On the composition of food and how it is adulterated : with practical directions for its analysis / by W. Marcet.

  • William Marcet
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the composition of food and how it is adulterated : with practical directions for its analysis / by W. Marcet. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the market with a less nutritious and less valuable article of diet; still no poison has been added to it, nothing that is likely to produce disease; and, as Nature has ordained that there must be different classes of people, and different qualities of food, if the less opulent classes can live and thrive upon inferior bread and inferior meat, the mixture of these, v\^ith food of a superior quality, although in many cases contrary to the principles of a sound morality, can hardly be considered as seriously detrimental to the general health of the population. The second mode of adulteration, that of increasing or diminishing one or more of the constituents of an article of food, is, no doubt, in all cases, objectionable; still we must sometimes submit to it, on account of the impossibility of its being removed. Thus it is difficult, not to say im- possible, to procure certain wines entirely free from alcohol added previously to importation; the only inconvenience of the practice, in this case, when confined within certain limits, is that of altering, and in general deteriorating the taste and flavour of the wine. But, unluckily, this mode of adulteration is carried on to a considerable, and, in some cases, frightful extent, with other and more important ar- ticles of food within our own immediate reach; and, though not introducing into the food any element of an actually deleterious nature, gives rise to fraudulent practices well deserving the attention of the Legislature.
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