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
Bay rum is a spirit obtained by distilling the leaves of Myrica acris, or other West Indian trees of the same genus. It is used for toilet purposes, and as a liniment in rheumatic affections. Research Bay Rum
The Moral and Physical Thermometer was a chart produced by a Dr Lettsom, author of the once popular tract 'The Bad Effects of a Little Drop' and a fervent temperance campaigner. The chart showed a scale of the progression between temperance to intemperance of liquors with their effects in terms of well being or vices, diseases and punishments.
The scale ranged from -70 (gin, brandy, rum, whisky consumed both during the day and night) through to +70 (water) through strong beer (+10), porter (+20), wine (+30) and cider and perry (+40) offering cheerfulness, strength and nourishment when taken only at mealtimes and in moderation. Research Moral and Physical Thermometer
The American Rum, Romanism and Rebellion faux pas occurred at a meeting of clergy, in which all denominations were supposed to be represented, held in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, during the Presidential campaign of 1884 in the interest of the Republicans. The Reverend R. B. Burchard described the Democrats as the party of 'Rum, Romanism and Rebellion'. This remark was unfortunate for the Republicans, and aided in a great measure to win the election for the Democrats. Research Rum, Romanism and Rebellion
The American Rum Romanism and Rebellion faux pas occurred at a meeting of clergy, in which all denominations were supposed to be represented, held in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, during the Presidential campaign of 1884 in the interest of the Republicans. The Reverend R. B. Burchard described the Democrats as the party of 'Rum, Romanism and Rebellion'. This remark was unfortunate for the Republicans, and aided in a great measure to win the election for the Democrats. Research Rum Romanism and Rebellion
Ghede, in the original myths of Haiti, was the god of love, sex incarnate. In later, Voodoo myth he was amalgamated with BaronSamedi, god of death. He kept his earlier lustful ways, and a fondness for rum and feasting. He was a dandy, always wearing a black tail-coat, a top hat and sunglasses, twirling a cane and smoking a cigar or a cigarette in a long holder. He loved to dance, and swept his followers away into the ecstasy and trance of dancing. But the dance, which originally was a phallic ritual of birth, had now become a dance of death: Baron Samedi's orgies always ended (for his mortal followers) at the crossroads between this world and the Underworld, and the way they went was down. Because Ghede was Guardian of the Crossroads, he knew all the secrets of magic, and had second hearing and second sight. He could be consulted for advice - often on questions of fertility, either of humans, crops or animals. The questioner made blood-sacrifice and asked the priest questions to put to Ghede, and the god answered in the patterns of
rum-drops spilled in the dust, or in the hll of dice or the turning of Tarot cards. The advice was often frightening and apparently ridiculous, but it was always true and you neglected it at your peril. Research Ghede
The Secret Auxiliary Unit was a top-secret British volunteer militia formed of the Home Guard during the Second World War. Unlike the regular Home Guard, this elite fighting force were hand picked, very highly trained and equipped with the latest weapons, even before the regular army. The force was arranged into small platoons of maybe six men based around a secret dugout. In the event of invasion these men would hide in the dugout, coming out to carry out sabotage and cause mayhem among the invaders. The volunteers were required to be very fit - they had to swim across a river in full kit as part of their test - and were ruthless, none were to be taken prisoner and any wounded who couldn't be got away were to be shot, as was anyone who might or could reveal the location of the dugout. Equipment included knuckledusters, 0.38 calibrerevolver, automatic pistol (possibly 9 mm), detonators, explosives including the new plastic explosives, sub-machine guns, standard issue rifle and emergency rations which
included a bottle of rum! One such unit in the New Forest area of Hampshire was captained by the local estate agent, the sergeant was the local butcher (Leslie Charles 'Elsie' Probert) and also included the local chemist in the platoon. This platoon certainly didn't store all its equipment in the dugout, many weapons and detonators were secreted at the sergeant's butchers shop as was the rum - which on one occasion was dropped and smashed by the sergeant's fourteen year old son. After the war, most members of the Secret Auxiliary Unit continued to keep the secret of their unit, never talking about it or revealing the location of their bunkers. Research Secret Auxiliary Unit
Trench warfare is a method of conducting hostilities which was very greatly developed during the Great War, but examples of which had previously occurred both in South Africa and Manchuria. In Manchuria both armies resorted freely to 'digging in' tactics, and in South Africa the Boers evolved a new kind of trench usually cut in a hill-side, in which a man standing upright or nearly upright could obtain protection from any but directly overhead. In the Great War a prolonged period of trench warfare ensued after the retreat of the Germans from the Marne to the Aisne, and lasted at one point or another of the line until the eve of the Allies' victorious advance.
On both sides the trenches became semi-permanent habitations, and considerable care was expended upon their construction. The German trenches were, as a rule, better constructed than the British which, especially during the winter of 1914-15, and particularly in the northern sections of the line, were often many inches deep in water. By degrees improvements were effected, until a fair degree of comfort was reached; but nowhere in the British front was the trench system comparable with that on the German side in the Somme region, and throughout the Hindenburg Line.
The protracted occupation of trenches on this elaborate scale produced a special kind of trench warfare, ranging from long distance pounding with heavy artillery to the interchange of shells from trench mortars, discharges of bombs and grenades, mining, and finally trench-raiding. A trench being almost immune from ordinary artillery fire, high-explosive shells were employed for wrecking purposes, and also as a means of destroying before an attack the wire entanglements with which lines of trenches wore commonly protected. Considerable annoyance, too, was caused to the occupants of trenches by projectiles of the primitive form known as common shell, and more familiarly as 'rum jars', which were cast, from small mortars and frequently did much material damage. Grenades were thrown both by hand and from a special rifle, and bombs filled with the high explosive T.N.T. were in frequent use, especially for clearing dug-outs.
Mining and counter-mining constituted another accompaniment of trench warfare, the most important operation of this kind being the 19 great explosions which preceded the capture of the Messines Ridge on June the 7th, 1917. Finally, a system of trench-raids was adopted by the British infantry, small parties of whom made swift and sudden incursions into the enemy trenches by night, generally killing or wounding a good many Germans, and frequently returning with useful information. Daylight trench-raids were also adopted, but less frequently. The British ministry of munitions had a special trench warfare department.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, many British generals assumed that trench warfare would be the norm once more as it had been some twenty years previously. However, the advent of the tank, which the British had invented during the Great War but which had not been properly utilised, but which the Germans had realised the full potential of which, rendered trench warfare obsolete and allowed a swift German victory in most of Europe. Research Trench Warfare
500 Rum is a card game variation of rummy in which points are scored for cards melded, and lost for unmelded cards remaining in a player's hand when someone goes out. The game is won by the first player to reach a cumulative score of 500 or more over a series of hands. In this game you are not restricted to taking only the top card of the discard pile - more than one card can be taken in order to reach a card lower down which you can use in a meld. Research 500 Rum
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Adulteration
