ADULTERATIONS.

Bread.

Bread and butter and the Bible are synonymous with civilization and Christianity. Bread and the Bible, civilization and Christianity, have kept step together since the history of each began.

Two shipwrecked sailors, floating on a spar, after long privation and suffering, were thrown upon an unknown land. After looking about very shyly,—for every thing looked wild and uncivilized,—they came suddenly upon a hut. Jack was afraid to advance, but his hungry companion cautiously approached, and finally entered the hut. In a moment he came rushing out, exclaiming,—

“Come on, Jack. It’s all right. Nobody at home; but it’s civilized land we’re grounded on. I found a loaf of bread.”

This was conclusive evidence, next to finding a Bible, that it was a civilized country; and Jack waited for no further proof, but followed Captain Duncan into the cabin, where the two soon appeased their hunger.

Wheaten bread was never an article of diet amongst savages. “Take away wheat bread and butter from our families for a few generations, and who is prepared to say that civilization would not glide easily to a state of barbarism? There is sound philosophy in this suggestion, because there is no other kind of human food that is so admirably adapted to the development of the human frame, including a noble brain, as good wheat bread.” It contains phosphates in just sufficient quantities to keep up a healthful supply for brain work. Fish contains more phosphorus; but are fish-eating Esquimaux,[10] or coast-men, the more intellectual for having made fish their principal diet?

In five hundred pounds of wheat, there are,—

Muscle material,		78	pounds.
Bone (and teeth) material,		85	"
Fat principle,		12	"

Ground to a fine flour:—

Muscle material,		65	pounds.
Bone material,		30	"
Fat principle,		10	"

Cereal food will keep off hunger longer than animal food. By experience I have found that buckwheat will satisfy the cravings of hunger longer than wheat, rye, or corn. Dr. R. B. Welton, of Boston, says,—

“A lady of culture, refinement, and unusual powers of observation and comparison, became a widow. Reduced from affluence to poverty, with a large family of small children dependent on her manual labor for daily food, she made a variety of experiments to ascertain what articles could be purchased for the least money, and would, at the same time, “go the farthest,” by keeping her children longest from crying for something to eat. She soon discovered that when they ate buckwheat cakes and molasses, they were quiet for a longer time than after eating any other kind of food.

SIGNS OF CIVILIZATION.“A distinguished judge of the United States District Court observed that when he took buckwheat cakes for breakfast, he could sit on the bench the whole day without being uncomfortably hungry. If the cakes were omitted, he felt obliged to take a lunch about noon. Buckwheat cakes are a universal favorite at the winter breakfast table, and scientific investigation and analysis have shown that they abound in the heat-forming principle; hence nature takes away our appetite for them in summer.”

Another writer says,—

“We find the lowest order of intelligences standing on a potato. Only one step above this class, another order is found on a hoe-cake. One degree above this we meet with the class that has risen in the scale of being as high as it is possible for mortals to rise on a pancake. Head and shoulders above all of these classes we find the highest order of intelligences, with large and well-developed brains, and noble characters, standing securely on their wheaten loaf.”

Since bread, then, is the “staff of life,” the sin of its adulteration is the greatest of all wrongs to the human family.

Flour is often adulterated with plaster, white earth, alum, magnesia, etc.

To detect plaster, burn some of the bread to ashes, and the white grains will be discovered.

Alum is a very pernicious ingredient of adulteration, intended to make the bread white and light. It is often mixed in inferior flour. It is detected thus: Soak the loaf till soft in water, adding sufficient warm water to make it thin; stir it well, and set it a few hours; then strain it and boil it, to evaporate most of the water. After it stands a while, and cools, the crystals of alum will be precipitated. You may then tell it by taste.

Magnesia, so often mixed with inferior flour, to make the bread appear light, is injurious to children and invalids. You may detect it by burning the bread, and finding the magnesia in the ashes.

Soda, or potash. Much soda produces dyspepsia, sour stomach, and burning. To find potash, or soda, break up the bread, and pour upon it sufficient hot water to cover it. When it is cool, take a piece of litmus paper (obtained at the apothecary’s), wet it in vinegar, and put it into the dish with the bread and water. The potash will turn the litmus blue again. The more potash, the sooner it changes. In some countries it is known that bread is adulterated by copper.

Butter.

Butter stands next to bread, as an article of diet. It is adulterated, with difficulty, with lard; but the usual way is to mix very cheap butter with a quantity of good butter. Butter is colored by carrots, yellow ochre, and yolks of eggs, and “adulterated by sand and chalk.” To detect all of these, melt the butter in hot water. The coloring will separate and join the water, and the other adulterations settle to the bottom.

Milk.

