Mr. Stansfeld is a master of language, but he has
this week given currency to a curious definition, in virtue of which, as we understand him, adulteration is only predicable of any process of admixture wherein the element added is not already one compre- hended (though in less measure) in the constitution of the substance adulterated. In other words, though he considers that wine and milk are "impoverished" by the addition of water, they are not adulterated, because water already enters into both of them, and the addition of more water is therefore only an alteration of the proportions of the ingredients, not of the constituents them- selves. On this principle, as Carbon, Sulphur, and Phosphorus are combined in a great many kinds of food, you would not adulterate any such food by loading it with any one of these substances of which a small portion was already present ; an omelette, for instance, dosed with sulphur would not be adulterated, because egg contains sulphur. The question of words is not very important, but is not this a new and strange definition ?
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