheaper rate than the
substance can be procured for in its natural state. The price of the
best genuine bark, upon an average, is not lower than twelve shillings
the pound; but immense quantities of powder bark are supplied to the
apothecaries at three or four shillings a pound.
It is also notorious that there are manufacturers of spurious rhubarb
powder, ipecacuanha powder,[2] James's powder; and other simple and
compound medicines of great potency, who carry on their diabolical trade
on an amazingly large scale. Indeed, the quantity of medical
preparations thus sophisticated exceeds belief. Cheapness, and not
genuineness and excellence, is the grand desideratum with the
unprincipled dealers in drugs and medicines.
Those who are familiar with chemistry may easily convince themselves of
the existence of the fraud, by subjecting to a chemical examination
either spirits of hartshorn, magnesia, calcined magnesia, calomel, or
any other chemical preparation in general demand.
Spirit of hartshorn is counterfeited by mixing liquid caustic ammonia
with the distilled spirit of hartshorn, to increase the pungency of its
odour, and to enable it to bear an addition of water.
The fraud is detected by adding spirit of wine to the sophisticated
spirit; for, if no considerable coagulation ensues, the adulteration is
proved. It may also be discovered by the hartshorn spirit not producing
a brisk effervescence when mixed with muriatic or nitric acid.
Magnesia usually contains a portion of lime, originating from hard water
being used instead of soft, in the preparation of this medicine.
To ascertain the purity of magnesia, add to a portion of it a little
sulphuric acid, diluted with ten times its bulk of water. If the
magnesia be completely soluble, and the solution remains transparent, it
may be pronounced _pure_; but not otherwise. Or, dissolve a portion of
the magnesia in muriatic acid, and add a solution of sub-carbonate of
ammonia. If any lime be present, it will form a precipitate; whereas
pure magnesia will remain in solution.
Calcined magnesia is seldom met with in a pure state. It may be assayed
by the same tests as the common magnesia. It ought not to effervesce at
all, with dilute sulphuric acid; and, if the magnesia and acid be put
together into one scale of a balance, no diminution of weight should
ensue on mixing them together. Calcined magnesia, however, is very
seldom so pure as to be totally dissolved by diluted sulphuric acid;
for a small insoluble residue generally remains, consisting chiefly of
silicious earth, derived from the alkali employed in the preparation of
it. The solution in sulphuric acid, when largely diluted, ought not to
afford any precipitation by the addition of oxalate of ammonia.
The genuineness of calomel may be ascertained by boiling, for a few
minutes, one part, with 1/32 part of muriate of ammonia in ten parts of
distilled water. When carbonate of potash is added to the filtered
solution, no precipitation will ensue if the calomel be pure.
Indeed, some of the most common and cheap drugs do not escape the
adulterating hand of the unprincipled druggist. Syrup of buckthorn, for
example, instead of being prepared from the juice of buckthorn berries,
(_rhamnus catharticus_,) is made from the fruit of the blackberry
bearing alder, and the dogberry tree. A mixture of the berries of the
buckthorn and blackberry bearing alder, and of the dogberry tree, may be
seen publicly exposed for sale by some of the venders of medicinal
herbs. This abuse may be discovered by opening the berries: those of
buckthorn have almost always four seeds; of the alder, two; and of the
dogberry, only one. Buckthorn berries, bruised on white paper, stain it
of a green colour, which the others do not.
Instead of worm-seed (_artemisia santonica_,) the seeds of tansy are
frequently offered for sale, or a mixture of both.
