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CHAPTER II.

ADULTERATION OF BREAD AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Government Investigation of Commercial Frauds.—Beautiful adaptation of Pure Bread to the Wants of Man.—Grievous Social Wrong of Adulteration.—Power of the English People to redress it, in a calm and equitable Spirit.—Chemical and Medical Testimony to the injurious effects of Alum.—Punishment in France for Bread-Frauds.

The adulteration of bread with alum and other deleterious substances, has lately excited the serious attention of the public and of the government, and caused searching investigation to be made as to the extent of this fraudulent practice. The result has not been satisfactory, but has thrown great discredit, without doubt, on one or two branches of English trade, which, above all others, ought to be secure from such abuse. It is indeed a grave social offence to vitiate any part of the daily food of a nation, but especially that which, from its inestimable value to us, has been not inaptly named in a neighbouring country "the blessing of Heaven;*" and no plausibilities can ever justify or palliate it; nor will any right thinking man be induced by the love of gain, or deference to the conventionalities of his craft, to join in an offence so serious in its nature and in its results. All that has hitherto been pleaded in its defence, by those who are personally interested in the question, seems worse than trivial when urged in relation to such a subject. The facts of the case are plainly and simply these:—The earth yields us—thanks to a beneficent Providence!— abundant food of the purest character, exquisitely adapted, if we use it rightly, to the healthful maintenance of human life; and we are assured, on high scientific authority, that it is so tampered with in its preparation for sale, as to become a positive vehicle of diseases of a most painful nature. It appears indeed wonderful, that the habitual falsification of anything which is of such inestimable importance to us, should ever have been tolerated by the public; and, still more so, that it should have been continued to the present moment; but, like all else of fraud and of wrong, this evil will gradually give way, without doubt, to quiet but determined resistance. Let it be at once distinctly known and felt that the English people insist on being supplied with bread of genuine quality, and they will have it. They can effect—and with the utmost gentleness, if they will —any reform of the kind on which they are seriously resolved; and they cannot better exercise this power than in putting an end to the gross injustice which compels them to pay a heavy price for food that, not only fails to afford them the nourishment they ought to derive from it, but inflicts on them formidable injuries as well; yet even to obtain a great good, a calm and equitable spirit should be exercised. To strive for the right, from a love of the right, is noble; but violent and indiscriminate attacks on a whole body of men, for real or supposed offences, are calculated rather to excite vehement reprisals, bitterness, and prolonged contention, than to obtain any benefit whatever; and certainly it would be unfair in the extreme to charge on the present generation of bakers all the faults of a system which they did not originate, but to the usages of which they served their apprenticeship, and which they continue to follow, in many instances, it is not to be doubted, without any really dishonest intentions towards their customers, or a thought of the mischief which they occasion. Amongst them, too, are men of unquestionable probity, who, taking no part in the frauds of their trade, may well feel themselves aggrieved at being included in the strictures directed against them. Still, when these exceptional cases have received all just consideration, there will remain a large amount of abuse to be remedied; but as it is always best to do freely and voluntarily what it has become evident must be done for the satisfaction of nearly a whole people, the bakers will possibly perceive the desirableness of carrying into effect the reforms demanded of them by public opinion, without further agitation of the subject.
    There is one point on which many of the bakers (and the millers also) decidedly err. They venture to deny that alum can affect the health in the way which medical men assert that it does. Now, as their education generally does not qualify them to form an opinion worthy of respect upon the subject*, it is unwise of them to make such an assertion. The excessively astringent nature of alum—which a particle laid on the tongue will, in a moment, render evident to the most incredulous person—must unavoidably have a very detrimental effect when it is taken, day by day, even in a minute proportion, on constitutions which are not unusually robust. And what are the objects for which it is intermingled with bread?—To give a deceptive appearance of superior quality, and so enable the vender to exact the highest price for that which is made with second or third-rate flour, and which ought to be sold much cheaper? Or, to cause it to imbibe such an extra quantity of water in its fabrication as shall add considerably to its weight, and so increase the profits of the maker? These are stated, on the best authority, to be the effects produced by it to the advantage of the trade. It will be seen that all the disadvantages fall to the lot of the consumers.
