is from 15 to 25 percent. It very rarely falls below 15 percent and also very rarely goes above 20 percent. In extremely dry periods it is evident that the content of water becomes less, while in times of rain or at the first advent of the flowers the content of water will be greater. The bee naturally modifies to some extent the content of water in order that the organism may dispose of the product. If the content of water is too small the bee handles the product with difficulty and if the content of water is too large difficulty in gathering and storing the honey on account of the excessive fluidity is experienced. As before intimated, the color of the honey depends largely upon the flower from which it is made. White clover gives a honey almost water-white and among all the honey-producing flowers is perhaps regarded the most highly. On the other hand a plant like the golden rod, which flowers later in the summer, produces honey of a deep yellow and sometimes almost a black tint. The color of honey, therefore, indicates not only the season of the year at which it is stored, becoming darker as the autumn advances, but also the nature of the flower from which it is produced.

Ash. The content of mineral matter in honey is extremely small and perhaps is largely due to the mechanical entanglement of dust in the nectar rather than the exudation of actual mineral matter itself from the flower. In some cases the amount of mineral matter is so small as to become a mere trace while in other cases it has been found as high as .3 of one percent. A high content of ash denotes the exposure of the nectar previous to gathering to an infection of dust or to some other abnormal condition. A high ash content, therefore, always indicates that further study should be made respecting the purity of the product.

Sucrose. The amount of sugar (cane sugar) which is found in honey is in normal conditions not very large, but in exceptional cases the sugar content, that is, the sucrose content, may reach as high as 8 or 10 percent. At such times the honey has only a slightly left-handed polarization or may become right-handed. Whenever the content of sucrose in honey reaches as high as 8 percent there is ground for suspicion that the bees have been fed on sugar sirup, or that some other form of adulteration has been practiced.

Dextrose and Levulose.-The two principal saccharine components of honey are the sugars known as dextrose and levulose, in other words, taken together, inverted sugar, that is, sugar made by the inversion of cane sugar or sucrose. In the nectar of flowers these two sugars exist almost in the proportion which would be expected if they had been formed from sucrose or ordinary sugar by a simple chemical process. Sometimes one of these sugars and sometimes the other may be in slight excess. The names of these two sugars indicate their active properties. Dextrose is a righthanded sugar, that is, it turns the plane of polarization to the right. In this respect it resembles sucrose or ordinary cane sugar, although it is not so strongly

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right-handed. Levulose, as the name implies, is a sugar which turns the plane of polarization to the left. The temperature of the solution has a very marked influence upon this active property, the lower the temperature the greater the left-handed rotation. A honey which has a strong left-handed polarization, therefore, at ordinary temperature is one in which the levulose is present in full proportion or very slight excess. The other constituents of honey, namely, the pollen which is mechanically entangled therein, the dust or dirt which is mechanically attached thereto, the formic acid imparted thereto by the bee, and the other ingredients, are extremely minute in quantity and are not, as a rule, expressed as percentage constituents. In fact the most of them are merely accidental constituents.

Adulteration of Honey.-Perhaps there is no common food product, with the possible exception of condimental substances such as pepper and spices, that has been subjected to such extensive and general adulterations as honey.

The high price of honey, its position as a luxury as well as a food product, and its attractive flavor and aroma have all combined to make it a favorite product for adulteration. In addition to this the invention in the last third. of a century of an artificial product resembling honey very closely in its physical properties and being itself a saccharine body, namely glucose, has put into the hands of the adulterator an ideal substitute for the natural product. There is only one reason why the adulteration of honey with glucose has not been more extensive than it is, namely, the ease with which the chemist can detect it. The chemical properties of glucose are very distinct from those of honey itself. In spite of this fact, however, the adulteration of honey has been most extensively exploited and until the methods of detecting it were developed it was almost universally practiced. Glucose is a water-white saccharine semiviscous mass made by the hydrolysis of starch with an acid and therefore forms the body upon which the adulterated article can be built. It has a low saccharine value and cannot be used alone but must necessarily be mingled with the honey. The amount of real honey used is, as a rule, a minimum to give the flavor and taste of the genuine article to the admixture. It is believed at the present time that this method of adulterating honey is very much less practiced than in former years and this is due, as has been said, to the ease with which it can be detected and also, it may be added, to the increased rigidity of national, state, and municipal inspection, rendering it difficult to place an adulterated article such as this upon the market without detection. Incalculable harm has been done to the honey trade of the country by the practice of this style of adulteration. Only liquid honey, that is separated or strained, can be easily adulterated with glucose. Often, however, an attempt has been made to still further deceive the customer by placing a portion of the genuine comb honey in a jar and then filling it with the adul

terated mixture, giving the appearance of the genuine article to a certain extent to the whole.

Adulteration with Inverted Sugar.-A much more subtle form of adulteration, and therefore one much more difficult to detect, is the adulteration of honey with a sirup made from inverted sugar, that is, the product obtained from cane sugar by the action of a dilute acid. This chemical process, as has already been indicated, converts the cane sugar into a mixture of dextrose and levulose. These sugars are identical, for chemical purposes, with the natural dextrose and levulose of honey. The chemist, therefore, has a much more difficult task to perform when he attempts to diagnose the presence of artificial dextrose and levulose in a mixture of the natural product. There are, however, certain qualities of ash, as well as other chemical constituents, which guide him in his work. While his conclusions do not have that definiteness which attaches to the examination of a honey adulterated with glucose they are sufficiently distinctive in most cases to determine whether or not a sophistication has been practiced.