A great many of the essential oils obtained from the more expensive
spices, are frequently so much adulterated, that it is not easy to meet
with such as are at all fit for use: nor are these adulterations easily
discoverable. The grosser abuses, indeed, may be readily detected. Thus,
if the oil be adulterated with alcohol, it will turn milky on the
addition of water; if with expressed oils, alcohol will dissolve the
volatile, and leave the other behind; if with oil of turpentine, on
dipping a piece of paper in the mixture, and drying it with a gentle
heat, the turpentine will be betrayed by its smell. The more subtile
artists, however, have contrived other methods of sophistication, which
elude all trials. And as all volatile oils agree in the general
properties of solubility in spirit of wine, and volatility in the heat
of boiling water, &c. it is plain that they may be variously mixed with
each other, or the dearer sophisticated with the cheaper, without any
possibility of discovering the abuse by any of the before-mentioned
trials. Perfumers assert that the smell and taste are the only certain
tests of which the nature of the thing will admit. For example, if a
bark should have in every respect the appearance of good cinnamon, and
should be proved indisputably to be the genuine bark of the cinnamon
tree; yet if it want the cinnamon flavour, or has it but in a low
degree, we reject it: and the case is the same with the essential oil of
cinnamon. It is only from use and habit, or comparisons with specimens
of known quality, that we can judge of the goodness, either of the drugs
themselves, or of their oils.
Most of the arrow-root, the fecula of the Maranta arudinacea, sold by
druggists, is a mixture of potatoe starch and arrow-root.
The same system of adulteration extends to articles used in various
trades and manufactures. For instance, linen tape, and various other
household commodities of that kind, instead of being manufactured of
linen thread only, are made up of linen and cotton. Colours for
painting, not only those used by artists, such as ultramarine,[3]
carmine,[4] and lake;[5] Antwerp blue,[6] chrome yellow,[7] and Indian
ink;[8] but also the coarser colours used by the common house-painter
are more or less adulterated. Thus, of the latter kind, white lead[9] is
mixed with carbonate or sulphate of barytes; vermilion[10] with red
lead.
Soap used in house-keeping is frequently adulterated with a
considerable portion of fine white clay, brought from St. Stephens, in
Cornwall. In the manufacture of printing paper, a large quantity of
plaster of Paris is added to the paper stuff, to increase the weight of
the manufactured article. The selvage of cloth is often dyed with a
permanent colour, and artfully stitched to the edge of cloth dyed with a
fugitive dye. The frauds committed in the tanning of skins, and in the
manufacture of cutlery and jewelry, exceed belief.
The object of all unprincipled modern manufacturers seems to be the
sparing of their time and labour as much as possible, and to increase
the quantity of the articles they produce, without much regard to their
quality. The ingenuity and perseverance of self-interest is proof
against prohibitions, and contrives to elude the vigilance of the most
active government.
The eager and insatiable thirst for gain, which seems to be a leading
characteristic of the times, calls into action every human faculty, and
gives an irresistible impulse to the power of invention; and where lucre
becomes the reigning principle, the possible sacrifice of even a fellow
creature's life is a secondary consideration. In reference to the
deterioration of almost all the necessaries and comforts of existence,
it may be justly observed, in a civil as well as a religious sense, that
"_in the midst of life we are in death_."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _The Times_, May 18, 1818. The King _v._ Richard Bowman. The
defendant was a brewer, living in Wapping-street, Wapping, and was
charged with having in his possession a drug called _multum_, and a
quantity of copperas.
The articles were produced by Thomas Gates, an excise officer, who had,
after a search, found them on the defendant's premises. The Court
sentenced the defendant to pay a fine of 200_l._
The King _v._ Luke Lyons. The defendant is a brewer, and was brought up
under an indictment charging him with having made use of various
deleterious drugs in his brewery, among which were capsicum, copperas,
&c. The defendant was ordered to pay the fines of 20_l._ upon the first
count, 200_l._ upon the third, and 200_l._ upon the seventh count in the
indictment.
The King _v._ Thomas Evans. The charge against this defendant was, that
he had in his possession forty-seven barrels of stale unpalatable beer.
On, the 11th of March, John Wilson, an excise officer, went to the
storehouse, and found forty-seven casks containing forty-three barrels
and a half of sour unwholesome beer. Several samples of the beer were
produced, all of them of a different colour, and filled with sediment. A
fine of 30_l._ was ordered to be paid by the defendant.
