Treatise on the falsifications of food, and the chemical means employed to detect them : containing water, flour, bread ... pepper, mustard / by John Mitchell.

  • Mitchell, John, analytical chemist.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on the falsifications of food, and the chemical means employed to detect them : containing water, flour, bread ... pepper, mustard / by John Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Firstly—Of making the substance more saleable by improving its appearance by the addition of some body, either innocuous or otherwise. Secondly—Of depreciating its quality, by adding to it some substance, which will diminish its real, without altering its apparent strength or general appearance. This is generally a very deadly fraud. Thirdly and lastly—Of depreciating its quality by the addition of some simple substance, as water, or if it be a solid body, as plaster of Paris, sand, &c. These comprise the quality of frauds, not men- tioning, however, short weight and measure, both of which are too well known to need much com- ment. It will be now as well to pass in review, the sub- stances generally subject to adulteration. They are Wines, Spirits, Beer, Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Bread, Chocolate, Milk, Cream, Pickles, Oil, Flour, Cheese, Mustard, Pepper, Confectionary, and Vinegar. To these may be added the frauds practised in drugs and substances not articles of food or medicine, as jewellery, silks, cottons and linens, with these, how- ever, the author has not at present to deal. Some of the frauds practised are innocuous, others deadly; some merely consist in deceiving the pur- chaser either in measure or weight, others reduce the quality of the article by mixing it with some diluent which is in itself harmless, whilst some go