little surprised to observe, accidentally, that when thrown into a coal
fire, they suffered but little change. If one of the lozenges was laid
on a shovel, previously made red-hot, it speedily took fire; but,
instead of burning with a blaze and becoming converted into a charcoal,
it took fire, and burnt with a feeble flame for scarcely half a minute,
and there remained behind a stony hard substance, retaining the form of
the lozenge. This unexpected result led me to examine these lozenges,
which were bought at a respectable chemist's shop in the city; and I
soon became convinced, that, in the preparation of them, a considerable
quantity of common pipe-clay had been substituted for sugar. On making a
complaint about this fraud at the shop where the article was sold, I was
informed that there were two kinds of ginger lozenges kept for sale, the
one at three-pence the ounce, and the other at six-pence per ounce; and
that the article furnished to me by mistake was the cheaper commodity:
the latter were distinguished by the epithet _verum_, they being
composed of sugar and ginger only; but the former were manufactured
partly of white Cornish clay, with a portion of sugar only, with ginger
and Guinea pepper. I was likewise informed, that of Tolu lozenges,
peppermint lozenges and ginger pearls, and several other sorts of
lozenges, two kinds were kept; that the _reduced_ articles, as they were
called, were manufactured for those very clever persons in their own
conceit, who are fond of haggling, and insist on buying better bargains
than other people, shutting their eyes to the defects of an article, so
that they can enjoy the delight of getting it cheap; and, secondly for
those persons, who being but bad paymasters, yet, as the manufacturer,
for his own credit's sake, cannot charge more than the usual price of
the articles, he thinks himself therefore authorised to adulterate it in
value, to make up for the risk he runs, and the long credit he must
give."
The comfits called ginger pearls, are frequently adulterated with clay.
These frauds may be detected in the manner stated, page 225.
FOOTNOTES:
[113] Literary Gazette, No. 146.
_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 oil freezes, while
that of the poppy seeds remains fluid; and as oils which freeze with
most difficulty are most apt to become rancid, olive oil is deteriorated
by the mixture of poppy oil.
Good olive oil should have a pale yellow colour, somewhat inclining to
green; a bland taste, without smell; and should congeal at 38°
Fahrenheit. In this country, it is frequently met with rancid.
The presence of lead is detected by shaking, in a stopped vial, one part
of the suspected oil, with two or three parts of water impregnated with
sulphuretted hydrogen. This agent will render the oil of a dark brown or
black colour, if any metal, deleterious to health, be present. The
practice of keeping this oil in pewter or leaden cisterns, as is often
the case, is objectionable; because the oil acts upon the metal. The
dealers in this commodity assert, that it prevents the oil from becoming
rancid: and hence some retailers often suffer a pewter measure to remain
immersed in the oil.
_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 mustard
by means of turmeric. We doubt the truth of this assertion. The presence
of the minutest quantity of turmeric may instantly be detected, by
adding to the mustard a few drops of a solution of potash, or any other
alkali, which changes the bright yellow colour, to a brown or deep
orange tint.
Two ounces and a half of Cayenne pepper, 1-1/2 lbs. of bay salt, 8 lbs.
of mustard flour, and 1-1/2 lbs. of wheaten flour, made into a stiff
paste, with the requisite quantity of water, in which the bay-salt is
previously dissolved, forms the so-called _genuine Durham mustard_, sold
in pots. The salt and Cayenne pepper contribute materially to the
keeping of ready-made mustard.
There is therefore nothing deleterious in the usual practice of
adulterating this commodity of the table. The fraud only tends to
deteriorate the quality and flavour of the genuine article itself.