[2] Of this root, several varieties are imported. The white sort, which
has no wrinkles, and no perceptible bitterness in taste, and which,
though taken in a large dose, has scarcely any effect at all, after
being pulverised by fraudulent druggists, and mixed with a portion of
emetic tartar, is sold, at a low price, for the powder of genuine
ipecacuanha root.
[3] Genuine ultramarine should become deprived of its colour when thrown
into concentrated nitric acid.
[4] Genuine carmine should be totally soluble in liquid ammonia.
[5] Genuine madder and carmine lakes should be totally soluble by
boiling in a concentrated solution of soda or potash.
[6] Genuine Antwerp blue should not become deprived of its colour when
thrown into liquid chlorine.
[7] Genuine chrome yellow should not effervesce with nitric acid.
[8] The best Indian ink breaks, splintery, with a smooth glossy
fracture, and feels soft, and not gritty, when rubbed against the teeth.
[9] Genuine white lead should be completely soluble in nitric acid, and
the solution should remain transparent when mingled with a solution of
sulphate of soda.
[10] Genuine vermilion should become totally volatilised on being
exposed to a red heat; and it should not impart a red colour to spirit
of wine, when digested with it.
REMARKS
ON THE
Effect of different Kinds of Waters
IN THEIR APPLICATION TO
DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND THE ARTS;
AND
METHODS OF ASCERTAINING THEIR PURITY.
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 obvious, that the health and comfort of families, and
the conveniences of domestic life, are materially affected by the supply
of good and wholesome water. Hence a knowledge of the quality and
salubrity of the different kinds of waters employed in the common
concerns of life, on account of the abundant daily use we make of them
in the preparation of food, is unquestionably an object of considerable
importance, and demands our attention.
The effects produced by the foreign matters which water may contain, are
more considerable, and of greater importance, than might at first be
imagined. It cannot be denied, that such waters as are _hard_, or loaded
with earthy matter, have a decided effect upon some important functions
of the human body. They increase the distressing symptoms under which
those persons labour who are afflicted with what is commonly called
gravel complaints; and many other ailments might be named, that are
always aggravated by the use of waters abounding in saline and earthy
substances.
The purity of the waters employed in some of the arts and manufactures,
is an object of not less consequence. In the process of brewing malt
liquors, soft water is preferable to hard. Every brewer knows that the
largest possible quantity of the extractive matter of the malt is
obtained in the least possible time, and at the smallest cost, by means
of soft water.
In the art of the dyer, hard water not only opposes the solution of
several dye stuffs, but it also alters the natural tints of some
delicate colours; whilst in others again it precipitates the earthy and
saline matters with which it is impregnated, into the delicate fibres of
the stuff, and thus impedes the softness and brilliancy of the dye.
The bleacher cannot use with advantage waters impregnated with earthy
salts; and a minute portion of iron imparts to the cloth a yellowish
hue.
To the manufacturer of painters' colours, water as pure as possible is
absolutely essential for the successful preparation of several delicate
pigments. Carmine, madder lake, ultramarine, and Indian yellow, cannot
be prepared without perfectly pure water.
For the steeping or raiting of flax, soft water is absolutely necessary;
in hard water the flax may be immersed for months, till its texture be
injured, and still the ligneous matter will not be decomposed, and the
fibres properly separated.
In the culinary art, the effects of water more or less pure are
likewise obvious. Good and pure water softens the fibres of animal and
vegetable matters more readily than such as is called _hard_. Every cook
knows that dry or ripe pease, and other farinaceous seeds, cannot
_readily_ be boiled soft in hard water; because the farina of the seed
is not perfectly soluble in water loaded with earthy salts.
Green esculent vegetable substances are more tender when boiled in soft
water than in hard water; although hard water imparts to them a better
colour. The effects of hard and soft water may be easily shown in the
following manner.
EXPERIMENT.
