A BATCH OF SLOW POISONERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 17, 20 May 1871, Page 16

A BATCH OF SLOW POISONERS.

[From the Medical Press and Circular.] The Corporation of Dublin have taken decided action relative to the sale of poisonous and adulterated confectionery in that city. The specimens were obtained in the following manner :—An officer of the Public Health Committee of the Corporation of Dublin purchased a quantity of confectionery at thirteen establishments, wherein the sugar boiling industry is carried on. When buying the samples he gave notice to the vendors of his intention to carry them at once to Dr. Cameron, the City Analyst, in order that they might be analysed. This notice was given in accordance with one of the provisions of the Food Adulteration Prevention Act of 1860, which is intended to give the vendor an opportunity of accompanying the purchaser to the analyst, so as to prevent the articles being tampered with in transitu. The total number of different kinds of confections examined amouated to 123. Those manufactured at three establishments were quite puie; the collections obtained at the other shops (ten in number) contained poisonous pigments and other impurities. Out of

forty confections colored yellow, only two owed their hue to saffron. One was colored with gamboge; and all the others were colored with chromate of lead, in quantities varying from 1-4 000th to less than l-1000th of the weight of the confections. The common sugar-stick, sold at l|-d per 2ozs, contained the largest proportion of chromate of lead. Twelve articles —chiefly lozenges and f ‘ sugar almonds” —had a bright orange hue, due to the presence of a variety of chromate of lead. Thirty-eight of the specimens comprising “ peaches,” sugar almonds, lozenges, comfits, sugarstick, sugar-balls, &c. — had various shades of red, from a faint pink to a bright scarlet. Of these thirty-three specimens were colored with cochineal, two contained mercuric sulphide or vermillion in the proportion of four grains per ounce of the confection. At one time arsenite of copper was frequently used to impart a brilliant green color to confectionery ; but the numerous accidents which occurred from the employment of this poisonous pigment have so alarmed the public that green confectionery is now scarcely to be met with. Only one of the specimens examined was colored green, and that was only a small figure of a baby, with the green frock on it. The color was composed of a mixture of Prussian blue and chromate of lead. Blue is not a popular color; only one specimen having streaks of this was contained in 123 samples. The pigment employed was ultramarine. Six specimens were brilliantly coloured with coal tar dyes, mauve, magenta, &c. The aniline dyes, when allowed to come in contact with the skin, occasionally produce toxic effects. As these dyes are liable to contain traces of lead, mercury, and arsenic, their use should be absolutely prohibited, as in Paris, under a severe penalty, on any substance intended for human food. An article of food containing more than one grain of chromate of lead per ounce may well be regarded as a slow poison. Soft water containing less than one grain of lead per gallon (70,000 grains weight) has often produced poisonous effects on individuals and families, Chromium (an ingredient of chromate of lead) is also a poisonous metal. Six grains of salt of this metal injected into the jugular vein of a dog caused the death of the animal. Workmen engaged in the preparation of chromate of potash often suffer from an ulceration of the throat, resembling that of secondary syphillis, and also from slow necrosis of the nasal bones. There is no doubt but that the use of confectionery colored with chromate of lead produces a large amount of infantile disease. There is a general belief in the inertness of vermillion but Dr Cameron stated that he had experimented with it, and that it produced mercurialism in the human subject when taken in large doses. The lozenges purchased at two of the thirteen confectioners’ shops contained from 12 to 15 per cent, of an insoluble white clay, known in the trade under the term of terra alba. The peaches, sugar almonds, lozenges, and comfits contained rice, starch, and gum-arabic. Cough lozenges and bath pipe contained gum, sugar, and extract of liquorice—a few of them being slightly medicated by the addition of opium and camphor (probably in the form of paregoric elixir.) Small quantities (under 3 per cent.) of plaster of Paris were found in the bath pipe and cough lozenges, but they were probably derived from adulterated liquorice extract. A figure of a baby in its cradle had the following composition :—The cradle was composed of a mixture of plaster of Paris and sugar ; the body of the baby was sugar and rice starch ; its eyes were Prussian blue, its cheeks were tinted with cochineal, and its clothes were painted with chromate of lead. The ten sugar confectioners, whose wares were found to contain objectionable matters, were prosecuted before the police magistrate. Five of them on paying costs (£3), and promising to abandon the use of poisonous pigments were “ let off with a cautionthe others were fined respectively £5 and £3 costs, £1 and £1 costs, £1 and £1 costs, 10s and £3 costs, and 10s. We hope these exposures will act as a warning to manufacturers in other parts of the kingdom.