“There’s chalk in the milk,” is all nonsense. Chalk will not remain in solution, but will settle. Hence milk is not adulterated with chalk. Milk is reduced by water, and if the body is again made up which the water has reduced, it is done by adding corn starch, or calves’ brains!

Pure Milk contains

Water,		862.8
Solid particles,		137.2
To parts		1000
Butter,		43.8
Sugar,		52.7
Caseine,		38.0
Saline,		2.7
Solid matter,		137.2

Grass-fed Cows’ Milk.

Water,		868
Solid,		132
To parts		1000
Butter,		44
Sugar,		46
Caseine,		39
Salt,		3
Solid matter,		132

Swill Milk of New York.

Water,		930
Solid particles,		70
To parts		1000
Butter,		18
Sugar,		8
Caseine,		34
Salt,		10
Solid matter,		70

SWILL MILK (MAGNIFIED).

The reader will perceive by these quotations (from Dr. Samuel R. Percy’s report to the Academy of Medicine, New York), that it requires twice as much swill milk to give the same amount of nourishment as of a pure article. Furthermore, the swill milk is diseased, and, when magnified, appears as represented in the illustration. It contains corrupt matter, and pieces of diseased udder, with broken-down rotten globules.The result of feeding children on this pernicious article of diet is to generate scrofula, skin diseases, rickets, diarrhoea, cholera infantum, and consumption, or marasmus—wasting away.

PURE MILK.WATERED MILK.

“WHAT’S IN THE MILK?”

Some children in cities literally starve to death on this sort of milk.

Starch in milk may be detected by putting a drop of iodine into a glass of milk, when the starch will give off a blue color; or, by boiling such milk, it will thicken. Animals’ brains, which are sometimes mixed in milk, may be detected with the microscope. Soda is often put in cans of milk that are to be transported, to keep the milk sweet.

We once saw a milkman picking a pair of mice out of his big milk can; but these little accidents, with hairs and dirt from the animals, are not to be mentioned, in view of the above greater facts of “what’s in the milk”?

During the late run on the —— Bank, New York, a gentleman said that a Westchester milkman named Thompson W. Decker had purchased sixteen thousand dollars worth of books at a discount, not because he wanted to speculate, as he was a millionnaire, but to show he had confidence in the institution, and wished to enhance its credit. Profitable business!

The Cow with One Teat.

A cute old dairyman, who lived on a farm,—
To tell you the place is no good, nor no harm,—
Kept three or four cows—“Fan,” “Molly,” and “Bess,”
With one not yet mentioned, whose name you can’t guess.
Two teams he kept running by night and by day,
But where all the milk came from nobody could say;
His cows were no better than those of his neighbor,
Who kept just as many with equal the labor.
And as for paying! he built a great house,
And barns, and granaries that would keep out a mouse;
He drove fast horses, and was said to live high,
But his neighbors looked on, and couldn’t tell why.

“Old Bess kicked the bucket! Now let’s see,” said they,
“If he runs his two carts in the same style to-day.”
But the ’cute old farmer was not to be beat,
For the best to give down was the cow with one teat!
But since old “Bess” died the milk had grown thinner,
And the fact leaked out now that the old sinner
Had a cow with one teat, and fixed near the rump
Was a handle which worked like any good pump!

Cheese.

“Poison is sometimes generated in curds, and cheese prepared too damp, without sufficient salt.”

Hall, of the Recorder, has been presented with some Limburger cheese; and this is how he acknowledges it: “Our friend, Wm. F. Belknap, of Watertown, sends us some choice, fragrant, Limburger cheese. Although of Dutch descent, we ‘pass.’ Our ‘offence is not rank!’ and does not ‘smell to Heaven.’ That distinct package of Limburger could give the ninety and nine little ‘stinks of Cologne’ ten points, and ‘skunk’ ’em—just as e-a-s-y. We generously offered the package to a man who slaughters skunks for their hide and ile; but he said he didn’t admire the odor, and guessed he’d worry along without it; and we finally passed it on a German, who lives over the hill five miles to leeward of the village. We suppose there are some people who eat Limburger. It’s just as a man is brought up. ‘None for Joseph,’ thank you.”

Tea and Coffee.

Tea was introduced into England in the year 1666, and sold for sixty shillings per pound. It was first boiled till tender, and sauced up with butter in large dishes, the “broth” being thrown away: An excellent way for using the article!All imported tea is black, unless colored before leaving China, and is colored by prussiate of potash—a poison so deleterious as to require labelling in drug stores as “Poison.” It makes one very nervous,—good tea does not, unless used to excess,—and acts as a slow poison on the system. By its over-action on the liver, it makes one yellow, and will spoil the fairest complexion. All teas contain tannic acid, which, combining with milk, makes excellent leather of one. Black teas are sometimes colored with gypsum and Prussian blue.

