WHAT WE EAT. 
Prompt Action 
of the New York and Brooklyn Boards of Health. ALUM IN OUR BREAD. 
A Chemical Examination of Baking Powders and its Results—The Use 
of Alum and its Deleterious Effects—Opinions of Medical Experts— 
Prompt Action of the New York and Brooklyn Boards of Health, 
etc. 
In order that the people of the country may fully 
understand the causes of the present excitement as 
to the use of alum in baking powders, a history of 
the agitation is necessary: 
powder. These manufacturers claim that the cream 
of tartar sold in the shops is very variable and that 
nothing short of chemical analysis will determine 
the amount of cream of tartar in each sample; that 
this the householder cannot do for himself, and 
therefore is unable to combine with it the proper 
proportion of soda. This variability in the quality of 
cream of tartar needs the chemist to detect it, and 
the extensive use of baking powders would seem 
to indicate that there is a popular demand for them, 
due to the inability of the average cook to make 
her biscuits and cakes successfully when she herself 
mixes the cream of tartar and the soda." We have 
been unable to find in any drug store or grocery 
good cream of tartar sold at retail for less than 60 
cents a pound, while in some places it was as high 
as 85 cents. Some of the manufacturers, in order 
to supply a cheap baking powder, have introduced 
alum as an ingredient, and this seems to be the only 
satisfactory reason for its use that can be given. 
Bicarbonate of soda is used in these alum powders, 
as in the others, and carbonic acid gas is similarly 
produced. 
In the Scientific American of November 16, ap- 
peared an article by an eminent chemist of New 
York, showing the presence of alum in large quan- 
tities in a number of baking powders. 
This article was copied into many newspapers, 
creating great excitement in every household where 
baking powder was used. The popular feeling grew 
so strong that in the early part of December, at a 
meeting of the Brooklyn Board of Health, on mo- 
tion of President Crane, the Sanitary Superintend- 
ent was directed to procure samples of the various 
kinds of baking powders sold in Brooklyn, have 
them analyzed, and make a report thereon to the 
Board. 
Sanitary Superintendent Raymond, M.D., has 
presented to the Board of Health substantially the 
following report on baking powders and cream of 
tartar, and the effects of alum as an adulterant 
upon the human system : 
“The digestibility of bread depends in great mea- 
sure upon its being porous. If it is compact and 
heavy, the digestive juices are unable to act upon 
it, and it remains in the alimentary canal undigest- 
ed, giving rise to those disagreeable sensations all 
know as indigestion. This porosity is given to 
bread by the carbonic acid gas liberated in the 
process of bread making, forming throughout the 
loaf little vesicles of gas which are held by the 
gluten of the flour until the baking has solidified the 
mass and made permanent the spaces originally 
produced by the carbonic acid gas. This gas is 
incorporated with the dough in various ways. It 
may be forced in as is done in the “aerated 
bread;” or the gas may be formed by fermentation. 
For this purpose yeast, a mass of minute veget- 
able cells, is employed; this acts upon the sugar of 
the flour, converting it into carbonic acid gas and 
alcohol; or again, the carbonic acid gas may be 
liberated from some salt holding it in combination. 
This is the principle involved in the use of baking 
powders. 
“ In many countries alum has long been used by 
bakers in bread making. It is claimed that the 
bread is whiter, and that an inferior quality of flour 
can by its use be palmed off on the public as of the 
first quality. The effects of alum on the human 
body are well known, and are beyond doubt injuri- 
ous when taken in large quantities, or in small 
quantities often repeated. All authorities agree in 
this, and there is no room for discussion.” 
The report of the Brooklyn Board concludes 
as follows: “ From a careful examination, I 
am satisfied that the weight of evidence is 
against the use of alum in baking powders, and 
that the risks incurred in its use are too great to 
be incurred for the sake of cheapness alone. The 
mucous membrane of the stomach and the intestinal 
canal is a delicate structure, and materials which 
would produce no effect on the outside skin might 
irritate and inflame these organs.” 
The N. Y. Evening Post has been giving this sub- 
ject some attention, and has published the result of 
some remarkable investigations, which are worthy 
the close attention of thoughtful people. 
