Adulteration is a term not only applied in its proper sense to the fraudulent mixture of articles of commerce, food, drink, drugs, seeds, etc, with noxious or inferior ingredients, but also by magistrates and analysts to accidental impurity, and even in some cases to actual substitution.
The chief objects of adulteration are to increase the weight or volume of the article, to give a colour which either makes a good article more pleasing to the eye or else disguises an inferior one, to substitute a cheaper form of the article, or the same substance from which the strength has been extracted, or to give it a false strength.
Among the adulterations which were commonly practised around 1905 for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the weight or volume of an article are the following: Bread was adulterated with alum or sulphate of copper, which gives solidity to the gluten of damaged or inferior flour; with chalk or carbonate of soda to correct the acidity of such flour; and with boiled rice or potatoes, which enables the bread to carry more water, and thus to produce a larger number of loaves from a given quantity of flour. Wheatflour is adulterated with other inferior flours, as the flour from rice, bean, Indian-corn, potato, and with sulphate of lime, alum, etc. Milk was usually adulterated with water. The adulterations generally present in butter consisted of an undue proportion of salt and water, lard, tallow, and other fats; when of poor quality it was frequently coloured with a little annatto, and, at times, with the juice of carrots. Genuine butter should not contain less than 80 percent of butter-fat. Cheese was also coloured with annatto and other substances. Tea was adulterated chiefly in China with sand, iron-filings, chalk, gypsum, Chinaclay, exhausted tea leaves, and the leaves of the sycamore, horse-chestnut, and plum, whilst colour and weight were added by black-lead, indigo, Prussian-blue (one of the deleterious ingredients used by the Chinese in converting the lowest qualities of black into green teas), gum, turmeric, soapstone, catechu, and other substances.
Confections were adulterated with flour and sulphate of lime. Preserved vegetables were kept green and poisoned by salts of copper. The acridity of mustard is commonly reduced by flour, and the colour of the compound is improved by turmeric. Pepper was adulterated with linseed-meal, flour, mustard husks, etc. Colour was given to pickles by salts of copper, acetate of copper, etc. Ale was adulterated with common salt, Cocculus Indicus, grains of paradise, quassia, and other bitters, sulphate of iron, alum, etc. Porter and stout were mixed with sugar, treacle, salt, and an excess of water. Brandy was diluted with water, and burned sugar was added to improve the colour; sometimes bad whisky was flavoured and coloured so as to resemble brandy, and sold under its name.
Gin was mixed with excess of water, and flavouring matters of various kinds, with alum and tartar, were added. Rum was diluted with water, and the flavour and colour kept up by the addition of cayenne and burned sugar. For champagnegooseberry and other inferior wines were often substituted. Port was manufactured from red Cape and other inferior wines, the body, flavour, strength, and colour being produced by gum-dragon, the washings of brandy casks, and a preparation of German bilberries. Cheap brown sherry was mixed with Cape and other low-priced brandies, and was flavoured with the washings of brandy casks, sugar-candy, and bitter almonds. Pale sherries were produced by gypsum, by a process called plastering, which removes the natural acids as well as the colour of the wine. Other wines were adulterated with elderberry, logwood, Brazil-wood, cudbear, red beetroot, etc, for colour; with lime or carbonate of lime, carbonate of soda, carbonate of potash, and litharge, to correct acidity; with catechu, sloe-leaves, and oak-bark for astringency; with sulphate of lime and alum for removing colour; with cane-sugar for giving sweetness and body; with alcohol for fortifying; and with ether, especially acetic ether, for giving bouquet and flavour.
Medicines, such as jalap, opium, rhubarb, cinchonabark, scammony, aloes, sarsaparilla, squills, etc, were mixed with various foreign substances. Castor-oil has been adulterated with other oils; and inferior oils were often. mixed with cod-liver oil. Cantharides were often mixed with golden-beetle and also artificially-coloured glass.
The adulteration of seeds was largely practised also, the seed which forms the adulterant being of course of the most worthless kind that can be had. Thus turnip-seed was mixed with rape, wild mustard, or charlock, which are steamed and kiln-dried to destroy their vitality, so as to evade detection in the progress of growth; old and useless turnip-seed was also used fraudulently mixed with fresh seeds. Clover was also much mixed with plantain and mere weeds.
