A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons | Page 6

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 200l.
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 20l. upon
the first count, 200l. upon the third, and 200l. 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