I obtained these facts from a retired tea merchant of Philadelphia. He spent some time in China.

Coffee is adulterated with mahogany sawdust, acorns, peas, beans, roasted carrots, but more commonly with dandelion root and chiccory. I have obtained some samples of these from a large coffee-grinder in this city. But what is more repulsive still, baked horses’ and bullocks’ livers are often mixed with cheap coffees, to give them more body! Pure coffee is the less injurious. All these substances may be detected, as they become soft by boiling, which coffee-bean does not. Coffee browned in silver-lined cylinders retains its flavor more perfectly than in iron.

Alcoholic Drinks.

This is not a temperance lecture. I have only to tell you of impure liquors. Excepting alcohol I know of no pure liquors. I can find none. I have offered one hundred dollars for an ounce of pure brandy.

Wines.—The following articles are used to make or adulterate wine: water, sugar, arsenic, alum, cochineal and other coloring matter, chalk, lime, sulphur, lead, corrosive sublimate, etc.

To detect arsenic, put some pure lime-water in a glass, and drop the wine,—say a teaspoonful,—into it. If white clouds arise, expect that it contains arsenic. A positive test of arsenic in liquids is the ammonio-nitrate of silver, which precipitates a rich yellow matter, the arseniate of silver, and this quickly changes to a greenish-brown color. No elder or deacon should use wine, unless domestic, without having a sample of it analyzed by a disinterested chemist. The thought to me is perfectly shocking, that the villanous concoctions sold by even honest and Christian druggists, and used for communion purposes, to represent the blood of Christ, should be composed of alum, arsenic, and bugs! (cochineal). Of bread I say the same. A deacon’s wife, not a hundred miles from Lowell, buys baker’s bread, sour and yellow, for communion purposes. A lady showed me a sample of it, very unlike what my old grandmother, a deaconess, used to make for that purpose. It requires too much space to give tests of the various poisons in wines. I have no confidence in any foreign wines.

Alcohol has been distilled from the brain and other parts of the dead body of drunkards.

A Wine Bath.

An American traveller in the streets of Paris, seeing the words, “Wine Baths given here,” exclaimed,—

“Well, these French are a luxurious people;” when, with true Yankee curiosity and the feeling that he could afford whatever any one else did, he walked in and demanded a “wine bath.”

Feeling wonderfully refreshed after it, and having to pay but five francs, he asked, in some astonishment, how a wine bath could be afforded so cheaply. His sable attendant, who had been a slave in Virginia, and enjoyed a sly bit of humor, replied,—

“O, massa, we just pass it along into anudder room, where we gib bath at four francs.”

“Then you throw it away, I suppose.”

“No, massa; den we send it lower down, and charge three francs a bath. Dar’s plenty of people who ain’t so berry particular, who will bathe in it after this at two francs a head. Den, massa, we let the common people have it at a franc apiece.”

“Then, of course, you throw it away,” exclaimed the traveller, who thought this was going even beyond Yankee profit.

A CHAMPAGNE BATH.

“No, indeed, massa,” was the indignant reply, accompanied by a profound bow; “no, indeed, massa; we are not so stravagant as dat comes to; we just bottle it up den, and send it to ’Meriky for champagne.”

A Chemist’s Testimony.

Dr. Hiram Cox, an eminent chemist of Ohio, states that during two years he has made five hundred and seventy-nine inspections of various kinds of liquors, and has found nine tenths of them imitations, and a quarter portion of them poisonous concoctions. Of brandy, he found one gallon in one hundred pure; of wine, not a gallon in a thousand, but generally made of whiskey as a basis, with poisonous articles for condiments. Not a drop of Madeira wine had been made in that island since 1851. Some of the whiskey he inspected contained sulphuric acid enough in a quart to eat a hole through a man’s stomach.

MOTHER’S MILK PURE AND HEALTHY.MOTHER’S MILK AFTER DRINKING WHISKEY.

Brandy usually contains sulphuric acid. I obtained a “pure article” yesterday, from an honest, Christian druggist. In an hour I found sulphuric acid in it. Acids are easily detected in liquors, by placing in it for an hour a bright steel spatula. The acids have an affinity to steel, and the spatula soon turns black, separating the acid from the liquid supposed to be brandy. If the brandy is sharp to the throat on swallowing it, be sure that it is not pure, but contains capsicum, horseradish, or fusel oil. Good brandy will be smooth and oily to the throat. To detect lead in wine or brandy, suspend a piece of pure zinc in the glass, and if the lead is present, delicate fibrils of that metal will form on the zinc.All malt liquors may be adulterated. Bitter herbs are used instead of hops. Copperas is used in lager beer; tobacco, nux vomica, and cocculus indicus in London porter—brown stout. To avoid them, drink no beer. It is of no earthly or heavenly use. A patient who would die without beer will certainly die with its use. Spanish flies are said to be used in liquors sometimes.

