A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons

A Treatise on Adulterations of
Food, and
by Fredrick Accum

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Title: 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
Author: Fredrick Accum
Release Date: August 12, 2006 [EBook #19031]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TREATISE ON ADULTERATIONS ***

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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