GLUCOSE SUGAR. Its Deleterious Elements and the danger which threatens the public.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1270, 19 August 1880, Page 3

GLUCOSE SUGAR. Its Deleterious Elements and the danger which threatens the public.

The interest that has been excited ly the recent publications in our city papers upon glucose sugars id not confined to our refiners of sugar, but is of vital importance to every household throughout the United States. As one of these J take the liberty of stating a few facts that have a bearing upon this question and which are not generally known. Mr. Nichols very innocently tells your correspondent that the only difference between cane and glucose sngur is a single atom of oxygen and one atom of hydrogen. This was of so slight importance that he neglected to add that it made the difference in their sweetening proportions of forty per cent. ; owing to which cirsix pounds of cane sugar are of equal value to the consumer as ten pounds of glucose. We are somewhat astonished at, the position taken by Mr. Havemeyer, in the reported interview with your correspondent, in asserting that it is no adulteration to mix glucose wif-h cane sugar, owinar to its being harmle&s. To adulterate, as commonly understood, is mix a cheaper and less worthy article with one of higher value and palm it off upon the unwary for the purpose of j realizing a larger profit. Milkmen have used an article as harmless as glucose, and ' yet have not escaped the onus of adulteration. It is claimed that glucose sugar is both pure and wholesome, a truth to which I unhesitatingly subscribe when it is produced by nature's process, as is seen in the grape, but when made, as now done, by the aid of sulphuric acid, I believe neither in its purity nor wholcsomGness. Small as has been the proportion of this bugar used, its effects have been sufficiently marked to arrest ti»e attention of many of our sagacious physicians, who have already sounded their warning against its use. They have told us the fearful increase of that deadly disease, which was rarely heard of, until glucose sugar made its appearance (Bright's disease of the kidneys), is due to the impurities that insidiously lurk in glucose sugar. Professor Ividder, the celebrated chemist of the Michigan Agricultural College, announces that "of seventeen samples of table syrup recently examine! by him fifteen proved to be made of glucose, one of which contained 141 grains of oil of vitriol and 724 grains of lime to the galJon. Another, which had caused serious sickness to an entire family known to him, contained 72 grains of oil of vitriol, 28 grains of copperas, and 363 grains of lime to the gallon. " If there are facts then the mixture of glucose sugar with anything is adulteration, and a villainous one at that. It is a dangerous economy to pay a higher price for an article possessing these deleterious elements, and a stupid one to purchase ten pounds for the sweetening that ip contained in six of pure cane sugar. Our sugar refiners have little to i egret at the cold shoulder turned upon them by the Buffalo Glucose Company ; and the time will come when the wisdom and the integrity of honestly sticking to their legitimate product will manifest itself to their satl- faction, and more to to that of the public. For family use pure cane sugar is vastly cheaper than glucose as now sold. Even if the latter article was wholesome and pure as claimed we are awa'e that consummate skill and science have been erapluycd in bringing to a high state of perfoction the manipulations of glucose sugar ; that many grades are made more or less freed from the acid and lime used. Still I believe it all contains the germs of death, and it is in the interest of our children, who are its large consumers, that legislative action should be invoked. The impetus that has been given to the production of this article is largely due to the demand which its use among ale brewers has given rise to. For this purpose a cheap nrticle is made, and to-day it is hard to find a pure glass of ale that is nncontaminated by this cheaper and viler sugar. Hitherto the limited supply that has been made has entered into the drink and diet in so small a quantity that its injurious effects have been counterbalanced by the natural recuperative energy of the system, and in face of the warning of both chemists and physicians the public has been lulled to apathy. Bnt now enterprises of vast magnitude promise to flood the country. Enterprise and competition will force it into every avenue of trade ; hence it behcves the penplt to make a more careful investigation and to know definitely the nature of so vsust an economy. I advise all housekeepers to pui-chape pure cane svgar — first, for its purity, and Becond, owing to its being cheaper. I would advise as the first step to an enlightened action that Congress appoint at least three eminent analytical chemists to analyze the different grades of sugar and the syrups now in the market, so as to know definitely the legislation necespary to protect the people. — H.H. New York Herald, April 16th 1880.