Part 8
What is infinitely worse, however, than any of those frauds, sophistications, we are informed, are carried on to an equal extent in all the essential articles of subsistence or comfort. So long as our dishonest dealers do not intermeddle with these things, their deceptions are comparatively harmless; the evil in all such cases amounting only to so much pecuniary damage. But when they begin to tamper with food, or with articles connected with the table, their frauds are most pernicious: in all cases the nutritive quality of the food is injured, by the artificial ingredients intermixed with it; and when these ingredients, as frequently happens, are of a poisonous quality, they endanger the health and even the life of all to whom they are vended. We cannot conceive any thing more diabolical than those contrivances; and we consider their authors in a far worse light than ordinary felons, who, being known, can be duly guarded against. But those fraudulent dealers conceal themselves under the fair show of a reputable traffic—they contrive in this manner to escape the infamy which justly belongs to them—and, under the disguise of wealth, credit, and character, to lurk in the bosom of society, wounding the hand that cherishes them, and scattering around them poison and death.
It is chiefly for the purpose of laying open the dishonest artifices of this class of dealers, that Mr. Accum has published the present very interesting and popular work; and he gives a most fearful view of the various and extensive frauds which are daily practised on the unsuspecting public.
‘Among the number of substances used in domestic economy, which are now very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished—tea, coffee, bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar, mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence.—Indeed, it would be difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in an adulterated state; and there are some substances which are scarcely ever to be procured genuine.—Some of these spurious compounds are comparatively harmless when used as food; and as, in these cases, merely substances of inferior value are substituted for more costly and genuine ingredients, the sophistication, though it may affect our purse, does not injure our health. Of this kind are the manufacture of factitious pepper, the adulterations of mustard, vinegar, cream, &c. Others, however, are highly deleterious; and to this class belong the adulterations of beer, wines, spirituous liquors, pickles, salad oil, and many others.’ pp. 2-4.
There are, it appears, particular chemists who make it their sole employment to supply the unprincipled brewer of porter and ale with drugs, and other deleterious preparations; while others perform the same office to the wine and spirit merchant, as well as to the grocer and oilman—and these illicit pursuits have assumed all the order and method of a regular trade.
‘The eager and insatiable thirst for gain’ (Mr. Accum justly observes), 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 a fellow-creature’s life is a secondary consideration.’
Mr. Accum having exhibited this general view of his subject, proceeds to enter into an examination of the articles most commonly counterfeited, and to explain the nature of the ingredients used in sophisticating them. He commences with a dissertation on the qualities of good water, in which he briefly points out the dangerous sophistications to which it is liable, from the administration of foreign ingredients.
But in the case of water, the adulteration is purely accidental, which cannot be said of the other articles specified by Mr. Accum. In the making of Bread, more especially in London, various ingredients are occasionally mingled with the dough. To suit the caprice of his customers, the baker is obliged to have his bread light and porous, and of a pure white. It is impossible to produce this sort of bread from flour alone, unless it be of the finest quality. The best flour, however, being mostly used by the biscuit-bakers and pastry-cooks, it is only from the inferior sorts that bread is made; and it becomes necessary, in order to have it of that light and porous quality, and of a fine white, to mix alum with the dough. Without this ingredient, the flour used by the London bakers would not yield so white a bread as that sold in the metropolis.
Wine appears to be a subject for the most extensive and pernicious frauds.
‘All persons (Mr. Accum observes) moderately conversant with the subject, are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose of brightening their colour; that Brazil wood, or the husks of elderberries and bilberries, which are imported from Germany, under the fallacious name of _berry-dye_, are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red port of a pale colour; that gypsum is used to render cloudy white wines transparent; that an additional astringency is imparted to immature red wines by means of oak-wood and sawdust, and the husks of filberts; and that a mixture of spoiled foreign and home-made wines is converted into the wretched compound frequently sold in the metropolis by the name _genuine old Port_.’
Other expedients are resorted to, in order to give flavour to insipid wines. For this purpose bitter almonds are occasionally employed; factitious port wine is also flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins; and other ingredients are frequently used, such as sweet brier, orris root, clary, cherry-laurel water, and elder flowers.
In London, the sophistication of wine is carried to an enormous extent, as well as the art of manufacturing spurious wine, which has become a regular trade, in which a large capital is invested; and it is well known that many thousand pipes of spoiled cider are annually sent to the metropolis for the purpose of being converted into an imitation of port wine.
