ADULTERATION (°making wise), in its legal sense the deceiving of buy ers of goods as to their quality by secretly add ing or taking away basic constituents. The element of deception must be present; openly selling any mixture, however poor, is not adul teration legally or morally. In current usage the term is restricted to food products, drugs and dyestuffs. The adulteration of coinage is termed °counterfeiting" (q.v.) that of unsound meat, fish, etc., °doctoring," a term which, with °sophistication," is also used for wines and liquors. Adulterated woolen fabrics are collo quially but not always properly known as "shoddy." The object of adulteration is to gain more profit: with costly wares, either by diluting them with cheaper ones, or by remov ing some valuable element for separate sale; with cheap ones, to make them look like or have the flavor of costlier ones; with spoiled or damaged ones, to make them appear sound. Most adulterations are not directly injurious to health, the public being cheated rather than poisoned, and it is to some extent a copartner in the deception, as the cost of wholly pure articles would greatly curtail buying. On the other hand, it is often forced into such co partnership by inability to find or know the good when willing to pay for it, and wastes money by paying for a pure article and receiv ing an adulterated one. And as the reduction of the nutritive value of food is itself a great evil; as the extent or harmfulness of adultera tions cannot be known offhand and tends always to grow worse as the maker grows greedier and his character deteriorates from losing his self-respect (itself a great social evil) ; as hon est dealers are not only prejudiced by unfair competition, and suspected of fraud when qualities are poor, but often driven into the same course in self-defense; and as hasty addi tions of cheap materials are always liable to come from diseased sources and menace public safety,— modern legislation constantly broadens its scope in dealing with this offense alike from a pecuniary, a sanitary and a moral standpoint. Ignorance is not considered a valid excuse to a dealer who sells adulterated wares under the ordinary trade title; the offense is a fraud at common law, and he may be compelled to take back the goods or pay damages.
The history of adulteration would probably be coexistent with that of trade. We know
that it was practised by the Greeks and Romans, and the comic dramatists have divert ing references to the gdoctorine of stale fish. English statutes exist from 1266 with penalties for debasing beer or wine and selling inferior bread or meat, while tea (see below) had later a special statute; and the law-makers have never ceased struggling with the problem. But the first great general agitation was in 1851, when the London' Lancet aroused the public by a special investigation, publishing analyses and names of dealers; and the first parliamentary commission was appointed. The first general adulteration act was passed in 1860.
The chief articles subject to adulteration have been, first of course, the great staples of life, flour and bread, milk, butter and cheese, with beer, wines, liquors and tobacco, staple in use if not need; relishes and seasonings, as sugar, honey, preserves, vinegar, pickles, con diments and spices; oil and lard; tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate; confectionery; drugs and dyestuffs. The selection and extent of adultera tions vary indefinitely with place and time; as cost or popular wealth differs in different coun tries and epochs, adulterations common in one place or generation are almost unknown in an other.
The objects of its adulteration are three: To give artificial strength to weak beer, to disguise the badness of poor or spoiled beer and to keep it from spoiling. The most com mon adulteration is the substitution of quassia, gentian, aloes or other bitter extract for the bitter principle of hops. Capsicum is added to give pungency and flaxseed and glucose to give the body which should be derived from malt. Carbonic acid gas is forced into imitation beer to give it "life." Alum, potash, cream of tar tar and salt, used to make beer keep, are not regarded as deleterious adulterants. Salicylic acid is the preservative most commonly used, and benzoic acid and sulphites perhaps as fre quently. Formaldehyde is also a frequent ad dition. A common practice is to fumigate beer casks with sulphurous acid gas and the beer afterward put into the casks takes enough of the acid to preserve it. Wild cherries, vari ous herbs and foliages, etc., are employed to improve a poor flavor. They are cheats but not injurious.