The strychnine—of whiskey—directs its action to the superior portion of the spinal cord: hence paralysis, insanity, and sudden death of whiskey drinkers.

Drinkers often suffer from gravel, from the lime, or chalk, or other minerals contained in liquors. Alcohol itself will not digest, yet ignorant physicians prescribe alcoholic drinks for dyspeptics.

Vinegar is often made from sulphuric acid. Good vinegar will not burn on your lips. To detect acid-sulphuric, drop a little of solution of sugar of lead in your vinegar; the lead precipitates a whitish sediment.

A short Sermon.

“There’s nine men standin’ at the dore, an they all sed they’d take sugar in there’n. Sich, friends and brethering, was the talk in a wurldli’ cens, wonst common in this our ainshunt land, but the dais is gone by and the sans run dry, and no man can say to his nabur, Thou art the man, and will you take enny more shugar in your kaughey? But the words of our tex has a difrunt and more pertikelur meenin than this. Thar they stood at the dore on a cold winter’s mornin, two Baptiss and two Methodies and five Lutharians, and the tother was a publikin, and they all with one vois sed they wouldn’t dirty their feet in a dram shop, but if the publikin would go and get the drinks they’d pay for ’em. And they all cried out and sed, ‘I’ll take mine with shugar—for it won’t feel good to drink the stuff without sweetenin’.’ So the publikin he marched in, and the bar-keeper said, ‘What want ye?’ and he answered and sed, ‘A drink.’ ‘How will ye have it?’ ‘Plain and strate,’ says he, ‘for it ain’t no use in wastin’ shugar to circumsalvate akafortis. But there’s nine more standin’ at the dore, and they all sed they’d take shugar in ther’n.’ Friends and brethering, it ain’t only the likker or the spirits that is drunk in this roundabout and underhanded way, but it’s the likker of all sorts of human wickedness in like manner. There’s the likker of mallis that menny of you drinks to the drugs; but you’re sure to sweetin’ it with the shugar of self-justification. Ther’s the likker of avris that some keeps behind the curtain for constant use, but they always has it well mixt with the sweetin’ uv prudens and ekonimy. Ther’s the likker of self-luv that sum men drinks by the gallon, but they always puts in lots of the shugar of Take Keer of Number One.

“An’ lastly, ther’s the likker uv oxtorshun, which the man sweetins according to circumstances.... And ther’s nine men at the dore, and they all sed they’d take shugar in ther’n. But, friends and brethering, thar’s a time comin’ and a place fixin’ whar thar’ll be no ‘standin’ at the door,’ to call for ‘shugar in ther’n.’ But they’ll have to go rite in and take the drink square up to the front, and the bar-keeper’ll be old Satun, and nobody else; and he’ll give ’em ‘shugar in ther’n,’ you’d better believe it; and it’ll be shugar of lead, and red-hot at that, as shure as my name’s Conshunce Dodger.”

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Alcohol contains no life-supporting principle. It has no iron or salts for the blood, no lime for bone, phosphorus for brain, no nitrogen for vital tissue. Burton’s “Old Pale Ale” is given to invalids, but (by Dr. Hassal’s analysis of one gallon), one must swallow 65,320 parts (grains) of water, 200 of vinegar, 2,510 of malt gum, etc., in order to get 100 of sugar, which is the only nourishing quality therein.Fish is a good and wholesome article of diet, and salt water fish are never poisonous, if fresh. I once knew of fresh water fish being poisonous. The following article appeared in the Daily Courant of Hartford in 1864.

The Fish in Little River on a Spree.

Something got into the fish in Little River yesterday morning, “and raised the mischief” with them. They came to the top of the water, hundreds of them, and acted as if they were in the last stages of a premature decline. “Want of breath,” such as boys say dogs die with, seemed to be the trouble. Never were the finny tribe so anxious to get out of water, and they poked their noses above the surface in the most beseeching way possible. The appeal was too strong to resist, and hundreds of men, women, and children, with sudden inventions for furnishing relief, such as baskets, coal-sifters, bags, etc., fixed at the end of long poles, lined the banks of the stream, and such luck in fishing has not been witnessed in this vicinity for years. What produced all this commotion among the inhabitants of the deep, is only conjectured. Some say a beer brewery, whose flavoring extracts (one of which is said to be cockle), after being relieved of their choicest qualities, are sent through a sewer into the stream, was the fountain head from which the trouble flowed. But beer drinkers look upon the idea as preposterous; they say it casts an unwarranted reflection upon a most respectable article of beverage. Perhaps so. Another claim is that somebody had thrown acid into the water; and another that decayed vegetable matter, occasioned by the long drought, has been liberally distributed in the river, from small streams which the late rains have swollen. We express no opinion about it, for, as the sensationist would say in speaking of something on a grander scale, “The whole matter is wrapped in the most profound mystery.” It is a sure thing, however, that the fish had a high old time, and were considerably puzzled themselves to know what was up. Wouldn’t advise anybody to invest in dressed suckers for a day or two, at least.