Acts against adulteration have been passed in various countries and at various times. In Britain there was a law against it as early as 1267. Research Adulteration
Bibliomania (literally 'book-madness'), is a passion for possessing curious books, which reached its highest development in France and England, though originating, like Tulipomania, in Holland, towards the close of the seventeenth century. The true bibliomanist is determined in the purchase of books, less by the value of their contents, than by certain accidental circumstances attending them, as that they belong to particular classes, are made of singular materials, or have something remarkable in their history. One of the most common forms of the passion is the desire to possess complete sets of works, as of the various editions of the Bible or of single classics; of the editions in usum Delphini and cum notis variorum; of the Italian classics printed by the Academy delta Orusca; of the works printed by the Elzevirs or by Aldus.
Scarce books, prohibited books, and books distinguished for remarkable errors or mutilations have also been eagerly sought for, together with those printed in the infancy of typography, called incunabula, first printed editions (editiones principes) and the like. Other works are valued for their miniatures and illuminated initial letters, or as being printed upon vellum, upon paper of uncommon Materials, upon various substitutes for paper, or upon coloured paper, in coloured inks, or in letters of gold or silver.
In high esteem among bibliomanists are works printed on large paper, with very wide margins, especially if uncut, also works printed from copper plates, editions-de-luxe, and limited issues generally. Bibliomania often extends to the binding. In France the bindings of Derome and Bozerian are most valued; in England those of Charles Lewis and Roger Payne. Many devices have been adopted to give a factitious value to bindings. Jeffery, a London bookseller, had Fox's History of King James II bound in fox-skin;
and books have been more than once bound in human skin. The edges of books are often ornamented with paintings, etc, and marginal decoration is frequently an element of considerable value. Another method of gratifying the bibliomanist taste is that of enriching works by the addition of engravings - illustrative of the text of the book - and of preparing only single copies. Research Bibliomania
A definition is a brief and precise description of a thing by its properties; an explanation of the signification of a word or term, or of what a word is understood to express. Logicians distinguish definitions into nominal and real. A nominal definition explains the meaning of a term by some equivalent word or expression supposed to be better known. A real definition explains the nature of the thing. A real definition is again accidental, or a description of the accidents, as causes, properties, effects, etc; or essential, which explains the constituent parts of the essence or nature of the thing. An essential definition is, moreover, metaphysical or logical, defining 'by the genus and difference', as it is called; as, for example, 'a plant is an organized being, destitute of sensation', where the part first of the definition states the genus (organized being), and the latter the difference (destitute of sensation, other organisms/beings possessing sensation); or physical, when it distinguishes the physical parts of the essence; thus, a plant is distinguished by the leaves, stalk, root, etc. A strictly accurate definition can be given of only a few objects. The most simple things are the least capable of definition, from the difficulty of finding terms more simple and intelligible than the one to be defined. Research Definition
Dresden China is a popular term for a delicate, semi-transparent, highly-finished porcelain made around the Dresden area of Germany. The term is variously used, being applied to porcelain made at Meissen, Sitzendorf and Volkstedt. The chief characteristics of 'Dresden China' is the elaborate designs and delicate colouring. Thus frequently Dresden china is found in the form of exquisite porcelain figurines.
The manufacture resulted from an accidentaldiscovery made by Bottger, a young chemist, in 1710, and the vases, statuettes, groups of figures, candelabra, clocks, etc, manufactured during the 18th century are highly prized. They are more remarkable for excellence of execution than for purity of design. Research Dresden China
Etymology is a term applied to that part of grammar which treats of the various inflections and modifications of words and shows how they are formed from simple roots.