_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 ship in tropical climates. It has been exposed to frost, and part of
the water removed under the form of ice; but this is liable to all the
former objections; and, besides, where lemons are produced in sufficient
quantity, there is not a sufficient degree of cold. The addition of a
portion of spirit to the inspissated juice, separates the mucilage, but
not the extractive matter and the sugar. By means, however, of
separating the foreign matters associated with it, in the juice, by
chemical processes unnecessary to be detailed here, citric acid is now
manufactured, perfectly pure, and in a crystallised form, and is sold
under the name of concrete lemon acid. In this state it is extremely
convenient, both for domestic and medicinal purposes. One drachm, when
dissolved in one ounce of water, is equal in strength to a like bulk of
fresh lemon juice. To communicate the lemon flavour, it is only
necessary to rub a lump of sugar on the rind of a lemon to become
impregnated with a portion of the essential oil of the fruit, and to add
the sugar to the lemonade, negus, punch, shrub, jellies or culinary
sauces, prepared with the pure citric acid.
Fraudulent dealers often substitute the cheaper tartareous acid, for
citric acid. The negus and lemonade made by the pastry-cooks, and the
liquor called punch, sold at taverns in this metropolis, is usually made
with tartareous acid.
To discriminate citric acid from tartareous acid, it is only necessary
to add a concentrated solution of the suspected acid, to a concentrated
solution of muriate of potash, taking care that the solution of the acid
is in excess. If a precipitate ensues, the fraud is obvious, because
citric acid does not produce a precipitate with a solution of muriate
or potash.
Or, by adding to a saturated solution of tartrate of potash, a saturated
solution of the suspected acid, in excess, which produces with it an
almost insoluble precipitate in minute granular crystals. Pure citric
acid produces no such effect when added in excess to tartrate of
potash.
_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 poison,"[116] it is highly necessary
that the mild eatable mushrooms, should be gathered by persons skilful
enough to distinguish the good from the false, or poisonous, which is
not always the case; nor are the characters which distinguish them
strongly marked.
The following statement is published by Mr. Glen, surgeon, of
Knightsbridge:
"A poor man, residing in Knightsbridge, took a walk in Hyde Park, with
the intention of gathering some mushrooms. He collected a considerable
number, and, after stewing them, began to eat them. He had finished the
whole, with the exception of about six or eight, when, about eight or
ten minutes from the commencement of his meal, he was suddenly seized
with a dimness, or mist before his eyes, a giddiness of the head, with a
general trembling and sudden loss of power;--so much so, that he nearly
fell off the chair; to this succeeded loss of recollection: he forgot
where he was, and all the circumstances of his case. This deprivation
soon went off, and he so far rallied as to be able, though with
difficulty, to get up, with the intention of going to Mr. Glen for
assistance--a distance of about five hundred yards: he had not proceeded
more than half way, when his memory again failed him; he lost his road,
although previously well acquainted with it. He was met by a friend, who
with difficulty learned his state, and conducted him to Mr. Glen's
house. His countenance betrayed great anxiety: he reeled about, like a
drunken man, and was greatly inclined to sleep; his pulse was low and
feeble. Mr. Glen immediately gave him an emetic draught. The poison had
so diminished the sensibility of the stomach, that vomiting did not take
place for near twenty minutes, although another draught had been
exhibited. During this interval his drowsiness increased to such a
degree, that he was only kept awake by obliging him to walk round the
room with assistance; he also, at this time, complained of distressing
pains in the calves of his legs.--Full vomiting was at length produced.
After the operation of the emetic, he expressed himself generally
better, but still continued drowsy. In the evening Mr. Glen found him
doing well."
The following case is recorded in the Medical Transactions, vol. ii.
"A middle-aged man having gathered what he called champignons, they were
stewed, and eaten by himself and his wife; their child also, about four
years old, ate a little of them, and the sippets of bread which were put
into the liquor. Within five minutes after eating them, the man began to
stare in an unusual manner, and was unable to shut his eyes. All
objects appeared to him coloured with a variety of colours. He felt a
palpitation in what he called his stomach; and was so giddy, that he
could hardly stand. He seemed to himself swelled all over his body. He
hardly knew what he did or said; and sometimes was unable to speak at
all. These symptoms continued in a greater or less degree for
twenty-four hours; after which, he felt little or no disorder. Soon
after he perceived himself ill, one scruple of white vitriol was given
him, and repeated two or three times, with which he vomited plentifully.
