Pepper is subject to adulteration, like most other articles of consumption. The spurious pepper consists of chalk, flour, ground mustard-seed, &c. mingled with a certain portion of the genuine berry, a quantity of pepper dust, or the sweepings of the pepper warehouses, mixed with a little Cayenne pepper; the whole being made into a cohesive mass by means of mucilage. Even the whole berry has not been able to escape the ingenuity of sophistication. The adulterated berry is manufactured of the hulls of mustard-seed, or oil-cakes composed of the residue of lint-seed, from which the oil has been pressed, glue, common clay or chalk, and a certain quantity of stuff known and purchased in the market under the name and cabalistical abbreviations of P. D. or D. P. D., the first mentioned of which delectable ingredients is the dust which falls from the pepper-corns by their rubbing against each other in their voyage from the place of their growth to that of their importation; the other is the sweepings or refuse of the pepper warehouses. The first abbreviation signifies _pepper dust_; the second, _dirt of pepper dust_. The mode of manufacturing these inviting ingredients is to granulate the mass by pressing it through a sieve, and then to roll the grains about in a cask until they take a globular form. “Artists” are then employed to stick into each pepper-corn little sprigs, in order to simulate the appearance of the genuine berry. This practice was long carried on in London, without the least interruption or suspicion of the fraud on the public and the revenue, until the collection of the duties was, in the year 1819, transferred from the Customs to the Excise; when, on that occasion, several convictions of the offenders took place, which may be seen in the newspapers published about that period.