The Romance of Modern Chemistry

THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD the grave, instead of being the staff of life. In porter there is no support, in cordials no consolation, in almost everything poison, and in scarcely any medicine cure.” The adulterations practised at that time, however, were comparatively crude, and with present-day methods and instruments they would be easily detected. As a result of the advance of chemical knowledge and practice, the adulterator has been forced to refine his nefarious methods, so that at the present time many of the alien substances introduced into our food can be detected only by the skilled analyst. “For ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain,” the modern adulterator would indeed be hard to beat We must, of course, allow that if we call every foreign addition to our food an adulteration, there are cases where the offence is not very heinous. As examples of these less objectionable additions, we may take the colouring and flavouring of butter. Butter fat itself in the natural state has generally nothing like the yellow colour which we are accustomed to see in the commercial article, and the explanation is that in the great majority of cases an artificial colouring matter, quite harmless in itself, has been introduced. This is done, it is said, because the public prefers to have a highly coloured article. Again, the difference in flavour of various samples of butter is not natural; it is induced by the presence of certain micro-organisms which are cultivated for the purpose. These adulterations, although undesirable, are not harmful, and may be regarded as mildly fraudulent in comparison with others which are commonly practised. Many common foods contain foreign materials intro- duced with the direct object of defrauding the public and securing a larger profit to the seller. Even the 261