Food : its Adulterations, and the Methods for its Detection.
By Arthur Hill Hassall, M.D. (Longmans.)—Dr. Hassall has succeeded in making us thoroughly uncomfortable. If there is one thing in which we are at the mercy of our fellow-creatures, it is in the preparation from the raw state of our daily sustenance. And if there is one kind of commercial dishonesty more serious than another, and more worthy the attention of Government, it is the adulteration of our food for the sake of gain, by substances which are not merely devoid of nutrition, but positively deleterious. The mixture of chicory with ground coffee is, we suppose, well known to and condoned by the general public, but they would not be equally tolerant did they know that their cup of tea was possibly a sort of ink ; their mustard contained turmeric, or worse still, yellow ochre ; their raw-sugar was infested with animals which under the microscope appear loathsome and disgusting, their butter made up of animal fat, their pepper compounded of linseed-meal, sago, and gypsum, their cayenne mixed with poisonous red-lead, and even their curry-powder could be resolved into salt, ground-rice, and red - lead. Nor are wedding-cakes, twelfth-cakes, and lollipops so delectable as they look. Arsenic, copper, and lead—all virulent poisons—have been detected in the colouring of them, although there are innocuous vegetable colours which might be used. The merit of the work, however, is not in the exposure of such fraud. To a description of the properties and modes of preparation of each article, the author has subjoined methods for detection of impurities by microscopic examination and chemical analysis, and his long ex- perience as an analyst renders this part of very great value. The question of pure drinking-water is one of the most vital importance to the community, and has occupied a great deal of the author's attention. His researches and inferences and those of his collaborateurs, are fully stated. We trust Dr. Hassall's investigations will have a large circle of readers, not only of those who cannot follow him through all the laboratory work, but of the Government and public analysts, many of whom, we fear, from recent disclosures, are wholly incompetent for such trusts.
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