The extent to which the various forms of pepper are fraudulently contaminated in the United States is illustrated by the fact that, out of 386 samples of the condiment examined by the chemists of the New York, Massachusetts and National State Boards of Health, 236 (or about 61 per cent.) were found to be adulterated. FOOTNOTES: [141] ‘Analyst,’ 1886, p. 186. [142] Rép. anal. Chem., iii. p. 68. [143] Zeit. f. anal. Chem., 1884, p. 501. [144] Archiv. der Pharm., 233, p. 825. [145] Chem. Centralb., 1884, p. 577. [146] ‘Analyst,’ Feb. 1887, p. 23; Mar. p. 47. SPICES. As is the case with mustard and pepper, the adulteration of the ordinary spices is exceedingly prevalent in the United States. Probably those most subject to admixture, are cloves, mace, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger. The fact that these condiments are frequently offered for sale in a ground state furnishes an opportunity to incorporate with them various cheaper vegetable substances, of which the manufacturer too often makes use. For the detection of these additions the use of the microscope is of pre-eminent importance; and, in this regard, no more useful information could be afforded than by quoting the following remarks, furnished to the author by Clifford Richardson, Assistant Chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, who has lately made a valuable contribution to the literature of spice adulteration.[147] “Spices consist of certain selected parts of aromatic or pungent plants possessing a characteristic anatomical structure and proximate composition which, when they have been carefully studied and recorded, serve as a means of recognising the pure substances when under examination, and distinguishing them from the different structure and composition of the adulterants which have been added to them. “To carry on an investigation of this description a limited knowledge of botanical physiology (as well as of proximate chemical analysis) is therefore necessary. For the physiological part, the use of the microscope, as a means of determining structure, is necessary. “The structure of the plant parts which constitute the spices and their adulterants as well, is characterised by the presence or absence of different forms of cells and of starch, and their relative arrangement. At least, this is as far as it is necessary to go from the analyst’s point of view. By studies of sections of pure whole spices one must become familiar with the forms usually met with in the spices and those which are prominent in adulterants and be able to recognise the presence of starch and by the character of the granules to determine their source. “The common forms of cells which are met with in the spices, and with which one should be familiar, are known as parenchyma cells, sclerenchyma cells, those of fibro-vascular bundles, spiral and dotted cells, and those of peculiar form in the cortex and epidermis.