Since writing the above, Dr. Crabtre, coroner, informs us that he has secured several of the fish, and finds, by analyzing, that they were poisoned by sulphuric acid. The evidence of it is very strong in the fish that died before being taken from the water. Acid is used at Sharp’s factory, and is thrown in considerable quantities into the river. It will not be very healthy business to eat fish which have been thus “tampered with,” and, as we are informed that many were dressed yesterday and sent into market, we caution the public against buying “small fry,” unless they know where they were caught.

Water.

Foul wells, from an accumulation of carbonic acid gas, may be purified by a horse-shoe. But the horse-shoe, or other iron, or a brick, must be red hot. The vapor thus immediately absorbs the poison gas.

“Drink no water from streams or rivers on which, above, there are manufactories, etc.,” says a medical writer. But if such water is filtered through charcoal, it will be tolerably pure. Even stagnant water may be purified by pulverized charcoal. Dead rats, cats, and dogs are sometimes found in wells. The taste of the water soon reveals such offensive presence. Clean out the well, and sift in some charcoal and dry earth, and the water will be all right again.

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Charcoal will purify, but it will also defile, as the following will show:—

“A small boy, not yet in his teens, had charge of a donkey laden with coals, on a recent day in spring; and in a Midland Lane, far away from any human habitation, the wicked ass threw off his load—a load too heavy for the youngster to replace. He sat down in despair, looking alternately at the sack and the cuddy—the latter (unfeeling brute!) calmly cropping the roadside grass. At last a horseman hove in sight, and gradually drew nearer and nearer.

WAITING FOR ASSISTANCE.

“‘Halloa, thee big fellow!’ cried the lad to the six-feet Archdeacon of ——, ‘I wish thee’dst get off thy ’oss, and give us a lift with this here bag of coals.’

“The venerable rider had delivered many a charge in his life, but never received such a one as this himself—so brief and so brusque. He was taken aback at first, and drew himself up; but his good nature overcame his offended dignity, and dismounting, he played the part, not of the Levite, but of the Samaritan. The big priest and the small boy tugged and tumbled the sack, and hugged and lifted it, till the coals were fairly in statu quo—the archdeacon retiring from his task with blackened hands and soiled neck-tie.

“‘Well,’ exclaimed the small boy as his venerable friend remounted his horse, ‘for such a big chap as thee art, thee’s the awkwardest at a bag o’ coals I ever seed in all my born days! Come op, Neddy!’”

Hogish.

Pork is one of the vilest articles ever introduced into the dietetic world. It is a food for the generation and development of scrofula. The word scrofa (Latin), from which scrofula is derived, means a breeding sow. Pork is the Jew’s abomination. I have never seen but one Jew with the scrofula. The Irish worship a pig. They die by the wholesale of scrofula and consumption. Tubercles are often found in pork, sometimes in beef. We had the gratification of adding to the health of Hartford for two summers by abating the swine nuisance. Previous to our war on them, the hogs rooted and wallowed in the streets!

Adulterations of Sugar and Confectionery.

It is pleasantly supposed that sugar is the basis of all candies; and originally this was doubtless true.

It would be better for the rising generation if the original prescription was still carried out, and nothing of a more injurious nature than sugar was added to it, in the innumerable varieties of confectionery which are daily sold in our shops, or in richly decorated stores, “gotten up regardless of expense,” over elegant marble counters, and from tempting cut and stained glass jars, or from little stands upon the street corners, to our children, old and young.

Sugar, pure and in moderate quantities, is a very harmless confection.Professor Morchand and others affirm that a solution of pure sugar has no injurious effect upon the teeth, the popular notion to the contrary notwithstanding. Neither is pure or refined sugar, taken in moderate quantities, injurious to the blood, or the stomach, unless the stomach be very weak. In order to cure my children of an inordinate appetite for sugar, I have repeatedly obtained a pound of pure white lump, and set it before each, respectively, allowing it to eat as much as it chose. Failing, in one case out of three, to surfeit the child with one pound, I purchased six pounds in a box, and taking off the cover, I placed the whole temptingly before her. This cloyed her, and now she does not take sugar in her tea.

A CONFECTIONERY STORE.