"The woman, aged thirty-nine, felt all the same symptoms, but in a
higher degree. She totally lost her voice and her senses, and was either
stupid, or so furious that it was necessary she should be held. The
white vitriol was offered to her, of which she was capable of taking but
very little; however, after four or five hours, she was much recovered:
but she continued many days far from being well, and from enjoying her
former health and strength. She frequently fainted for the first week
after; and there was, during a month longer, an uneasy sense of heat and
weight in her breast, stomach, and bowels, with great flatulence. Her
head was, at first waking, much confused; and she often experienced
palpitations, tremblings, and other hysteric affections, to all which
she had ever before been a stranger.
"The child had some convulsive agitations of his arms, but was otherwise
little affected. He was capable of taking half a scruple of ipecacuanha,
with which he vomited, and was soon perfectly recovered."
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
The edible mushroom is the basis of the sauce called mushroom catsup; a
great proportion of which is prepared by gardeners who grow the fungi.
The mushrooms employed for preparing this sauce are generally those
which are in a putrefactive state, and not having found a ready sale in
the market; for no vegetable substance is liable to so rapid a
spontaneous decomposition as mushrooms. In a few days after the fungus
has been removed from the dung-bed on which it grows, it becomes the
habitation of myriads of insects; and, if even the saleable mushroom be
attentively examined, it will frequently be found to swarm with life.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] Fungi plerique veneno turgent. Linn. Amæn. Acad.
[115] Quæ voluptas tanta ancipitis cibi?--Plin. Nat. Hist. xxii. 23.
[116] Sen. Ep. 95.
_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
water.--See p. 70.
FOOTNOTES:
[117] Some manufacturers have been hence induced to construct the
apparatus for manufacturing soda water wholly either of earthenware or
of glass. Mr. Johnston, of Greek Street, Soho, was the first who pointed
out to the public the absolute necessity of this precaution.
_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 not well cleaned from the oxide of copper which they had
contracted by being exposed to the action of air and moisture.
The inexcusable negligence of persons who make use of copper vessels has
been productive of mortality, so much more terrible, as they have
exerted their action on a great number of persons at once. The annals of
medicine furnish too many examples in support of this assertion, to
render it necessary to insist more upon it here.
Mr. Thiery, who wrote a thesis on the noxious quality of copper,
observes, that "our food receives its quantity of poison in the kitchen
by the use of copper pans and dishes. The brewer mingles poison in our
beer, by boiling it in copper vessels. The sugar-baker employs copper
pans; the pastry-cook bakes our tarts in copper moulds; the confectioner
uses copper vessels: the oilman boils his pickles in copper or brass
vessels, and verdigris is plentifully formed by the action of the
vinegar upon the metal.
"Though, after all, a single dose be not mortal, yet a quantity of
poison, however small, when taken at every meal, must produce more fatal
effects than are generally apprehended; and different constitutions are
differently affected by minute quantities of substances that act
powerfully on the system."
The author of a tract, entitled, "Serious Reflections on the Dangers
attending the Use of Copper Vessels," asserts that a numerous and
frightful train of diseases is occasioned by the poisonous effects of
pernicious matter received into the stomach insensibly with our
victuals.
Dr. Johnston[118] gives an account of the melancholy catastrophe of
three men being poisoned, after excruciating sufferings, in consequence
of eating food cooked in an unclean copper vessel, on board the Cyclops
frigate; and, besides these, thirty-three men became ill from the same
cause.
The following case[119] is related by Sir George Baker, M. D.
"Some cyder, which had been made in a gentleman's family, being thought
too sour, was boiled with honey in a brewing vessel, the rim of which
was capped with lead. All who drank this liquor were seized with a bowel
colic, more or less violently. One of the servants died very soon in
convulsions; several others were cruelly tortured a long time. The
master of the family, in particular, notwithstanding all the assistance
which art could give him, never recovered his health; but died
miserably, after having almost three years languished under a most
tedious and incurable malady."
