Volume 2

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    166/600 (page 154)
    tained in a package of taking appearance and possessed of a high sounding name. The two things, however, are as different as they well can be. The honey which I have examined has always been what is known as strained honey, but I am informed that the potato starch article is to be had in the comb. I have not to my know- ledge seen this latest product of adulterating ingenuity, but it is said that the comb is very beautifully made out of white paraffin wax, and looks almost quite as well as the real article. Unfortunately there is no simple test by which spurious honey can be distinguished from real, except by the taste. Analysts distinguish between the two substances by ascertaining the effect produced upon polarised light by a watery solution of the sus- pected material. Genuine honey turns a ray of polarised light slightly to the left, while the artificial imitation turns it strongly to the right. Of preserves, such as jams and jellies, I have very little to say. The only adulteration I can remember of detecting in jam consist- ed in the substitution of dried and apparently foreign fruit for genuine black currants in the jam of that name. We have all heard of marmalade being made from turnips, &c. This story I am inclined to believe is founded upon a popular delusion. No doubt jam purporting to be made from more expen- sive fruits has been shown to consist largely of some cheaper fruit, but with the exception of such admixtures, we may almost say thd^ preserves of this kind are not adulterated. With regard to preserved fruits and vegetables, many kinds of which seem to be consumed very largely in Edinburgh, these are occasionally impure, and the impurity arises from two causes. First, direct and wilful adulteration; and second, accidental im- pregnation with a portion of the metal of which the vessel con- taining the fruit is made. As an example of the first we may take these beautiful green peas which one sees so often in the shop windows. As far as I can recollect, every sample of these vegetables