The Home Medical Library Volume V Part 8

=SPICES.=--Spices should be bought whole and ground in a spice mill as needed; if this is done, there need be little fear of their impurity, for whole spices are difficult to simulate or adulterate. Ground spices may be adulterated with bark, flour, starches, or arrowroot; these adulterants are harmless, but are fraudulent, as they increase the bulk and decrease the strength. Their actual presences can only be demonstrated by a microscopical or chemical examination.

=Peppers.=--Black pepper is made from the whole berry; white pepper is made from the same berry with the outer husk removed. The adulterants are usually inert and harmless substances, such as flour, mustard, or linseed oil; their presence is obviated by the use of the whole peppercorns, ground as needed.

=Red Pepper.=--This may be adulterated with red lead; when pure it will be entirely suspended in water; if a sediment falls it is probably red lead.

=Mustard.=--Practically all of the adulterants of mustard can only be detected by intricate chemical tests. The presence of turmeric may be detected by the appearance of an orange-red color when ammonia is added to a solution of the sample.

=Tomato Catsup.=--Artificial dyestuffs are common, giving a brilliant crimson or magenta color. Such catsup does not resemble the natural dull red or brown color of the homemade article.

Preservatives, such as boric, salicylic, or benzoic acids and their salts, are sometimes added. While their presence cannot be condoned, yet they are usually present in small amounts and therefore practically harmless.

=Pickles.=--These should be of a dull-green color. The bright emerald green sometimes observed is due to the presence of the salts of copper; this may be proved by dipping the blade of a penknife in the liquor, as described under the heading of "Canned Goods."

Alum is sometimes used as a preservative and in order to make the pickles crisp. Its presence may be demonstrated by means of the "logwood" test mentioned under the heading of "Flour."

=VINEGAR.=--Cider vinegar is of a brownish-yellow color and possesses a strong odor of apples.

Wine vinegar is light yellow if made from white wine, and red if made from red wine.

Malt vinegar is brown and has an odor suggestive of sour beer.

Glucose vinegar has the taste and odor of fermented sugar.

Mola.s.ses vinegar has the distinctive odor and taste of mola.s.ses.

=OLIVE OIL.=--Pure olive oil has a pleasant, bland taste and a distinctive and agreeable odor, unmistakable in character for that of any other oil. The finest virgin oil is pale green in color, the cheaper grades are light yellow.

The adulterants consist of cotton-seed, corn, mustard, and peanut oils.

When pure olive oil is shaken in a gla.s.s or porcelain dish with an equal quant.i.ty of concentrated nitric or sulphuric acid[7] it turns from a pale to a dark green color in a few minutes; if under this treatment a reddish to an orange or brown color is produced the presence of a foreign vegetable oil is to be suspected.

=FLAVORING EXTRACTS--Vanilla.=--This may be wholly or in part the extract of the Tonka bean or may be made from a chemical substance known as vanillin. The best practical working tests as to its purity are the price, taste, and odor. The distinctive odor and taste of vanilla are characteristic and cannot be mistaken.[8]

=Lemon.=--This extract is often made from tartaric or citric acid.

They may be tested for as follows: to a portion of the extract in a test tube add an equal volume of water to precipitate the oil; filter, and add one or two drops of the filtrate to a test tube full of cold, clear limewater; if tartaric acid is present a precipitate will fall to the bottom of the tube. Filter off this precipitate (if present) and heat the contents of the tube; if citric acid is present it will precipitate in the hot limewater.

FOOTNOTE.--Dr. Baker wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to the following authorities and the volumes mentioned for many helpful suggestions. Pearman and Moore, "Aids to the a.n.a.lysis of Foods and Drugs"; Albert E. Leach, "Food Inspection and a.n.a.lysis"; Francis Vacher, "Food Inspector's Hand Book."

FOOTNOTES:

[4] The presence of aniline dyes may be detected by mixing a portion of the suspected sample with enough water to make a thin paste. Wet a piece of white wool cloth or yarn thoroughly with water and place it with the paste in an agate saucepan. Boil for ten minutes, stirring frequently. If a dye has been used the wool will be brightly colored; a brownish or pinkish color indicates the natural coloring matter of the fruit or vegetable.--EDITOR.

[5] A little vinegar added to heated cream or milk produces in the curd a distinct orange color if an aniline dye has been used to make the cream look "rich." The curd will be brown if annatto or caromel has been used. If pure, the curd will be white.--EDITOR.

[6] This acid must be used with great care; no portion of it should ever come in contact with the skin or clothing.

[7] These acids must be used with great care. They should never be allowed to come in contact with the skin or clothing.

[8] Add a little sugar-of-lead solution to the suspected extract; true vanilla extract will give a yellowish-brown precipitate and a pale, straw-colored liquid. If the extract is artificial, the addition of the lead solution will have little or no effect.--EDITOR.

CHAPTER II

=Mushroom Poisoning=

_Symptoms--Treatment--How to Tell Mushrooms--The Common Kind--Other Varieties--The Edible Puffball--Poisonous Mushrooms Frequently Mistaken._

=MUSHROOM POISONING.=--Vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, pains in legs; possibly confusion, as if drunk, stupidity, followed by excitement, and perhaps convulsions. Lips and face may be blue. Pulse may be weak.