Innumerable are the tricks practised to deceive the unwary, by giving to weak, thin, and spoiled wines, all the characteristic marks of age, and also of flavour and strength. In carrying on these illicit occupations, the division of labour has been completely established; each has his own task assigned him in the confederate work of iniquity; and thus they acquire dexterity for the execution of their mischievous purposes. To one class is allotted the task of _crusting_, which consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine bottles with a red crust. This is accomplished by suffering a saturated hot solution of super-tartrate of potash, coloured red with a decoction of Brazil wood to chrystallize within them. A similar operation is frequently performed on the wooden cask which is to hold the wine, and which, in the same manner as the bottle, is artificially stained with a red crust; and on some occasions, the lower extremities of the corks in wine bottles are also stained red, in order to give them the appearance of having been long in contact with the wine. It is the business of a particular class of wine-coopers, by means of an astringent extract mixed with home-made and foreign wines, to produce ‘genuine old port,’ or to give an artificial flavour and colour to weak wine; while the mellowing and restoring of spoiled white wines is the occupation of another class called refiners of wine. Other deceptions are practised by fraudulent dealers, which are still more culpable. The most dangerous of these is where wine is adulterated by an admixture of lead.
Mr. Accum justly observes, that the ‘merchant or dealer who practises this dangerous sophistication, adds the crime of murder to that of fraud, and deliberately scatters the seeds of disease and death among those customers who contribute to his emolument.’
Spirituous liquors, which in this country form one of the chief articles of consumption, are subjects of equally extensive fraud with wine. The deceptions which are practised by the dealers in this article, are chiefly confined to fraudulent imitations of the peculiar flavour of different sorts of spirits; and as this flavour constitutes, along with the strength, the value of the spirit, the profit of the dealer consists in imitating this quality at a cheaper rate than it is produced in the genuine spirit. The flavour of French brandy is imitated, by distilling British molasses spirit over wine lees; previous to which, however, the spirit is deprived of its peculiar disagreeable flavour, by rectification over fresh-burnt charcoal and quicklime. This operation is performed by those who are called brewers’ druggists, and forms the article in the _prices-current_ called _Spirit Flavour_. Wine lees are imported into this country for the purpose, and they pay the same duty as foreign wines. Another method of imitating the flavour of brandy, which is adopted by brandy merchants, is by means of a spirit obtained from raisin wine, after it has begun to become somewhat sour. ‘Oak sawdust,’ (Mr. Accum observes), ‘and a spirituous tincture of raisin stones, are likewise used to impart to new brandy and rum a _ripe taste_, resembling brandy or rum long kept in oaken casks, and a somewhat oily consistence, so as to form a durable froth at its surface, when strongly agitated in a vial. The colouring substances are burnt sugar, or molasses; the latter gives to imitative brandy a luscious taste, and fulness in the mouth.’ Gin, which is sold in small quantities to those who judge of the strength by the taste, is made up for sale by fraudulent dealers with water and sugar; and this admixture rendering the liquor turbid, several expedients are resorted to, in order to clarify it; some of which are harmless, while others are criminal. A mixture of alum with subcarbonate of potash, is sometimes employed for this purpose; but more frequently, in place of this, a solution of subacetate of lead, and then a solution of alum,—a practice reprobated by Mr. Accum as highly dangerous, owing to the admixture of the lead with the spirit, which thereby becomes poisonous. After this operation, it is usual to give a false appearance of strength to the spirit by mixing with it grains of paradise, guinea pepper, capsicum, and other acrid and aromatic substances.
In the manufacture of malt liquors, a wide field is opened for the operations of fraud. The immense quantity of the article consumed, presents an irresistible temptation to the unprincipled dealer; while the vegetable substances with which beer is adulterated, are in all cases difficult to be detected, and are frequently beyond the reach of chemical analysis. There is, accordingly, no article which is the subject of such varied and extensive frauds. These are committed in the first instance by the brewer, during the process of manufacture, and afterwards by the dealer, who deteriorates, by fraudulent intermixtures, the liquor which he sells to the consumer. ‘The intoxicating qualities of porter (he continues) are to be ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it;’ and, as some sorts of porter are more heady than others, the difference arises, according to this author, ‘from the greater or less quantity of stupifying ingredients’ contained in it. These consist of various substances, some of which are highly deleterious. Thus, the extract disguised under the name of _black extract_, and ostensibly destined for the use of tanners and dyers, is obtained by boiling the berries of the _cocculus indicus_ in water, and converting, by a subsequent evaporation, this decoction into a stiff black tenacious mass, possessing in a high degree the narcotic and intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry from which it is prepared. Quassia is another substance employed in place of hops, to give the beer a bitter taste; and the shavings of this wood are sold in a half torrified and ground state, in order to prevent its being recognised.
