Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 10.

Health and Temperance.

ADULTERATION OF CANDY.

THIS is from the National Druggist:—

The Board of Trade Journal, of Portland, Me., is authority for the statement that about six thousand tons of terra alba were recently imported through the port of New York alone. The only use for terra alba, in any quantity, is in the adulteration of candies, and when these two facts are put together they become very significant. The substance is mineral, utterly insoluble in the saliva or the gastric juice, and the result of eating candies so adulterated cannot be otherwise than excessively injurious. The devilishness of the use of such stuff in candies is all the greater for the fact that most of the candies that are adulterated with it are used by children of tender years. The extent to which it exists in certain candies may be surmised by an incident which occurred within the experience of the editor of the National Druggist.

A wholesale grocery house of St. Louis made a claim against the South Shore Line for damages done a certain lot of lozenges manufactured by a Boston house and shipped in barrels over that line. The general agent of the line procured some of the lozenges and brought them to the writer for examination. The result of our investigation showed them to consist entirely of terra alba bound together with a little gelatin or gum (we have forgotten which). Further investigation developed the fact that they were simply blocks or forms to be used in preparing cheap lozenges, the method of use being simply to immerse them for a few moments in syrups flavored with peppermint, wintergreen, etc. The agent, armed with these facts, refused to pay any damages, and the concern, rather than risk the exposure incident upon a lawsuit, dropped the claim.