account of rancidity and other properties, as cocoa-nut cake, palm-nut cake, bassia cake, &c.; while many are so charged with woody matters as to be indigestible and irritating in their action, as cotton, olive, palm-nut, husks of rice, cocoa-nut fibre, saw-dust, &c. These impurities are some times easily recognised by the naked eye, or by a lens of low power. At other times the colour of the cake is an indication of its impurity. The taste of it also is frequently characteristic; for while linseed has a sweet mucilaginous taste, rape seed is turnipy, mustard acrid, dodder like garlic, bassia bitter, &c. Then, again, the action of a little warm water will develope the flavour of impurities—rape giving off a strong odour of turnip, mustard its well-known acrid flavour, wild radish and other impurities their characteristic smells. When examined chemically it is found that adulterated and dirty cakes show a deficiency of oil and albuminous matter, and a large excess of woody fibre and mineral substance. In good cake the moisture ranges from 10 to 14 per cent., the oil from 10 to 15, the albuminous matter from 25 to 35, the mucilage, sugar, and digestible fibre to from 20 to 30 per cent., the woody fibre to from 9 to 14, and the mineral matter or ash to from 6 to 8 per cent. Cake that has been shipped too fresh is apt to heat and become mouldy; in which case it will lose its fine aroma, and be of inferior quality: it may even be injurious to animals feeding on it.
20. The Adulteration of Seeds, in fraud of her Majesty's subjects, and to the great detriment of agriculture, has been provided for by the Act 32 and 33 Vict. c. 112, wherein it is prohibited to kill, dye, or to sulphur seeds, or any way to give them a false appearance, under a penalty of £5 for the first offence, and £50 for the second. But for all this extensive frauds are practised: turnip seed is adulterated with rape, wild mustard or charlock, the vitality of which has been destroyed by kiln-drying at a high temperature; old turnip seed (kiln-dried) is also used for diluting fresh seed; and it is notorious that such seed can be obtained in commerce by the ton. Again, clover seed is often killed and dyed—one of the commonest frauds being to dye trefoil, and to sell it for red clover; the pinkish or yellowish-brown tint and metallic look being given with a weak solution of logwood and alum, or with a strong solution of logwood alone, and then it is shaken up with a little black lead. Another trick is to dye white clover seed with a weak solution of indigo, and thus to make it look like hybrid clover which has a bluish-green colour. When trefoil and white clover seed have become changed by age and have lost their yellowish colour, they are dyed with infusion of turmeric, and then toned down with the fumes of burning sulphur; in fact, these fumes are used to brighten up all sorts of seeds that have become brown by keeping, but they destroy the vitality of the seed.
21. Adulteration of Drugs.—This at all times has been considered a serious offence. In the city of London, the president and censors of the College of Physicians have power to search for apothecaries' wares, drugs, and stuffs, and on finding them defective, corrupted, and not meet nor convenient to be ministered in any medicines for the health of man's body, they are to destroy them, and are to correct and punish the offenders by committing them to prison, and amercing them in a penalty not exceeding £20. These wholesome powers were granted to the college by the Acts 14 and 15 Hen. VIII. c. 5, and 32 Hen. VIII. c. 40, and 2 Mary, c. 9; but although they are still in force, and might be advantageously exercised, yet they have long since fallen into disuse; and if it had not been for the laudable efforts of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, there would have been no practical remedy for the adulteration of drugs. The Society was founded in 1841, for the purpose of advancing the status and education of those who were engaged in the preparation and sale of medicines, and it was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1843. A few years after, in 1852, the qualifications of pharmaceutical chemists were regulated by Act of Parliament (15 and 16 Vict. c. 56), and in 1868 it was further provided, by the 31 and 32 Vict. c. 121, that no person should be permitted to engage in the sale or dispensing of medicines, or to use the title of chemist and druggist, or dispensing chemist, or pharmaceutist, without being duly qualified, and registered as a pharmaceutical chemist. The adulteration of medicine was also prohibited by the incorporation of the Adulteration of Food and Drink Act 1860 (23 and 24 Vict, c. 84), it being declared that such adulteration should be deemed an admixture injurious to health. More recently, in 1872, the Act 35 and 36 Vict. c. 74, renders it penal for any one to adulterate a drug for sale, or to sell such drug. In the first case the penalty is a sum not exceeding £50, together with the costs of the conviction; and for a second offence he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six calendar months, with hard labour. In the second case, the seller of an adulterated drug is subject to a penalty not exceeding £20, together with costs; and for a second offence he shall have his name, place of abode, and offence published in any manner that the justice thinks fit. The chief adulterations and debasing of drugs are the following:—In the case of vegetable substances, as jalap, opium, rhubarb, cinchona bark, &c., foreign substances are added to make up for the loss of weight in drying and powdering, there being in many cases a trade allowance of only four per cent, for such loss, whereas in almost all cases it exceeds this. Roots, seeds, and barks, for example, lose from 6 to 9 per cent., scammony 7 per cent., aloes 9, sarsaparilla 10, squills 12, and opium from 15 to 25 per cent. At other times foreign substances are added to assist the grinding, or to improve the appearance of the article. Occasionally the active principles are removed, or the medicine has become worthless from keeping or from faulty preparation. In the case of the alkaloids, inert substances, as sugar, starch, gum, &c., are mixed with them to increase their weight and bulk. Lastly, the activity of a vegetable drug may greatly depend on its mode and place of culture. With respect to mineral preparations, there is even a still larger field for adulteration, insomuch that the purity of the article is entirely regulated by the wholesale price of it. Again, directly after the Act of 1856 (18 and 19 Vict. c. 38), which permitted the sale of methylated spirit—that is, inferior spirit mixed with wood-naphtha, duty free for manufacturing purposes—advantage was taken of it by many chemists and druggists, and the cheap spirit was used for making tinctures and other medicinal preparations. This, however, came at last to be so serious and dangerous a practice, and was withal so great a fraud on the revenue, that means were taken to suppress it by the Act 29 and 30 Vict. c. 64, wherein it is provided that such spirit shall not be used in any medicinal preparation, except in the manufacture of chloroform, ether, and the vegetable alkaloids, or in the preparation of other things whereby the spirit was afterwards entirely dissipated. But Mr Phillips remarks, in the Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, that a few instances have been discovered of the sale of drinks under the names of "Indianna brandee," "medicated whiskee," " pure Islay mountain," "Indian tincture," &c., the exciting principle of all of which was found to be hyponitrous ether prepared from methylated spirit. In the case of a drink called "Hollands whiskee," it was produced by distilling the methylated spirit with a little nitric acid, and then sweetening with treacle, and flavouring with rhubarb, chloroform,