Let two separate portions of tea-leaves be macerated, by precisely the
same processes, in circumstances all alike, in similar and separate
vessels, the one containing hard and the other soft water, either hot or
cold, the infusion made with the soft water will have by far the
strongest taste, although it possesses less colour than the infusion
made with the hard water. It will strike a more intense black with a
solution of sulphate of iron, and afford a more abundant precipitate,
with a solution of animal jelly, which at once shews that soft water has
extracted more tanning matter, and more gallic acid, from the
tea-leaves, than could be obtained from them under like circumstances by
means of hard water.
Many animals which are accustomed to drink soft water, refuse hard
water. Horses in particular prefer the former. Pigeons refuse hard water
when they have been accustomed to soft water.
CHARACTERS OF GOOD WATER.
A good criterion of the purity of water fit for domestic purposes, is
its softness. This quality is at once obvious by the touch, if we only
wash our hands in it with soap. Good water should be beautifully
transparent; a slight opacity indicates extraneous matter. To judge of
the perfect transparency of water, a quantity of it should be put into a
deep glass vessel, the larger the better, so that we can look down
perpendicularly into a considerable mass of the fluid; we may then
readily discover the slightest degree of muddiness much better than if
the water be viewed through the glass placed between the eye and the
light. It should be perfectly colourless, devoid of odour, and its
taste soft and agreeable. It should send out air-bubbles when poured
from one vessel into another; it should boil pulse soft, and form with
soap an uniform opaline fluid, which does not separate after standing
for several hours.
It is to the presence of common air and carbonic acid gas that common
water owes its taste, and many of the good effects which it produces on
animals and vegetables. Spring water, which contains more air, has a
more lively taste than river water.
Hence the insipid or vapid taste of newly boiled water, from which these
gases are expelled: fish cannot live in water deprived of those elastic
fluids.
100 cubic inches of the New River water, with which part of this
metropolis is supplied, contains 2,25 of carbonic acid, and 1,25 of
common air. The water of the river Thames contains rather a larger
quantity of common air, and a smaller portion of carbonic acid.
If water not fully saturated with common air be agitated with this
elastic fluid, a portion of the air is absorbed; but the two chief
constituent gases of the atmosphere, the oxygen and nitrogen, are not
equally affected, the former being absorbed in preference to the latter.
According to Mr. Dalton, in agitating water with atmospheric air,
consisting of 79 of nitrogen, and 21 of oxygen, the water absorbs 1/64
of 79/100 nitrogen gas = 1,234, and 1/27 of 21/100 oxygen gas = 778,
amounting in all to 2,012.
Water is freed from foreign matter by distillation: and for any chemical
process in which accuracy is requisite, distilled water must be used.
Hard waters may, in general, be cured in part, by dropping into them a
solution of sub-carbonate of potash; or, if the hardness be owing only
to the presence of super-carbonate of lime, mere boiling will greatly
remedy the defect; part of the carbonic acid flies off, and a neutral
carbonate of lime falls down to the bottom; it may then be used for
washing, scarcely curdling soap. But if the hardness be owing in part to
sulphate of lime, boiling does not soften it at all.
When spring water is used for washing, it is advantageous to leave it
for some time exposed to the open air in a reservoir with a large
surface. Part of the carbonic acid becomes thus dissipated, and part of
the carbonate of lime falls to the bottom. Mr. Dalton[11] has observed
that the more any spring is drawn from, the softer the water becomes.
CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE WATERS USED IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND THE
ARTS.
_Rain Water_,
Collected with every precaution as it descends from the clouds, and at a
distance from large towns, or any other object capable of impregnating
the atmosphere with foreign matters, approaches more nearly to a state
of purity than perhaps any other natural water. Even collected under
these circumstances, however, it invariably contains a portion of common
air and carbonic acid gas. The specific gravity of rain water scarcely
differs from that of distilled water; and from the minute portions of
the foreign ingredients which it generally contains, it is very _soft_,
and admirably adapted for many culinary purposes, and various processes
in different manufactures and the arts.