Not only is the use of all these deleterious substances strictly prohibited to the brewer under severe penalties, but all druggists or grocers convicted of supplying him with any of them, or who have them in their possession, are liable to severe penalties; and Mr. Accum gives a list of twenty-nine convictions for this offence, from the year 1812 to 1819. From the year 1813 to 1819, the number of brewers prosecuted and convicted of using illegal ingredients in their breweries, amounts to thirty-four. Numerous seizures have also been made during the same period at various breweries, and in the warehouses of brewers’-druggists, of illegal ingredients, to be used in the brewing of beer, some of them highly deleterious.
Malt liquors, after they are delivered by the brewer to the retail-dealer, are still destined to undergo various mutations before they reach the consumer. It is a common practice with the retailers of beer, though it be contrary to law, to mix table-beer with strong beer; and, to disguise this fraud, recourse is had to various expedients. It is a well known property of genuine beer, that when poured from one vessel into another, it bears a strong white froth, without which professed judges would not pronounce the liquor good. This property is lost, however, when table-beer is mixed with strong beer; and to restore it, a mixture of what is called _beer-heading_ is added, composed of common green vitriol, alum, and salt. To give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer, capsicum and grains of paradise, two highly acrid substances, are employed; and, of date, a concentrated tincture of these articles has appeared for sale in the prices-current of brewers’-druggists. To bring beer forward, as it is technically called, or to make it hard, a portion of sulphuric acid is mixed with it, which, in an instant, produces an imitation of the age of eighteen months; and stale, half-spoiled, or sour beer, is converted into mild beer, by the simple admixture of an alkali or an alkaline earth; oyster-shell powder, and subcarbonate of potash, or soda, being usually employed for that purpose. In order to show that these deceptions are not imaginary, Mr. Accum refers to the frequent convictions of brewers for those fraudulent practices, and to the seizures which have been made at different breweries of illegal ingredients—a list of which, and of the proprietors of the breweries where they were seized, he has extracted from the Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to Inquire into the Price and Quality of Beer. It may be observed, that while some of the sophistications of beer appear to be perfectly harmless, other substances are frequently employed for this purpose which are highly deleterious, and which must gradually undermine the health of those by whom they are used.
Many other of the most ordinary articles of consumption are mentioned by our author as being the object of the most disgusting and pernicious frauds. Tea, it is well known, from the numerous convictions which have lately taken place, has been counterfeited to an enormous extent; and copper, in one form or another, is the chief ingredient made use of for effecting the imitation.
The practice of adulterating coffee, has also been carried on for a long time, and to a considerable extent, while black and white pepper, Cayenne pepper, mustard, pickles of all sorts, have been all of them debased by an admixture of baser, and, in many cases, poisonous ingredients. Ground pepper is frequently sophisticated by an admixture from the sweepings of the pepper warehouses. These sweepings are purchased in the market under the initials P. D., signifying pepper dust. ‘An inferior sort of this vile refuse (Mr. Accum observes), or the sweepings of P. D., is distinguished among venders by the abbreviation of D. P. D., denoting dust, or dirt of pepper dust.’
Of those various frauds so ably exposed in Mr. Accum’s work, and which are so much the more dangerous, as they are committed under the disguise of an honourable trade, it is impossible to speak in terms of too strong reprobation; and in the first impulse of our indignation, we were inclined to avenge such iniquitous practices by some signal punishment. We naturally reflect, that such offences, in whatever light they are viewed, are of a far deeper dye than many of those for which our sanguinary code awards the penalty of death—and we wonder that the punishment hitherto inflicted, has been limited to a fine. If we turn our view, however, from the moral turpitude of the act, to a calm consideration of that important question, namely,—What is the most effectual method of protecting the community from those frauds?—we will then see strong reasons for preferring the lighter punishment. We do not find from experience, that offences are prevented by severe punishments. On the contrary, the crime of forgery, under the most unrelenting execution of the severe law against it, has grown more frequent. As those, therefore, by whom the offence of adulterating articles of provision is committed, are generally creditable and wealthy individuals, the infliction of a heavy fine, accompanied by public disgrace, seems a very suitable punishment: and if it be duly and reasonably applied, there is little doubt that it will be found effectual to check, and finally to root out, those disgraceful frauds.
POISONING OF FOOD.
A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,
AND CULINARY POISONS;
_Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cheese, Pepper, Mustard, &c. &c. And methods of detecting them._
BY FREDRICK ACCUM.
