What we eat : an account of the most common adulterations of food and drink : with simple tests by which many of them may be detected / by Thomas H. Hoskins.

  • Hoskins, Thomas H.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What we eat : an account of the most common adulterations of food and drink : with simple tests by which many of them may be detected / by Thomas H. Hoskins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    33/236
    false oi' unjust denomination of weight, be liable to a penalty of, I think, £5, and if unstamped he shall be liable to a like penalty, and the forfeiture of the bread. Fancy bread is exempt from this law. I am happy to say, as the originator of this provision, that it has worked most satisfactorily, both for the fair dealer and the public, since it came into operation in Edinburgh. While it makes the baker or vendor of bread responsible for the weight of his loaves, it imposes no extra trouble or other restriction on him in his business. It merely makes him do what every other trades- man does — that is, vend his commodity by weight and not by lump, as is virtually the way everywhere except in Edinburgh. If these observations on a very important matter as regards the interests of the poor, who are the parties most imposed upon by the short-weight bakers, be thought worthy of publication in your patriotic pages, I shall be very glad. I am, sir, your obedient servant, James S. Torross. The admixture of corn-meal with bread, is easily detected by the naked eye ; the bright yellow grains of the meal may be seen more or less thickly scat- tered about in the loaf. To ascertain the presence of rye flour and potatoes, the aid of the microscope is required, when they may be recognized by the peculiarities of their starch granules, which, al- though somewhat modified in form by the process of conversion into bread, are yet distinguishable from those of wheat. For alum, unfortunately there is no positive test which is at the same time suffi- ciently simple and easy for general use. The fol-