Too much care and attention cannot be taken in preserving all culinary
utensils of copper, in a state unexceptionably fit for their destined
purpose. They should be frequently tinned, and kept thoroughly clean,
nor should any food ever be suffered to remain in them for a longer time
than is absolutely necessary to their preparation for the table. But the
sure preventive of its pernicious effect, is, to banish copper utensils
from the kitchen altogether.
The following wholesome advice on this subject is given to cooks by the
author of an excellent cookery book.[120]
"Stew-pans and soup-kettles should be examined every time they are used;
these, and their covers, must be kept perfectly clean and well tinned,
not only on the inside, but about a couple of inches on the outside; so
much mischief arises from their getting out of repair; and, if not kept
nicely tinned, all your work will be in vain; the broths and soups will
look green and dirty, and taste bitter and poisonous, and will be
spoiled both for the eye and palate, and your credit will be lost; and
as the health, and even the life, of the family depends upon this; the
cook may be sure her employer had rather pay the tin-man's bill than
the doctor's."
The senate of Sweden, in the year 1753, prohibited copper vessels, and
ordered that none but such as were made of iron should be used in their
fleet and armies.
FOOTNOTES:
[118] Johnston's Essay on Poison, p. 102.
[119] Medical Transactions, vol. i. p. 213.
[120] Apicius Redivivus, p. 91.
_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 some parts of this country of keeping
milk in leaden vessels for the use of the dairy, is very improper.
"In Lancashire[121] the dairies are furnished with milk-pans made of
lead: and when Mr. Parks expostulated with some individuals on the
danger of this practice, he was told that _leaden_ milk-pans throw up
the cream much better than vessels of any other kind.
"In some parts of the north of England it is customary for the
inn-keepers to prepare mint-salad by bruising and grinding the vegetable
in a large wooden bowl with a _ball of lead_ of twelve or fourteen
pounds weight. In this operation the mint is cut, and portions of the
lead are ground off at every revolution of the ponderous instrument. In
the same county, it is a common practice to have brewing-coppers
constructed with the bottom of copper and the whole sides of lead."
The baking of fruit tarts in cream-coloured earthenware, and the salting
and preserving of meat in leaden pans, are no less objectionable. All
kinds of food which contain free vegetable acids, or saline
preparations, attack utensils covered with a glaze, in the composition
of which lead enters as a component part. The leaden beds of presses for
squeezing the fruit in cyder countries, have produced incalculable
mischief. These consequences never follow, when the lead is combined
with tin; because this metal, being more eager for oxidation, prevents
the solution of the lead.
When we consider the various unsuspected means by which the poisons of
lead and copper gain admittance into the human body, a very common but
dangerous instance presents itself: namely, the practice of painting
toys, made for the amusement of children, with poisonous substances,
viz. red lead, verdigris, &c. Children are apt to put every thing,
especially what gives them pleasure, into their mouths; the painting of
toys with colouring substances that are poisonous, ought therefore to be
abolished; a practice which lies the more open to censure, as it is of
no real utility.
FOOTNOTES:
[121] Park's Chemical Essays, vol. v. p. 193.
INDEX.