Fresh-fallen _snow_, melted without the contact of air, appears to be
nearly free from air. Gay-Lussac and Humboldt, however, affirm, that it
contains nearly the usual proportion of air.
Water from melted _ice_ does not contain so much air. _Dew_ has been
supposed to be saturated with air.
Snow water has long laid under the imputation of occasioning those
strumous swellings in the neck which deform the inhabitants of many of
the Alpine vallies; but this opinion is not supported by any
well-authenticated indisputable facts, and is rendered still more
improbable, if not entirely overturned, by the frequency of the disease
in Sumatra[12], where ice and snow are never seen.
In high northern latitudes, thawed snow forms the constant drink of the
inhabitants during winter; and the vast masses of ice which float on the
polar seas, afford an abundant supply of fresh water to the mariner.
_Spring Water_,
Includes well-water and all others that arise from some depth below the
surface of the earth, and which are used at the fountain-head, or at
least before they have run any considerable distance exposed to the air.
Indeed, springs may be considered as rain water which has passed through
the fissures of the earth, and, having accumulated at the bottom of
declivities, rises again to the surface forming springs and wells. As
wells take their origin at some depth from the surface, and below the
influence of the external atmosphere, their temperature is in general
pretty uniform during every vicissitude of season, and always several
degrees lower than the atmosphere. They differ from one another
according to the nature of the strata through which they issue; for
though the ingredients usually existing in them are in such minute
quantities as to impart to the water no striking properties, and do not
render it unfit for common purposes, yet they modify its nature very
considerably. Hence the water of some springs is said to be _hard_, of
others _soft_, some _sweet_, others _brackish_, according to the nature
and degree of the inpregnating ingredients.
Common springs are insensibly changed into mineral or medicinal springs,
as their foreign contents become larger or more unusual; or, in some
instances, they derive medicinal celebrity from the absence of those
ingredients usually occurring in spring-water; as, for example, is the
case with the Malvern spring, which is nearly pure water.
Almost all spring-waters possess the property termed _hardness_ in a
greater or less degree; a property which depends chiefly upon the
presence of super-carbonate, or of sulphate of lime, or of both; and the
quantity of these earthy salts varies very considerably in different
instances. Mr. Dalton[13] has shewn that one grain of sulphate of lime,
contained in 2000 grains of water, converts it into the hardest spring
water that is commonly met with.
The waters of deep wells are usually much harder than those of springs
which overflow the mouth of the well; but there are some exceptions to
this rule.
The purest springs are those which occur in primitive rocks, or beds of
gravel, or filter through sand or silicious strata. In general, large
springs are purer than small ones: and our old wells contain finer water
than those that are new, as the soluble parts through which the water
filters in channels under ground become gradually washed away.
_River Water_,
Is a term applied to every running stream or rivulet exposed to the air,
and always flowing in an open channel. It is formed of spring water,
which, by exposure, becomes more pure, and of running land or surface
water, which, although turbid from particles of the alluvial soil
suspended in it, is otherwise very pure. It is purest when it runs over
a gravelly or rocky bed, and when its course is swift. It is generally
soft, and more free from earthy salts than spring water; but it usually
contains less common air and carbonic acid gas; for, by the agitation of
a long current, and exposed to the temperature of the atmosphere, part
of its carbonic acid gas is disengaged, and the lime held in solution by
it is in part precipitated, the loss of which contributes to the
softness of the water. Its specific gravity thereby becomes less, the
taste not so harsh, but less fresh and agreeable; and out of a hard
spring is often made a stream of sufficient purity for most of the
purposes where a soft water is required.
The water called in this metropolis _New River Water_, contains a minute
portion of muriate of lime, carbonate of lime, and muriate of soda.