    In his "Dictionary of Chemistry," published more than thirty years since, Dr. Ure says: "The habitual and daily introduction of a portion of alum, however small, into the stomach, must be prejudicial to the exercise of its functions, particularly to persons of a bilious or costive habit; and as the best sweet flour never stands in need of it, the presence of this salt indicates an inferior and highly ascescent food, which cannot fail to aggravate dyspepsia, and which may generate also serious calculous disorders. I have made many experiments on bread, and found the proportion of alum in it very variable. Its quantity seems proportional to the badness of the flour." Amongst the disorders to which it gives rise, he mentions, "acidity of stomach, heartburn, headaches, and palpitations;" and he instances others of a more acutely painful and dangerous character.
    All that Dr. Ure has stated here has recently received the fullest confirmation in the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to examine into the general question of the falsification of food and drugs*, now so common in this country. The combined testimony of medical men and of excellent practical chemists has proved beyond the possibility of dispute, the fact of the almost universal adulteration of many articles of our daily food, and of the medicines on which we depend for the restoration of health. It may well be called a cruel system, tending as it does to destroy the strength of the strong, and to shorten the lives of the weak and delicate, by converting what in its genuine state would be wholesome nutriment, into diet which is destructive to the unconscious eaters.
    From the mass of evidence elicited by the Government Committee, a long array of facts might be selected in proof of the reality and magnitude of the evil which it was appointed to investigate, and of the necessity for some energetic measures for its suppression; but I confine myself to a short extract or two, bearing more immediately on the subject of bread and flour.
    Dr. Challis, a physician, residing in Bermondsey, said that "he had had some experience in that district on the subject of adulteration. In the first place, the adulteration of bread was most extensively practised, even by the best bakers, who had admitted to him that they used twelve ounces of alum to a hundred and forty loaves,—a quantity most injurious to the health of all classes, more especially of the poor, as, owing to many causes, their stomachs were unable to digest it as well as others. He totally disagreed with the statement which had been made, that the constitution of the alum was so changed during the process of baking, as to be rendered innoxious. The heat required to bake the bread would not be sufficient to cause the change; and he had himself found crystals of alum in bread. As a medical man he was of opinion, that alum would affect the teeth and gums, and more especially the mucous membrane of children, producing at one time constipation, and at another relaxation." But this is nothing compared with the substance of the following testimony of Mr. F. Crace Calvert, which appeared in the "Times," within two or three days of the preceding report. "Mr. Calvert, professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, Manchester, stated,—that he had frequently been called upon to examine into cases of adulteration of food and drugs. With respect to flour, his experience was chiefly derived from articles supplied to several Unions in Lancashire. He had found the wheat-flour to be adulterated with potato-starch, and flour of maize, to the amount sometimes of seventy-four per cent.; and not only was there this admixture, but frequently the flour was unsound! It was often the practice to buy wet or damaged flour at Liverpool, and, after it had been kiln-dried, to mix it with a portion of good flour, and to sell it as such!"
    There is no need for comment upon facts like these! So almost incredible do they appear, that one is tempted to ask if indeed they can occur in a land so boastful of its pre-eminent civilisation as ours; and where the interests of the meanest subject are said to be protected as strictly as those of the highest class. Happily, such instances of flagrant injustice towards the poorest of the poor must be very limited, or exposure and redress could scarcely fail to follow them. It has been often said by the advocates of the bakers, that they are not the chief adulterators of the bread they sell, but that the flour they purchase is largely mingled with alum, and further falsified with rice-flour and other ingredients. If this be so, it reaches the public through a succession of inimical agencies.
    Formerly in France, when the infliction of heavy fines proved insufficient to prevent dishonest practices on the part of the bakers, the following modes of punishment were resorted to. In one or two instances, if not more, the offenders were condemned to be "whipped naked at the cross roads;" and in 1521, four of their number were sentenced to be taken by the police from the châtelet to the porch of Nôtre Dame, bare-headed, and each one carrying a taper two pounds' weight, "there to beg pardon of God, of the King, and of Justice, for the frauds which they had committed in the fabrication, and in the deficient weight of their bread." This done, they were to be conducted into the church, and to offer their tapers to be burned in it; they, in the meanwhile, exhorting all other bakers to make their bread of the weight and quality required by law, "on pain of being scourged." This sentence was strictly executed. At subsequent periods many other well-deserved punishments of various kinds were inflicted for similar offences. At the present day the penalties incurred by the defrauders are fines and imprisonment. In England the law deals even more leniently with such culprits, pecuniary loss being the only punishment allotted to them.