our constitution? Chicory, to say the best of it, is an insipid root, totally destitute of any nourishing or refreshing quality, being utterly deficient in any nitrogenized principle, whilst there are strong doubts whether it is not absolutely hurtful to the nervous system. Professor Beer, the celebrated oculist of Vienna, forbids the use of it to his patients, considering it to be the cause of amaurotic blindness. Even supposing it to be perfectly harmless, we have a material of the value of 8_d._ a pound, which the grocer is allowed to mix, _ad libitum_, with one worth 1_s._ 4_d._ If the poor got the benefit of the adulteration, there might be some excuse for permitting the admixture of chicory, but it is proved that the combination is sold in many shops at the same price as pure coffee. Analyses made by Dr. Hassall of upwards of a hundred different samples of coffee, purchased in all parts of the metropolis before the issuing of the order for the labelling of the packages 'chicory and coffee,' proved that, in a great number of cases, articles sold as "finest Mocha," "choice Jamaica coffee," "superb coffee," &c., contained, in some instances, very little coffee at all; in others "only a fifth, a third, half," &c., the rest being made up mainly of chicory. Nothing is more indicative of the barefaced frauds perpetrated by grocers upon the public than the manner in which they go out of their way to puff in the grossest style the most abominable trash. The report of the sanitary commission gives many examples of these puff and announcements, which, we are informed, are kept set up at the printers, and may be had in any quantities. We quote one as an example:-- "JOHN ----'S COFFEE, "_The richness, flavour, and strength of which are not to be surpassed._ "Coffee has now become an article of consumption among all classes of the community. Hence the importance of supplying an article of such a character as to encourage its consumption in preference to beverages the use of which promotes a vast amount of misery. "John ----'s coffee meets the requirement of the age, and, as a natural result, the celebrity to which it has attained is wholly unparalleled. Its peculiarity consists in its possessing that rich aromatic flavour, combined with great strength and deliciousness, which is to be found alone in the choicest mountain growths. It may, with perfect truth, be stated that no article connected with _domestic economy_ has given such general satisfaction, and the demand for it is rapidly increasing. "John ----'s establishment, both for extent and capability, is the first in the empire. "Observe! "Every canister of John ----'s coffee bears his signature, without which none is _genuine_." At the end of this puff the analyst places the words-- "_Adulterated with a considerable quantity of chicory!_"