(_From the Literary Gazette, No. CLVI. 1820._)
One has laughed at the whimsical description of the cheats in Humphrey Clinker, but it is really impossible to laugh at Mr. Accum’s exposition. It is too serious for a joke to see that in almost every thing which we eat or drink, we are condemned to swallow swindling, if not poison—that all the items of metropolitan, and many of country consumption, are deteriorated, deprived of nutritious properties, or rendered obnoxious to humanity by the vile arts and merciless sophistications of their sellers. So general seems the corruption, and so fatal the tendency of most of the corrupting materials, that we can no longer wonder at the prevalence of painful disorders, and the briefness of existence (on an average) in spite of the great increase of medical knowledge, and the amazing improvement in the healing science, which distinguish our era. No skill can prevent the effects of daily poisoning; and no man can prolong his life beyond a short standard, where every meal ought to have its counteracting medicine.
Mr. Accum acts the part of Dionysius with us; only the horse-hair by which he suspends the sword over our heads allows the point gradually to enter the flesh, and we do not escape, like Damocles, with the simple fright: yet it is but justice to acknowledge, that in almost every case he furnishes us with tests whereby we can ascertain the nature of our danger; and no man could do more towards enabling us to mitigate or escape from it.
Advising our readers to abstain from perusing the annexed synopsis till after they have dined, that they may have one more meal in comfort ere they die, we proceed to the various heads under which the author ranges his dread array.
Devoted to disease by baker, brewer, grocer, &c. the physician is called to our assistance; but here again the pernicious system of fraud, as it has given the blow, steps in to defeat the remedy.
It is so horribly pleasant to reflect how we are in this way be-swindled, be-trayed, be-drugged, and be-devilled, that we are almost angry with Mr. Accum for the great service he has done the community by opening our eyes, at the risk of shutting our mouths for ever.
His account of water is so fearful, that we see there is no wisdom in the well; and if we then fly to wine, we find, from his analysis, that there is no truth in that liquid: bread turns out to be a crutch to help us onward to the grave, instead of the staff of life; in porter there is no support, in cordials no consolation; in almost every thing poison, and in scarcely any medicine, cure.
The work contains a great many excellent observations on the various sorts of water, and the modes of conveying and preserving them for use: it appears generally that leaden pipes and cisterns, and copper vessels are highly dangerous.
Good heavens! we think we hear it exclaimed, is there no end to these infamous doings? does nothing pure or unpoisoned come to our tables, except butcher’s meat, which has been rendered far less nutritive than formerly, by new methods of feeding? Why, we must answer, hardly any thing: for our author proceeds to shew that _cheese_ (Gloucester he mentions) has been contaminated with red lead, a deadly poison mixed with the colouring anotto, when that article was scarce: that _pepper_ is adulterated with factitious pepper-corns “made up of oil-cakes (the residue of lint-seed, from which the oil has been pressed), common clay, and a portion of Cayenne pepper, formed in a mass, and granulated by being first pressed through a sieve, and then rolled in a cask;” and further, that “ground pepper is very often sophisticated by adding to a portion of genuine pepper, a quantity of pepper dust, or the sweepings from the pepper warehouses, mixed with a little Cayenne pepper. The sweepings are known, and purchased in the market, under the name of P.D. signifying pepper dust. An inferior sort of this vile refuse, or the sweepings of P.D. is distinguished among vendors by the abbreviation D.P.D, denoting, dust (dirt) of pepper dust.”
As we read on, we learn the method of manufacturing adulterated vinegar, adulterated cream, adulterated lozenges, adulterated mustard, adulterated lemon acid, poisonous Cayenne, poisonous pickles, poisonous confectionary, poisonous catsup, poisonous custards, poisonous anchovy sauce, poisonous olive oil, poisonous soda water; and, if not done to our hands, of rendering poisonous all sorts of food by the use of copper and leaden vessels. Suffice it to record, that our pickles are made green by copper; our vinegar rendered sharp by sulphuric acid; our cream composed of rice powder or arrow root in bad milk; our comfits mixed of sugar, starch, and clay, and coloured with preparations of copper and lead; our catsup often formed of the dregs of distilled vinegar with a decoction of the outer green husk of the walnut, and seasoned with all-spice, cayenne, pimento, onions, and common salt—or if founded on mushrooms, done with those in a putrefactive state remaining unsold at market; our mustard a compound of mustard, wheaten flour, cayenne, bay salt, raddish seed, turmeric, and pease flour; and our citric acid, our lemonade, and our punch, to refresh or to exhilarate, usually cheap tartareous acid modified for the occasion.
Against all these, and many other impositions, Mr. Accum furnishes us with easy and certain tests: his work, besides, contains many curious documents and useful recipes; and it is replete with intelligence, and often guides to the right while it exposes the wrong.