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
Nutrition is the strategy adopted by an organism to obtain the chemicals it needs to live, grow, and reproduce. The term is also applied to the science of food, and its effect on human and animal life, health, and disease.
Nutrition involves the study of the basic nutrients required to sustain life, their bio-availability in foods and overall diet, and the effects upon them of cooking and storage. It is also concerned with dietary deficiency diseases. There are six classes of nutrients: water, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Water is involved in nearly every body process. Animals and humans will succumb to water deprivation sooner than to starvation. Carbohydrates are composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The major groups are starches, sugars, and cellulose and related material (or ' roughage'). The prime function of the carbohydrates is to provide energy for the body; they also serve as efficient sources of glucose, which the body requires for brain functioning, utilisation of foods, maintenance of body temperature. Roughage includes the stiff structural materials of vegetables, fruits, and cereal products. Proteins are made up of smaller units, amino acids. The primary function of dietary protein is to provide the amino acids
required for growth and maintenance of body tissues. Both vegetable and animal foods are protein sources. Fats serve as concentrated sources of energy, and protect vital organs such as the kidneys and skeleton. Saturated fats derive primarily from animal sources; unsaturated fats from vegetable sources such as nuts and seeds. Vitamins are essential for normal growth, and are either fat-soluble or water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins include A, essential to the maintenance of mucous membranes, particularly the conjunctiva of the eyes; D, important to the absorption of calcium; E, an antioxidant; and K, which aids blood clotting. Water-soluble vitamins are the B complex, essential to metabolic reactions, and C, for maintaining connective tissue and cell functioning. Minerals are vital to normal development; calcium and iron are particularly important as they are required in relatively large amounts. Minerals required by the body in trace amounts include chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, and zinc. Research Nutrition
Cod Liver Oil is the oil extracted from the fresh liver of the cod. It consists chiefly of olein and palmatin with a little stearin and iodine. It is the most easily digested of all fats and has since 1848 been used medicinally. Research Cod Liver Oil
The digestive system is responsible for processing food, breaking it down into usable proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, fats, and other substances, and introducing these into the bloodstream so that they can be used by the body. The digestive, or alimentary, tract begins at the mouth, where the teeth and tongue begin the breakdown of food, aided by saliva secreted by the salivary glands. The chewed food, combined with saliva, is swallowed, carrying it in peristaltic waves down the esophagus to the stomach. In the stomach, the food combines with hydrochloric acid which further assists in breaking it down. When the food is thoroughly digested, the fluid remaining, called chyme, is passed through the pylorus sphincter to the small intestine and large intestines. Within the long, convoluted intestinal canals, the nutrients are absorbed from the chyme into the bloodstream, leaving the unusable residue. This residue passes through the colon (where most of the water is absorbed into the bloodstream) and into the rectum where it is stored
prior to excretion. This solid waste, called faeces, is compacted together and, upon excretion, passes through the analcanal and the anus. Along the way through the digestive tract, the pancreas, spleen, liver, and gall bladder secrete enzymes which aid in the digestive process. Research Digestive System
Myelin is a collection of lipidfats and proteins that insulates the axons of some neurons. This insulation being known as a myelin sheath. Research Myelin
The pancreas is an elongated secreting gland which lies transversely across the back wall of the abdomen, behind the stomach. It secretes pancreatic juice, which contains ferments necessary for digestion and the absorption of proteins, fats and starches. Insulin is also secreted. Research Pancreas
Plasma, made of about 92% water, is the blood's solvent. It is the liquid part of the blood, or blood minus cells, containing proteins, minerals, and salts. Its main components are the three proteins: albumin, globulins, and fibrinogen, all of which are manufactured by the liver. These three proteins circulate in plasma and act as carriers for small molecules. Salts, minerals, sugars, fats, and proteins, all important nutrients, are transported through plasma. All of the chemicals needed by cells to stay alive are brought to them by the blood. At the same time, bicarbonates in the plasma act as a filter to remove poisonous waste to the kidneys. Albumin, the most plentiful, is similar to egg whites and gives blood its gummy texture. The globulins, three in number: alpha, beta, and gamma, transport certain proteins. They number half the albumin proteins found in plasma. Gamma globulins are the antibodies of the blood, giving immunity to disease. Only 3% of plasma is made up of fibrinogen. It is an important link in the chain of reactions that leads to blood clotting. It forms a web of fine protein fibres that bindblood cells together, creating a bridge over which injured tissue can rebuild itself while blood continues to flow underneath. Research Plasma
The stomach (fundus) is one of the primary organs of the digestive system. It is located in the middle of the abdominal cavity and extends from the lower end of the esophagus to the duodenum. A curved sac, the stomach has a lesser curvature along the top and a greater curvature along the bottom. The bolus of chewed food paste enters the stomach from the esophagus, propelled by peristaltic waves. The cardiac gastric glands are located near the entrance to the stomach and lubricate the food as it comes in. The stomach secretes hydrochloric acid and the enzymes pepsin, rennin, and lipase which help digest the carbohydrates, proteins and fats in food. The stomach is lined with a durable mucous lining which protects it from the gastric juices so that the stomach itself is not digested. Occasionally, a portion of this lining wears thin and the digestive juices do aggravate the stomach lining. This condition is known as an ulcer and is a frequent occurrence which may affect the stomach, the lower esophagus, or the duodenum. The lower end of the stomach is guarded by the pylorus, a sphincter muscle which admits digested food into the duodenum after it has been adequately processed by the digestive juices.
The average stomach can hold about a liter, but can stretch to hold much more than this. When empty, or nearly empty, the stomach contracts to form folds, or rugae, in its mucous lining. Though it was once thought that the contractions of the stomach in the absence of food was what caused the sensation of hunger, it is now known that the primary impulse of hunger is due to low glucose levels in the bloodstream. However, the contraction of the stomach can often be felt, and this and the 'grumbling' heard as food is passed through the lower digestive tract also serve to remind one of the sensation of hunger. Research Stomach
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Adulteration