Some streams, however, that arise from clean silicious beds, and flow in
a sandy or stony channel, are from the outset remarkably pure; such as
the mountain lakes and rivulets in the rocky districts of Wales, the
source of the beautiful waters of the Dee, and numberless other rivers
that flow through the hollow of every valley. Switzerland has long been
celebrated for the purity and excellence of its waters, which pour in
copious streams from the mountains, and give rise to the finest rivers
in Europe.
Some rivers, however, that do not take their rise from a rocky soil, and
are indeed at first considerably charged with foreign matter, during a
long course, even over a richly cultivated plain, become remarkably pure
as to saline contents; but often fouled with mud containing much animal
and vegetable matter, which are rather suspended than held in true
solution. Such is the water of the river Thames, which, taken up at
London at low water mark, is very soft and good; and, after rest, it
contains but a very small portion of any thing that could prove
pernicious, or impede any manufacture. It is also excellently fitted for
sea-store; but it then undergoes a remarkable spontaneous change, when
preserved in wooden casks. No water carried to sea becomes putrid sooner
than that of the Thames. But the mode now adopted in the navy of
substituting iron tanks for wooden casks, tends greatly to obviate this
disadvantage.
Whoever will consider the situation of the Thames, and the immense
population along its banks for so many miles, must at once perceive the
prodigious accumulation of animal matters of all kinds, which by means
of the common sewers constantly make their way into it. These matters
are, no doubt, in part the cause of the putrefaction which it is well
known to undergo at sea, and of the carburetted and sulphuretted
hydrogen gases which are evolved from it. When a wooden cask is opened,
after being kept a month or two, a quantity of carburetted and
sulphuretted hydrogen escapes, and the water is so black and offensive
as scarcely to be borne. Upon racking it off, however, into large
earthen vessels, and exposing it to the air, it gradually deposits a
quantity of black slimy mud, becomes clear as crystal, and remarkably
sweet and palatable.
It might, at first sight, be expected that the water of the Thames,
after having received all the contents of the sewers, drains, and water
courses, of a large town, should acquire thereby such impregnation with
foreign matters, as to become very impure; but it appears, from the most
accurate experiments that have been made, that those kinds of impurities
have no perceptible influence on the salubrious quality of a mass of
water so immense, and constantly kept in motion by the action of the
tides.
Some traces of animal matter may, however, be detected in the water of
the Thames; for if nitrate of lead be dropped into it,[14] "you will
find that it becomes milky, and that a white powder falls to the bottom,
which dissolves without effervescence in nitric acid. It is, therefore,
(says Dr. Thomson) a combination of oxide of lead with some animal
matter."
SUBSTANCES USUALLY CONTAINED IN COMMON WATER, AND TESTS BY WHICH THEY
ARE DETECTED.
To acquire a knowledge of the general nature of common water, it is only
necessary to add to it a few chemical tests, which will quickly indicate
the presence or absence of the substances that may be expected.
Almost the only salts contained in common waters are the carbonates,
sulphates, and muriates of soda, lime, and magnesia; and sometimes a
very minute portion of iron may also be detected in them.
EXPERIMENT.
Fill a wine-glass with distilled water, and add to it a few drops of a
solution of soap in alcohol, the water will remain transparent.
This test is employed for ascertaining the presence of earthy salts in
waters. Hence it produces no change when mingled with distilled or
perfectly pure water; but when added to water containing earthy salts, a
white flocculent matter becomes separated, which speedily collects on
the surface of the fluid. Now, from the quantity of flocculent matter
produced, in equal quantities of water submitted to the test, a
tolerable notion may be formed of the degrees of hardness of different
kinds of water, at least so far as regards the fitness of the water for
the ordinary purposes of domestic economy. This may be rendered obvious
in the following manner.
EXPERIMENT.
Fill a number of wine-glasses with different kinds of pump or well
water, and let fall into each glass a few drops of the solution of soap
in alcohol. A turbidness will instantly ensue, and a flocculent matter
collect on the surface of the fluid, if the mixture be left undisturbed.
The quantity of flocculent matter will be in the ratio of the quantity
of earthy salts contained in the water.