I have never known serious results accruing from children eating large quantities of purified sugar; yet I would not advise it to be given them in excess, excepting for the above purpose, viz., “to cure them of an inordinate appetite for sugar.”Now try to break the child of an excessive appetite for candy by giving it large quantities at once, and nine times out of ten you will have a sick or dead child in the house for your rash experiment.

Hence your candies, “nine times out of ten,” will be found to contain injurious or poisonous substances.

Refined Sugar.

Sugar is an aliment and condiment. It is also, medically, an alterative and a demulcent. Finely pulverized loaf sugar and gum arabic, in equal proportions, form an excellent and soothing compound for inflamed throats, catarrh, and nasal irritations, to be taken dry, by mouth and nostrils, and often repeated.

Pure loaf sugar is white, brittle, inodorous, permanent in the air, and of a specific gravity of 1.6. It is chemically expressed thus: C24, H22, O22. It is nutritious to a certain extent, but alone will not support life for an unlimited length of time. This is owing to the entire absence of nitrogen in its composition. By analysis, sugar is resolved into carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.

Pulverized sugar is often adulterated with starch, flour, magnesia, and sometimes silex and terra alba. Loaf sugar, however, is usually found to be pure.

Brown or Unrefined Sugar.

Brown sugar changes under atmospheric influences, and loses its sweetness. This change is attributed to the lime it contains. The best grade of brown sugar is nearly dry, of yellowish color, and emits less odor than the lower grades. It consists of cane sugar, vegetable and gummy matter, tannic acid, and lime. Put your hand into a barrel containing damp brown sugar, press a quantity, and suddenly relax your grasp, and it moves as though it was alive. It is alive! Place a few grains under a powerful microscope, and lo! you see organized animals, with bodies, heads, eyes, legs, and claws!

Poor people, who purchase brown sugar in preference to white, miss a figure in their selection, by the sand, water, and other foreign substances which the former contains.

Brown sugar is not so wholesome as the refined. I have attributed several cases of gravel that have come under my observation to the patients’ habitual use of low grades of brown sugar.

Confectionery. The first Step in its Adulteration.

Confectionery and sweetmeats used to be manufactured from sugar, flour, fruit, nuts, etc., and flavored with sassafras, lemon, orange, vanilla, rose, and the extracts of various other plants or vegetables. When competition came in the way of profits on these articles, the avaricious and dishonest manufacturer began to substitute or add something of a cheaper or heavier nature to these compositions, which would enable him to sell at a lower price, with even a greater profit. Candy cheats were not easily detected, the sweets and flavors hiding the multitude of sins of the confectioner.

It seemed all but useless for the would-be honest manufacturer to attempt to either compete with his rival or to expose his rascalities, which latter would only serve to advertise the wares of his competitor. Hence he, too, adopted the same practice of adulterating his manufactures. One dishonest man makes a thousand. I do not affirm that there are no honest confectioners,—this would be as ungenerous as untrue,—or that we must use no confectionery. But let us hereby learn to avoid that which is impure.

Gypsum, Terra Alba, or Plaster of Paris.

This is the principal article used in the manufacture of impure candies. The first intimation that the writer had of terra alba being mixed with sugar in candy, was when one confectioner placed a sample of the white earth in a dish upon his counter, with a sample of confectionery made therefrom, to expose the cheat of his rivals. “But as for me, I make only pure candies,” etc., was his affirmation. Well, perhaps he did.

What is the nature of gypsum, terra alba, or white earth? Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, is a white, crystalline mineral, found in the excrement of most animals. Hence gypsum is extensively used as an artificial manure. It is found in peat soil, also used for manure, and is a natural production, occurring in rocky masses, under various names, as alabaster, anhydrate, and selenite.

The natural gypsum, or plaster of commerce, consists of

Water,		21	per cent.
Lime,		33	"
Sulphuric acid,		46	"
		100

Plaster was used as a fertilizer by the early Roman and British farmers. It was introduced into America in 1772. It may here be worthy of notice, that when Dr. Franklin desired to exhibit its utility to his unbelieving countrymen, he sowed upon a field near Washington, in large letters, with pulverized gypsum, the following words: “This has been plastered.”

The result is supposed to have been highly convincing. But this was as a manure. Dr. Franklin did not recommend it as a condiment.

You may know children who have been sown with plaster—though that plaster was modified by the smaller admixture of sugar—by their pale, puny, weakly appearance. Sugar has a tendency to increase the fatty and warming matter of the system; gypsum, or terra alba, to destroy it.

Gypsum is used in confectionery without being calcined. Calcined plaster, after being wet, readily “sets,” or hardens. Heating gypsum deprives it of the percentage of water, when it is known to commerce as “plaster of Paris.” It is cheap as manure; hence it is used instead of sugar.