The term, etymology is also applied to that branch of philology which traces the history of words from their origin to their latest form and meaning. Etymology in this latter sense, or the investigation of the origin and growth of words, is amongst the oldest of studies. Plato and other Greek philosophers, the Alexandrian grammarians, the scholiasts, the Roman Varro, and others wrote much on this subject. But their work is made up of conjectures at best ingenious rather than sound, and very often wild and fantastic. It was not until modern times, and particularly since the study of Sanskrit, that etymology has been scientifically studied. Languages then began to be properly classed in groups and families, and words were studied by a comparison of their growth and relationship in different languages. It was recognized that the development of language is not an arbitrary or accidental matter, but proceeds according to general laws. The result was a great advance in etymological knowledge and the formation of a new science of philology. Research Etymology
The Negro Plot was an alleged terrorist even that occurred on March the 18th, 1741 in New York. A fire occurred in the chapel and barracks at Fort George on the Battery in New York. It was generally believed to be accidental, but charges were set afloat that it arose from a plot by the negroes to burn the town. Eight other fires of a mysterious nature within a month strengthened this belief. Mary Burton, a servant of one John Hughson, furnished testimony implicating a number of sailors and negroes. Twenty whites and over 160 slaves were seized and imprisoned. Finally Mary Burton's accusations inculpated persons of such character that danger from that direction checked the fury. It was charged that the Spanish were inciting plots among the negroes through Roman Catholic priests. Four whites were hanged, eighteen negroes hanged and thirteen burned at the stake. Research Negro Plot
Cambyses was king of Persia. He succeeded his father Cyrus the Great in 529 BC and reigned until 521 BC. His great achievement was the conquest of Egypt in 525 BC. He treated the Egyptians and their religion with great severity, slaying the bullApis, their god, with his own hands. He also ruled the Persians tyrannically and had his brother Smerdis murdered. A magician led a revolt impersonating the dead brother and on his way to quell it, Cambyses died in Ecbatana a town in media of an accidental wound. Research Cambyses
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet. She was born in 1806 at Burn Hall, Durham and died in 1861. Her father, Edward Moulton, took the name of Barrett on succeeding to some property. She grew up at Hope End, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, where her father possessed a large estate. Her bodily frame was from the first extremely delicate, and she had been injured by a fall from her pony when a girl, but her mind was sound and vigorous, and disciplined by a course of severe and exalted study. She early began to commit her thoughts to writing, and in 1826 a volume, entitled An Essay on Mind, with other Poems, appeared of her authorship.
A money catastrophe compelled her father to settle in London, and her continued delicacy received a severe shock by the accidentaldrowning of her brother, causing her to pass years in the confinement of a sickroom. Her health was at length partially restored, and in 1846 she was married to Robert Browning, soon after which they settled in Italy, and continued to reside for the most part in the city of Florence. Her Prometheus Bound (from the Greek of Aeschylus) and Miscellaneous Poems appeared in 1833; the Seraphim and other Poems in 1838. In 1856 a collected edition of Elizabeth Browning's works appeared, including several new poems, and among others Lady Geraldine's Courtship. Casa Guidi Windows, a poem on the struggles of the Italians for liberty in 184S-49, appeared in 1851. The longest and most finished of all her works, Aurora Leigh, a narrative and didactic poem in nine books, was published in 1857. Poems before Congress appeared in 1860, and two posthumous volumes: Last Poems, 1862 and The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets (prose essays and translations) 1863, were edited by her husband. Research Elizabeth Browning
Leon Michel Gambetta was a French orator and statesman. He was born in 1838 at Cahors and died in 1882 in a shooting accident. Of a family of Genoese extraction, he was educated for the church, but finally decided in favour of a career in the law, and repairing to Paris became a member of the metropolitan bar in 1859. In November 1868 he gained the leadership of the republican party by his defence of Delescluze, a noted republican. In 1869, having been elected by both Paris and Marseilles, he chose to represent the southern city; and in the Chamber of Deputies showed himself an irreconcilable opponent of the empire and its measures, especially of the policy which led to the war with Prussia.
On the downfall of the empire, after the surrender of Sedan in 1870, a government for the national defence was formed, in which Leon Gambetta was nominated minister of the interior. The Germans having encircled Paris, he left that city in a balloon, and set up his headquarters at Tours, from which, with all the powers of a dictator, he for a short time organized a fierce but vain resistance against the invaders. After the close of the war he held office in several short-lived ministries, and in November, 1881, accepted the premiership, The sweeping changes proposed by him and his colleagues speedily brought a majority against him, and after a six weeks' tenure of office he had to resign. The accidental discharge of a pistol caused his death at Paris in December, 1882. Research Leon Gambetta
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Adulteration
