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
Apios is a genus of leguminous climbing plants, producing edible tubers on underground shoots. An American species (Apios tuberosa) has been used as a substitute for the potato, but its tubers, though numerous, are small. Research Apios
Asparagus (Asparagus officindlis) is a plant of the order Liliaceae, the young shoots of which, cut as they are emerging from the ground, are a favourite culinary vegetable. In Greece, and especially in the southern steppes of Russia and Poland, it is found in profusion; and its edible qualities were esteemed by the ancients. It grows wild in some parts of England, but does not attain nearly to the size of the cultivated plant. It is usually raised from seed; and the plants should remain three years in the ground before they are cut; after which, for several years, they will continue to afford a regular annual supply. The beds are protected by straw or litter in winter. Its diuretic properties are ascribed to the presence of a crystalline substance found also in the potato, lettuce, etc. Research Asparagus
The Bead-snake (Elaps fulvius), is a beautiful venomoussnake of North America, inhabiting cultivated grounds, especially plantations of the sweet-potato, and burrowing in the ground. It is finely marked with yellow, carmine, and black. Research Bead-Snake
Botrytis is a genus of fungi, section Hyphomycetes, containing a number of plants known as moulds and mildews, some of them having the habit of growing in the tissues of living vegetables, to which they are extremely destructive. The decay of the leaves and stem in the potato disease is due to Botrytis infestans; but whether this plant is the origin of the disease seems doubtful. The plants of the genus consist of a mycelium of interwoven threads. Research Botrytis
The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the family Solanaceae. It has angular herbaceous stems, and grows to about 80 centimetres tall. The leaves are pinnate, the flowers pretty, large, numerous and disposed in corymbs, and coloured violet, bluish, reddish or whitish. The fruit is globular, about the size of a gooseberry, reddish-brown or purplish when ripe, and contains numerous small seeds. The tubers which are eaten are abnormally dilated underground shoots, their increase in size being the result of cultivation. Their true nature is revealed by the 'eyes' which are leaf buds, and if a tuber is planted in the ground a young plant will sprout, the starchy matter of the tuber supplying nutriment until it throws out roots and leaves and so attains an independent existence. The potato is a native of western South America, where it grows wild chiefly around the Andes, producing small, tasteless, watery tubers.
The potato was first introduced into Europe by the Spaniards after the conquest of Peru, by whom it was spread over the Netherlands, Burgundy, and Italy before the middle of the 16th century. Sir Hohn Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh are all credited with introducing the potato to England in 1565. Although the potato was widely cultivated in Europe, it was first grown for food on a large scale by the Irish and during the 18th century became a popular food with the poorer classes in Germany. Research Potato
The potato fly (Anthomyia tuberosa) is an insect found chiefly in diseased potatoes. The adult resembles the house fly in appearance, the larva is maggot-like and is furnished with bristles. Research Potato Fly
Solanaceae is a family of monopetalous exogenous plants, composed of herbs or shrubs, natives of most parts of the world, and especially within the tropics. They have alternate leaves, terminal or axillary inflorescence, and regular, or nearly regular, monopetalous flowers. They are generally narcotic, tonic and poisonous, although some parts of the plants are cultivated for food (such as the potato, aubergine, chililies and tomato) and others for smoking, such as tobacco. Research Solanaceae
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Adulteration