Terra alba taken into the system absorbs the moisture essential to health, and disposes the child to weakness of the joints and spinal column, to rickets, marasmus, and consumption. There are other diseases to which its habitual use exposes the user; but if parents will not heed the above warning, it is useless to multiply reasons for not feeding children upon cheap or adulterated confectionery.

To detect Mineral Substance.

Take no man’s ipse dixit when the health or lives of your precious ones are at stake. “Prove all things.”

To detect mineral substances in candy, put a quantity—particularly of lozenges, peppermints, or cream candy—into a bowl, pour on sufficient hot water to cover it well. Sugar is soluble in boiling water to any extent. Terra alba is not. The sugar will all disappear; the plaster, sand, etc., will settle to the bottom; the coloring matter will mix in or rise to the top of the water. Pure candies leave no sediment when dissolved in hot water.

I have seen some “chocolate cream drops” which were half terra alba; nor were these purchased upon the street corners, where the worst sorts are said to be exhibited. Boston dealers complain that some New York houses send drummers to Boston who offer confectionery at a less price, at wholesale, than it costs to manufacture a fair grade of the same by any process yet known, in Boston. Chocolate drops are made by a patent process at about seventeen cents per pound when sugar is fourteen, and chocolate thirty-five cents per pound.

Gum arabic drops have been sold for seventeen cents when sugar cost almost twice that sum, and pure gum arabic nearly three times seventeen cents. I asked an extensive confectioner how this could be explained, and he said, “By using glucose in place of gum arabic.”

Now, glucose is a sugar obtained from grapes, a very nice substitute for the above, though less sweet than other sugars—as cane, beet, etc.

“What do you call glucose?” I asked this confectioner.

“It is mucilage made from glue,” was his reply.

Glue is a nasty substance, at best. It is extracted by no very neat process from the refuse of skins, parings, hoofs, entrails, etc., of animals, particularly of oxen, calves, and sheep. It usually lies till it becomes stale and corrupt before being made into glue.

A confectioner showed me some “gum arabic drops” made from this patent “glucose” which cost but thirteen cents per pound. Jessop exhibited some extra pure gum drops which actually cost fifty cents to manufacture. I found all his costlier candies to be pure.

Gum drops are a luxury, and are excellent for bronchial difficulties, inflammation of the throat, larynx, and stomach. How shall we, then, tell a pure gum arabic drop from those nasty glue drops? First, the cheap article is usually of a darker color. The pure gum arabic drops are light color, like the gum. Take one in your fingers and double it over. If it possesses sufficient elasticity to bend on itself thus without breaking the grain, you may feel pretty sure it is gum arabic. The glue drop is brittle, and breaks up rough as it bends.

Do not purchase the colored drops. Pure sugar and gum arabic are white, or nearly so, and require no coloring.

Purchase only of a reliable party. Avoid colored confectionery, also all cheap candies. Even maple sugar makers have heard of sand and gypsum.

Poisonous Coloring Matter, etc.

The following poisonous coloring materials are sometimes used in confectionery, says “The Art of Confectionery,” but should be avoided: Scheele’s green, a deadly poison, composed of arsenic and copper; verdigris (green), or acetate of copper—another deadly poison; red oxide of lead; brown oxide of lead; massicot, or, yellow oxide of lead; oxide of copper, etc.; vermilion, or sulphuret of mercury; gamboge, chromic acid, and Naples yellow. “Litmus, also, should be avoided, as it is frequently incorporated with arsenic and the per-oxide of mercury.”

Ultramarine blue is barely admissible, and blue candies are less liable to be injurious than green, yellow, or red. Marigolds and saffron are sometimes used for coloring; but the cost of these, particularly the latter, compared with the minerals, as French and chrome yellows, is so high, rendering the temptation to substitute the latter so great, that purchasers should give themselves the benefit of the fear, and use no yellow candies of a cheap quality. Green candy is the most dangerous. Buy none, use none; they are mostly very dangerous confections.

Licorice, Gum Drops, etc.

About the nastiest of all candies are the licorice and the chocolate conglomerations. Glue, molasses, brown sugar, plaster, and lampblack, are among their beauties, with, for the latter, just sufficient real chocolate to give them a possible flavor. Licorice is cheap enough and nasty enough, but the addition of refuse molasses, glue, and lampblack, which is no unusual matter, makes it still more repulsive.