Adulteration with Cane Sugar.-A very simple form of adulteration and one which cannot be practiced to any extent without being easily detected is the admixture of a sirup of pure cane sugar to honey. As long as the quantity added is not sufficient to change the optical properties, so that the mixture becomes right-handed in its rotation, the admixture of a small quantity of cane sugar sirup might escape the detection of the chemist. Inasmuch, however, as cane sugar exists only in small quantities in honey the regular and persistent occurrence of much cane sugar in a honey would be a just cause for suspicion, although its occasional occurrence might be due to purely natural

causes.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mince Meat.-Under the term "mince meat" is included a large variety of mixtures used chiefly for pie making and composed of meats, fruits, evaporated fruits, spices, and sometimes alcohol in some of its forms. It is not possible to describe any particular combination which would be entitled to bear the name alone, since each housewife and each manufacturer follows a method of her and his own. A general description, however, may be given of the manufactured article which, unfortunately, has largely displaced the mince meat of domestic manufacture.

Judged by the name alone, meat of some kind would be an important constituent of this substance. This, however, is not the case. Very few of the mince meats contain more than 10 percent of meat, a large number contain less and quite a large number contain none at all. Suet and tallow are sometimes employed as a substitute for meat, which apparently satisfies the conscience of the manufacturer even if it does not suit the palate of the

consumer. Evaporated fruits, such as raisins, etc., form important constituents of the mixture and also fresh fruits, in domestic manufacture, are very often used. Spices of various kinds are also employed and the mixture is sometimes flavored with brandy or some alcoholic beverage.

Pressed Mince Meat.-The mixture which is above described may be dried and pressed, or pressed without drying, into a hard firm cake which renders it more suitable for transportation and improves its keeping qualities. There is perhaps little difference between the unpressed and the pressed mince meat except in the matter of a binder. The binder consists usually of starch or flour, which serves not only to give additional weight to the mixture but also to hold the particles together. Starch or flour is sometimes used in unpressed mince meat also. There is another advantage in using starch or flour, namely, that these bodies absorb large quantities of moisture and thus increase the weight of the mixture. Mince meat cannot be recommended on sanitary grounds, since the method of manufacture is not always known and the materials from which it is made are not always selected with the sole view to the excellence of the raw materials and the health of the consumer. The meat when used often represents waste material from the table or factory and the fruits are not necessarily those which look best but probably are those usually of the worst appearance and the combinations are made with a view of meeting the ordinary demands of the market rather than of catering to the tenets of sanitation.

It is not the intention of this manual to discourage any kind of legitimate manufacturing industry, but, in view of the general character of substances of this kind, if they are to be used at all, it seems advisable that they should be made in the home, of material selected by the housewife and in a manner which requires no special treatment for its preservation, rather than to be purchased at random in the open market, made of materials of unknown origin put together by an unknown process.

Adulteration of Mince Meat.-Assuming that the materials which have been selected are wholesome, sanitary, and of fine quality, the principal adulterations to which mince meat is subjected are the addition of chemical preservatives and artificial colors. Inasmuch as mince meat is not expected to be of any very definite color the use of artificial colors is not common. On the other hand when mince meat is made in large quantities, transported long distances, and sometimes kept for a long while on the shelves of the grocery, the subject of preservation becomes a matter of serious importance. It is naturally inconvenient to preserve a mixture of this kind by sterilization, though this has been accomplished. The method of drying and pressing has already been described. This, of course, detracts somewhat from the physical appearance of the product. The common method is the addition of a chemical preservative. At the present time I believe that benzoate of soda

is the one very commonly used, and it will probably continue to be so used, by most manufacturers until national and state laws or an enlightened public opinion eliminate it from food products.

Pie Fillers. Nearly allied to mince meat in its character is a large class of substances known as pie fillers. Mince meat itself, as may be seen from the description which has been given of it, is nothing but a pie filler of a particular kind. Unfortunately the demand of the domestic cuisine is for substances prepared, or partially prepared, for immediate consumption. In this way the demand for predigested and precooked food has become a very general one and the pie filler is a legitimate effort on the part of the manufacturers to meet this growing demand. It is far easier for domestic purposes to make a pie of an already prepared material than to go to the trouble of constructing the material in the kitchen. A housewife loses sight of the fact that the fresh domestic pie is probably the only one which, for sanitary and other reasons, should be admitted to the table. As the pie fillers are as varied in character as the different kinds of pies from which they are made, no definite standard can be prescribed for them. Fruits are, naturally, the predominating constituent in these fillers and the condiments and spices used are certainly unobjectionable. If it be possible to prepare spiced fruits and keep them until used for pies there would seem to be no objection to the manufacture, long before using, of these substance in large quantities. The difficulty, however, of preserving the freshness and aroma of a fruit or other substance used for pie making is so evident as to need no particular emphasis. Adulteration of Pie Fillers.-The common adulterations in pie fillers are artificial colors, when they are designed to represent fruit of a special character, and preservatives. The same remarks which were made respecting these bodies in mince meat apply with equal force to all kinds of pie fillers. Bodies of this kind are evidently only properly made on the premises where they are consumed and immediately used after manufacture. The addition of artificial colors and preservatives in such substances, while apparently necessary in the present condition of trade, is wholly objectionable from every other point of view, and in such case trade conditions should properly give way to the demands of public and private sanitation and hygiene.