ADULTERATION, the act of debasing, by mixing with any pure and genuine commodity a spurious article, or an inferior one of the same kind, for pecuniary profit; but it may also occur accidentally, as, for instance, by the action of acids and oils on vessels of copper or lead in culinary and other operations. (See Medical Jurisprudence.) But few articles of commerce, comparatively, are exempt from fraudulent deterioration; and although the adulteration of excisable commodities and of food are offences punishable by law, the risk too frequently is outweighed by the temptation of gain. In Paris, malpractices connected with the adulteration of food are investigated by the Conseil de Salubrité, and punished; but our laws are directed chiefly to the protection of such articles as affect the revenue. Adulterations of food, when wilful, have been made punishable by the laws of most countries. In Great Britain numerous acts have been passed for the prevention of adulterations: they are usually punished by a fine, determined by a summary process before a magistrate. In Turkey a culprit baker has his ears nailed to his door. By 5th and 6th Vict. c. 93, §§ 1, 3, 8, manufacturers of tobacco or snuff are liable to a penalty of £200 for having in their possession any substance or liquid to be used, or capable of being used, as a substitute for tobacco or snuff, or to adulterate or give them weight. The preparer, vender, or disposer of such articles, is liable to the same. For actual adulteration the penalty is £300, and for having such adulterated goods in possession, £200. After a similar manner beer is protected by still heavier penalties; which laws extend to chemists, druggists, and beer retailers. See 56th Geo. III. c. 58, 1st Will. IV. c. 51, 64, 4th and 5th Will. IV. c. 85. Tea, coffee, cocoa, pepper, &c. are protected by law, but the adulterations of these, as of most other articles of food, are almost endless. The mixture of chicory with coffee, is, however, authorized under certain conditions. A treasury minute of 27th July 1852 prohibiting the sale of "chicory or other vegetable substances mixed with coffee," was rescinded by a subsequent minute of 25th Feb. 1853, which permits dealers in coffee "to keep and sell chicory prepared and mixed with coffee, provided the packages in which such mixture is delivered to purchasers have printed distinctly thereon, according to directions which will be given by the Board of Inland Revenue, the whole of the following words, 'Mixture of Coffee and Chicory.'"
The following results were obtained by a recent series of analyses of some articles of common domestic consumption, purchased from different dealers, chiefly in the metropolis. In the several kinds of tea were found (partly, perhaps, accidentally present) exhausted tea-leaves, leaves of the beech, elm, horse-chestnut, plane, bastard-plane, fancy oak, willow, poplar, hawthorn, and sloe; catechu, rose-pink, blacklead, soap-stone, sulphate of iron, logwood, indigo, starch, rice husks, excrement of silkworms, Prussian blue, sulphate of lime, verdegis, &c. Of 18 samples of chicory procured from manufacturers, 5 were adulterated with roasted wheat-flour; and of 16 samples of chicory purchased from different grocers, several were coloured with Venetian red, or reddle. Of 68 samples
of cocoa and chocolate, 39 contained coloured earthy substances; in some samples of cocoa, sugar and starch constituted more than half the article. Of 24 samples of bread, all contained more or less alum; and it may be observed that the quarter loaf, as delivered at houses by 13 different bakers, showed deficiency in weight, the maximum being between 3 and 4 ounces. Out of 30 samples of oatmeal, 16 were adulterated with barley-meal; in one instance, apparently, much more than one-half. Of 36 samples of arrowroot, 18 were mixed with potato-flour, or potato-starch, sago-powder, or tapioca-starch, &c.; and 5 were almost entirely potato-starch. Of 26 samples of milk, 11 were mixed with water, in proportions varying from 10 to 50 per cent. Of 28 samples purchased as isinglass, 10 consisted entirely of gelatine. (See Lancet, vol. i. 1851.) It is well known that quack medicines frequently contain ingredients they are guaranteed not to contain; hence the evils resulting from their indiscriminate use. Nor are woollen, linen, and silk goods, exempt from inferior admixture; various substances are employed to give body to silk fabrics; as in China a gluey preparation from the Fucus Tenax is used to give them weight and gloss. The above facts will give some idea of the extent to which adulteration is practised in the most common articles of consumption. We may add that all legislative enactments on the subject will prove ineffectual unless the public exercise their own discrimination, and dealers who are discovered to have imposed spurious commodities are made to feel that honesty is the best policy.