Metcalf & Company, extensive wholesale and retail druggists, kindly gave me the figures of cost on the first, second, and lower grades of gum arabic, glucose, etc. The first quality of gum arabic costs, by the cask, about sixty to seventy-five cents per pound; the lowest about twenty-two. There is a new manufacture in New York, with a “side issue,” wherein they necessarily turn out large quantities of glucose,—refuse from grain,—and this is sold for eight to thirteen cents a pound, to confectioners. It is much better than glue, but still the glue is used to-day, and I have on my table at this moment a sample of “gum drops” made this week in Boston from cheap glue, brown sugar, and a little Tonka bean flavor. The Tonka bean represents vanilla. These cost thirteen cents a pound, and are sometimes known, with the mucilage or glucose drops, to wholesale buyers, as “A. B.” drops, to distinguish them from pure gum arabic. The unfortunate consumer, however, is not informed regarding the difference.

Dangerous Acids.

“Sour drops,” or lemon drops, are sometimes flavored with lemon; but oil of lemon is costly, and sulphuric and nitric acids are cheap, and more extensively used in confectionery. I recently sat down with a friend, in a first-class restaurant, to a piece of “lemon pie,” etc. I took St. Paul’s advice, and partook of what was set before me, asking no questions for conscience’ sake. The next morning, meeting the friend,—a physician, by the way,—I asked him how he liked tartaric acid. He replied, “Very well in a drink, but not in pies.”

These acids are not only injurious to the teeth, but to the tender mucous membranes of the throat and stomach, engendering headache, colic-like pains, diarrhoea, and painful urinary diseases. Spirits of turpentine, or oil of turpentine, is extensively used in “peppermints;” also in essence of peppermint, often sold by peddlers, and in shops, as “pure essence.” I question if any druggist would retail such impure and dangerous articles, since he would know it at sight, and ought to be familiar with its evil effects when used freely, as people use essence of peppermint. What I have stated respecting the flavoring of soda syrups is applicable to confectionery.

TARTARIC ACID FOR SUPPER.

A STREET CANDY STAND.Hydrocyanic acid, or prussic acid, which is mentioned as being used to represent “wild cherry,” in syrup or medicines, is employed in candies to give an “almond” flavor. Oil of bitter almonds is very costly, which is the excuse for substituting the much cheaper article, prussic acid.

The temptations set in the way of children to purchase candies are so great, and the adulterations so common, that I have devoted more space to the exposÉ of these cheats than I at first intended; but I hope that the public will hereby take warning, and mark the beneficial results which will accrue from an avoidance of cheap, painted, and adulterated confectioneries. These are sold everywhere, but most commonly upon the streets.

Near a stand upon a public street of this city, sandwiched by the thick flying dust on the one hand, and the warning, “Dust thou art,” on the other, my attention was attracted to a little ragged urchin, who stood holding under his left arm a few dirty copies of a daily paper, while the right hand wandered furtively about in his trousers pocket, and his eyes looked longingly upon the tempting confectionery spread upon the dusty board and boxes before him. Indecision dwelt upon his pale, thin countenance, and drawing nearer, I awaited this conflict of mind and matter with a feeling of no little curiosity.

Finally, he seemed to have decided upon a purchase of some variegated candy, and making a desperate dive with the hand deeper into the pocket, he drew forth some pennies, which were quickly exchanged for the coveted painted poison,—none the more poisonous for having been sold upon a street stand, however.

His sharp, bluish-pale face lighted up with an unnatural glow of delight as he seized the tempting prize; and as he turned away, I said, kindly,—“Have you been selling papers, sonny?”

“Yes, sir; buy one?” he replied, with an eye yet to business.

“Yes; and have you any more pennies?”

“No, sir.” And he dropped his head in confusion.

“How much have you made to-day?” I next inquired.

“Seventeen cents, sir.”

“And expended it all for candy, I suppose.”

Receiving an affirmative reply, I next kindly questioned him respecting his family. His mother was a widow, very poor, and I asked him,—

“What will she say when you return with no money to show for your day’s work?”

The tears started from his blue eyes, and I knew that I had made a “point.” After some further conversation, I persuaded him to show me where he lived. Up the usual “three flight, back,” in a low attic room, I beheld a picture of abject misery. The mother was sick, and lay uncomfortably upon an old sofa, which, with two rickety chairs and a large box, which served the double purpose of table and cupboard, were the only furniture of the apartment. She was totally dependent upon her little son’s earnings for a sustenance. She had nothing in the house to eat; no money with which to obtain anything. Her boy’s earnings had fallen off unaccountably, and for two days they had not tasted food. When she learned that he had brought in no money (for it was now near nightfall), she fell to weeping and upbraiding “the lazy, idle wretch for not bringing home something to eat.” The boy began to cry bitterly, and acknowledged his error in spending his earnings for confectionery. I then exacted a solemn promise from him that he never would buy another penny’s worth of the poison, gave him some change to purchase a bountiful meal, and left with a determination to ventilate street candy stands.

THE NEWSBOY’S MOTHER.

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