_First Aid Rule 1.--Rid the stomach and bowels of remaining poison.

Give emetic of mustard, tablespoonful in three gla.s.ses of warm water, unless vomiting is already excessive. When vomiting ceases, give tablespoonful of castor oil, or compound cathartic pill._ GIVE NO SALTS. _Also empty bowels with injection of tablespoonful of glycerin in pint of warm soapsuds and water._

_Rule 2.--Antidote the poison. Give a cup of strong coffee and fifteen drops of tincture of belladonna to adult. Repeat both once, after two hours have pa.s.sed._

_Rule 3.--Rest and stimulate. Put patient to bed. Give whisky, a tablespoonful in twice as much water. Give tincture of digitalis, ten drops every two hours, till two or three doses are taken by adult._

=Symptoms.=--Vomiting and diarrhea come on in a few hours to half a day, with cramps in the stomach and legs. The face and lips may grow blue. There is great prostration. In the case of poisoning by the _fly amanita_, stupor may appear early, the patient acting as if drunk, and difficult breathing may be a noticeable symptom. Afterwards the patient becomes excited and convulsions develop. The pulse becomes weak and slow. The patient may die in a few hours, or may linger for three or four days. If treatment be thorough, recovery may result.

=Treatment.=--Unless vomiting has already been excessive, the patient should receive a tablespoonful of mustard mixed with a gla.s.sful of tepid water. After the vomiting ceases he should receive a tablespoonful of castor oil, or any cathartic except salts. If the cathartic is vomited, he should receive an injection into the r.e.c.t.u.m of a tablespoonful of glycerin mixed with a pint of soapsuds and water. Coffee and atropine (or belladonna) are the best antidotes.

If a physician be secured, he will probably give a hypodermic injection of atropine. If a physician is not procurable, the patient should receive a cup of strong coffee, and a dose of ten or fifteen drops of tincture of belladonna in a tablespoonful of water, if an adult. This dose should be repeated once after the lapse of two hours.

The patient should be kept in bed, a bedpan being used when the bowels move.

When the pulse begins to grow weak, two tablespoonfuls of whisky and ten drops of the tincture of digitalis should be given to an adult in quarter of a gla.s.s of hot water. The digitalis should be repeated every two hours till three or four doses have been taken. The patient must be kept warm with hot-water bottles and blankets.

=HOW TO KNOW MUSHROOMS.=--One-sixth of one of the poisonous mushrooms has caused death. It is, therefore, impossible to exert too much care in selecting them for food. A novice would much better learn all the characteristics of edible and poisonous mushrooms in the field from an expert before attempting to gather them himself, and should not trust to book descriptions, except in the case of the few edible species described hereafter. It is not safe for a novice to gather the immature or b.u.t.ton mushrooms, because it is much more difficult to determine their characteristics than those of the full grown. As reference books, the reader is advised to procure Bulletin No. 15 of the United States Department of Agriculture, ent.i.tled "Some Edible and Poisonous Fungi," by Dr. W. G. Farlow, which will be sent without charge on request by the Agricultural Department at Washington; "Studies of American Fungi," by Atkinson, and Miss Marshall's "Mushroom Book," all of which are fully ill.u.s.trated, and will prove helpful to those interested in edible fungi.

There are no single tests by which one can distinguish edible from poisonous fungi, such as taste, odor, the blackening of a silver spoon, etc., although contrary statements have been made. Even when the proper mushrooms have been eaten, ill effects, death itself, may follow if the mushrooms have been kept too long, have been insufficiently cooked, have been eaten in too large a quant.i.ty (especially by children), or if the consumer is the possessor of an unhappy idiosyncrasy toward mushrooms.

No botanic distinction exists between toadstools and mushrooms; mushrooms may be regarded as edible toadstools. They are all, botanically speaking, edible or poisonous fungi. A description follows of the five kinds of fungi most commonly eaten, and the poisonous species which may be mistaken for them.

=EDIBLE MUSHROOMS.=--=1. The Common Mushroom= (_Agaricus Campestris_).--The fungi called agarici are those which have gills, that is, little plates which look like knife blades on the under surface of the top of the mushroom, radiating outward from the stem like the spokes of a wheel. This is the species most frequently grown artificially, and sold in the markets. The top or cap of this mushroom is white, or of varying shades of brown, and measures from one and a half to three or even four inches in diameter. It is found in the latter part of August, in September, and in October, growing in cl.u.s.ters on pastures, fields, and lawns.

The gills are pink or salmon colored in the newly expanded specimen; but as it grows older, or after it is picked, the gills turn dark purple, chestnut brown, or black. This is the important point to remember, since the poisonous species mistaken for it all have white gills. The gills end with abrupt upward curves at the center of the cap without being attached to the stem. In the young mushroom, when the cap is folded down about the stem, the gills are not noticeable, as they are covered by a veil or filmy membrane, a part of which remains attached to the stem (when the top expands), as a ring or collar about the stem a little more than halfway up from the ground.

The stem is solid and not hollow, and there is no bulbous enlargement at the base of the stem, surrounded by scales or a collar, as occurs in the _fly amanita_ and other poisonous species. Neither the _campestris_ nor any other mushroom should be eaten when over a day old, since decomposition quickly sets in.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35.

THE FIELD MUSHROOM.