Part 81 (1/2)

Brown sugar changes under atmospheric influences, and loses its sweetness.

This change is attributed to the lime it contains. The best grade of brown sugar is nearly dry, of yellowish color, and emits less odor than the lower grades. It consists of cane sugar, vegetable and gummy matter, tannic acid, and lime. Put your hand into a barrel containing damp brown sugar, press a quant.i.ty, and suddenly relax your grasp, and it moves as though it was alive. It is alive! Place a few grains under a powerful microscope, and lo! you see organized animals, with bodies, heads, eyes, legs, and claws!

Poor people, who purchase brown sugar in preference to white, miss a figure in their selection, by the sand, water, and other foreign substances which the former contains.

Brown sugar is not so wholesome as the refined. I have attributed several cases of gravel that have come under my observation to the patients'

habitual use of low grades of brown sugar.

CONFECTIONERY. THE FIRST STEP IN ITS ADULTERATION.

Confectionery and sweetmeats used to be manufactured from sugar, flour, fruit, nuts, etc., and flavored with sa.s.safras, lemon, orange, vanilla, rose, and the extracts of various other plants or vegetables. When compet.i.tion came in the way of profits on these articles, the avaricious and dishonest manufacturer began to subst.i.tute or add something of a cheaper or heavier nature to these compositions, which would enable him to sell at a lower price, with even a greater profit. Candy cheats were not easily detected, the sweets and flavors hiding the mult.i.tude of sins of the confectioner.

It seemed all but useless for the would-be honest manufacturer to attempt to either compete with his rival or to expose his rascalities, which latter would only serve to advertise the wares of his compet.i.tor. Hence he, too, adopted the same practice of adulterating his manufactures. One dishonest man makes a thousand. I do not affirm that there are no honest confectioners,--this would be as ungenerous as untrue,--or that we must use no confectionery. But let us hereby learn to avoid that which is impure.

GYPSUM, TERRA ALBA, OR PLASTER OF PARIS.

This is the princ.i.p.al article used in the manufacture of impure candies.

The first intimation that the writer had of terra alba being mixed with sugar in candy, was when one confectioner placed a sample of the _white earth_ in a dish upon his counter, with a sample of confectionery made therefrom, to expose the cheat of his rivals. ”But as for me, I make only pure candies,” etc., was his affirmation. Well, perhaps he did.

What is the nature of gypsum, terra alba, or white earth? Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, is a white, crystalline mineral, found in the excrement of most animals. Hence gypsum is extensively used as an artificial manure.

It is found in peat soil, also used for manure, and is a natural production, occurring in rocky ma.s.ses, under various names, as alabaster, anhydrate, and selenite.

The natural gypsum, or plaster of commerce, consists of

Water, 21 per cent.

Lime, 33 ”

Sulphuric acid, 46 ”

--- 100

Plaster was used as a fertilizer by the early Roman and British farmers.

It was introduced into America in 1772. It may here be worthy of notice, that when Dr. Franklin desired to exhibit its utility to his unbelieving countrymen, he sowed upon a field near Was.h.i.+ngton, in large letters, with pulverized gypsum, the following words: ”This has been plastered.”

The result is supposed to have been highly convincing. But this was as a manure. Dr. Franklin did not recommend it as a condiment.

You may know children who have been sown with plaster--though that plaster was modified by the smaller admixture of sugar--by their pale, puny, weakly appearance. Sugar has a tendency to increase the fatty and warming matter of the system; gypsum, or terra alba, to destroy it.

Gypsum is used in confectionery without being calcined. Calcined plaster, after being wet, readily ”sets,” or hardens. Heating gypsum deprives it of the percentage of water, when it is known to commerce as ”plaster of Paris.” It is cheap as manure; hence it is used instead of sugar.

Terra alba taken into the system absorbs the moisture essential to health, and disposes the child to weakness of the joints and spinal column, to rickets, marasmus, and consumption. There are other diseases to which its habitual use exposes the user; but if parents will not heed the above warning, it is useless to multiply reasons for not feeding children upon cheap or adulterated confectionery.

TO DETECT MINERAL SUBSTANCE.

Take no man's _ipse dixit_ when the health or lives of your precious ones are at stake. ”Prove all things.”

To detect mineral substances in candy, put a quant.i.ty--particularly of lozenges, peppermints, or cream candy--into a bowl, pour on sufficient hot water to cover it well. Sugar is soluble in boiling water to any extent.