A
Adulteration of anchovy sauce, 234
beer, 113
brandy, 187
bread, 98
catsup, 227
cayenne pepper, 215
cheese, 206
coffee, 176
confectionery, 224
cream, 222
custard, 231
gin, 187
lemon acid, 243
lozenges, 236
malt spirits, 197
mustard, 241
olive oil, 239
pepper, 211
pickles, 217
porter, 113
rum, 187
soda water, 251
tea, black, 173
green, 173
vinegar, 173
distilled, 221
wine, 74
Age of beer, how fraudulently imitated, 148
Alcohol, quantity contained in different kinds of wine, 94
malt liquors, 126
spiritous liquors, 205
Ale, Burton, quantity of spirit which it contains, 162
Dorchester, ditto ditto, 162
Edinburgh, ditto ditto, 162
Home-brewed ditto ditto, 162
Alum, bleaching property in the panification of bread flour, 104
method of detecting it in bread, 108
for brightening muddy wines, 74
clarifying spiritous liquors, 200
adulterating beer, 134
Arrack, imitation of, 196
Batavia, quantity of alcohol contained in it, 205
Arrow root, sophistication of, 29
B
Bakers, their methods of judging of the goodness of bread flour, 111
Beer, adulteration of, 113
act prohibiting it, 114
method of detecting it, 158
with narcotic substances, 150
with opium, tobacco, &c., 150
colouring of, act prohibiting it, 123
heading, composition and use of, 134
hard, what is meant by it, 148
fraudulent method of producing it, 148
half-spoiled, fraudulent practice of recovering it, 149
illegal substances used for adulterating it, 131
old, what is meant by it, 144
quantity of spirit contained in different kinds, 160
strong, adulteration of with small beer, 140
act prohibiting it, 140
how defined by law, 128
strength of different kinds, 125
Bilberries, employed for colouring port wine, 74
Bittern, for adulterating beer, 18
Black Extract, for adulterating beer, 150
Bland, Mr. tragical catastrophe of, 81
Bouquet of high-flavoured wines, how produced, 75
Brandy, adulteration of, 187
and method of detecting it, 195
complexion of, what is meant by it, 195
Brandy flavour of, how imitated, 193
imitative, manufacture of, 194
method of compounding for retail trade, 195
quantity contained in different sorts of wine, 94
of alcohol contained in different kinds of, 205
legal strength, 190
how discovered by the Excise, 188
false strength, 195
flavour, imitative, how produced, 193
Brazil wood, application of for colouring wine, 74
Bread, adulteration of with alum, 98
methods of detecting it, 108
with potatoes, 105
goodness of, how estimated in this metropolis, 98
how rendered white and firm, 99
corn, method of judging its goodness, 110
flour, different sorts of from the same kind of grain, 99
adulteration of with bean flour, 99
process of making five bushels into bread, 102
made from new corn, improvement of, 107
method of judging of goodness, 110
Brewers, list of, prosecuted for using illegal substances in their
brewings, 151
convicted of adulterating their strong beer with table beer, 143
Druggists, 119
prosecuted for supplying illegal ingredients to brewers for
adulterating beer, 119
Breweries, illegal substances seized at various, 136
Brown Stout, quantity of spirit contained in it, 126
C
Calcavella, quantity of brandy which it contains, 95
Carbonate of ammonia, used by fraudulent bakers, 105
Catsup, adulteration of, 227
Claret, quantity of brandy which it contains, 95
Clary, used for flavouring wine, 75
Cheese, poisonous, and method of detecting it, 206
Chemists, are not permitted to sell illegal ingredients to brewers for
adulterating beer, 118
list of, convicted of this fraud, 119
Cherry-laurel water, dangerous application of for flavouring creams,
&c., 231
used in the manufacture of spurious wines, 75
in the manufacture of brandy, 195
Citric Acid, adulteration of, 244
method of detecting, 245
Cocculus indicus, nefarious application of in the brewing of beer, 18
early law prohibiting its application, 115
brewers prosecuted for using it, 152
seizures made of at different breweries, 136
narcotic property of, to what owing, 153
extract of, application in brewing, 136
Coffee, adulteration of, 176
law in force against it, 177
grocers lately convicted of selling spurious, 176
Confectionery, adulteration of, 224
methods of detecting it, 225
Conserves, contamination of with copper, 226
should never be deposited in vessels glazed with lead, 257
Constantia, quantity of spirit which it contains, 94
Copperas, or salt of steel, publicans convicted of mixing it with their
beer, 129
seizures of, at various breweries, 136