And dusted the pepper?" "Yes, Sir." "And chicoried
the coffee?" "Yes, Sir." "Then come up to prayers." Let us hope that the
grocers of the present day, while they adulterate less, do not pray
less.

Between 1851 and 1854, Mr. Wakley of the "London Lancet" gave an awful
roasting to the adulteration-interest in London. He employed an able
analyzer, who began by going about without telling what he was at; and
buying a great number of samples of all kinds of food, drugs, etc., at a
great number of shops. Then he analyzed them; and when he found humbug
in any sample, he published the facts, and the seller's name and place
of business. It may be imagined what a terrible row this kicked up. Very
numerous and violent threats were made; but the "Lancet," was never once
sued by any of the aggrieved, for it had told the truth.

Perhaps some discouraged reader may ask, What can I eat? Well, I don't
pretend to direct people's diet. Ask your doctor, if you can't find out.
But I will suggest that there are a few things that can't be
adulterated. You can't adulterate an egg, nor an oyster, nor an apple,
nor a potato, nor a salt codfish; and if they are spoiled they will
notify you themselves! and when good, they are all good healthy food. In
short, one good safeguard is, to use, as far as you can, things with
their life in them when you buy them, whether vegetable or animal. The
next best rule against these adulteration-humbugs is, to buy goods crude
instead of manufactured; coffee, and pepper, and spices, etc., whole
instead of ground, for instance. Thus, though you give more work, you
buy purity with it. And lastly, there are various chemical processes,
and the microscope, to detect adulterations; and milk, in particular,
may always be tested by a lactometer,--a simple little instrument which
the milkmen use, which costs a few shillings, and which tells the story
in an instant. It is a glass bulb, with a stem above and a scale on it,
and a weight below. In good average milk, at sixty degrees of heat, the
lactometer floats at twenty on its scale; and in poorer milk, at from
that figure down. If it floats at fifteen, the milk is one-fourth water;
if at ten, one half.

It would be a wonderful thing for mankind if some philosophic Yankee
would contrive some kind of "ometer" that would measure the infusion of
humbug in anything. A "Humbugometer" he might call it. I would warrant
him a good sale.

CHAPTER XIX.

ADULTERATIONS IN