“Without going in detail into the constitution 
of baking powders, it will only be necessary to 
say that they are made with bicarbonate of soda 
or carbonate of ammonia and cream of tartar, che- 
mically known as the bitartrate of potassa. These 
powders are especially used in making biscuits and 
cakes. Before the days of baking powders, and 
even now in many families, the cream of tartar and 
bicarbonate of soda were purchased separately from 
the grocer, and a baking powder extemporized in 
each kitchen; but the lack of skill resulting in lumps 
of soda in the product led manufacturers to as- 
certain the proper proportion of these two salts and 
to mix them, selling the compound as a baking 
From its recent exposure of the use of burnt 
alum in some brands of baking powders, in place 
of cream of tartar, the following extracts are mainly 
taken: 
Pursuing the investigation of the quality of the 
food sold in this city, the representative of the 
Evening Post took up baking powder as one of the 
articles in most general use in our households. It 
is used by nearly every family in the city, and it 
is naturally of great importance to those who eat 
the food made with it to know whether it contains 
anything injurious to health. 
There are certain constituents of good baking 3 
oowder which maybe regarded as entirely free 
from danger. They consist of pure grape cream 
of tartar, bicarbonate of soda, and carbonate of 
ammonia. The cream of tartar unites with the 
other two ingredients, and carbonic acid gas is 
thrown off, producing the same effect as yeast in a 
much shorter time. It has been found, however, 
that alum will also unite with the other two ar- 
ticles, and carbonic acid gas will be produced. As 
alum costs less than three cents, while cream of 
tartar costs more than thirty cents a pound, it is 
easy to see why alum is substituted for the latter 
by some baking powder manufacturers. It is ad- 
mitted by all medical authorities, that cream of 
tartar leaves no injurious substance in the bread; 
alum, on the other hand, is in itself an astringent, 
and there is wide and deep-seated prejudice against 
its use. In England and other countries the adul- 
teration of food with alum is forbidden by law 
under heavy penalties. The chemical effect of alum 
used in bread to whiten it is to form two salts of 
alumina—the sulphate and the phosphate of alum- 
ina. When used in baking powder the alum forms 
a third salt, the hydrate of alumina, as well as the 
other two. This hydrate of alumina is far more 
easily soluble than the other two ; hence any ob- 
jection that may exist as to the use of alum alone 
in bread applies with greater force to its use in 
baking powder. This fact can be proven by the 
following named authorities: 
contained not only lactic acid, but a large amount of 
hydrochloric acid, and both the sulphate and 
hydrate of alumina would be dissolved. The phos- 
phate might not be, but in that case the bread 
would be deprived of one of its most desirable in- 
gredients, making the use of alum not only dan- 
gerous to the stomach, but deteriorating to the food. 
“ The hydrate of alumina,” Dr. Hammond said, 
“would certainly be injurious to the mucous mem- 
brane. It would inevitably tend to constipate the 
bowels and interfere with digestion ; and anything 
that tends to render the albumen of the bread inso- 
luble, and therefore takes away from its nutritive 
value,is injurious.” 
Dr. Wihard Parker said that if alum was substi- 
tuted for cream of tartar in baking powder, in his 
opinion such powder would be injurious to 
health. 
Dr. Alonzo Clark considers that alum has its 
uses, but should not be ignorantly taken into the 
stomach in food. A substance which can derange 
the stomach, and in certain cases produce vomiting, 
should not be tolerated in baking powder. 
Dr. Le Grand N. Denslow, of No. 225 West 
Twenty-third street, gave the following as his 
opinion on this subject: “ Bread containing the 
salts of alum, which are freely soluble in the gas- 
tric juice, is undoubtedly prejudicial to health, the 
salts acting as irritants to the stomach. 
Parke is the leader of the new school of hygiene 
in England. In his “Treatise on Hygiene,” he 
says; “ Looking then to the positive evidence, 
and the reasonableness of that evidence, it 
seems to me extremely likely that strongly alumed 
bread does produce the injurious effects ascribed 
to it.” These effects, as he previously states, are 
indigestion, griping, constipation, and kindred 
troubles resulting from irritation of the mucous 
membrane, produced by the astringent properties 
of alum. 
Other great authorities, such as Carpenter, 
Thompson, Gibbon, and Normandy, all agree that 
the continued use of bread containing alum will 
bring about dyspepsia and other troubles.” 
Dr. Sayre, former President of the Board of 
Health, said to one of the representatives of the 
New York press : “ After the experiments in this 
line by Liebig and other distinguished chemists, 
and vivisectors with alum on cats, dogs, and 
other animals, with the published results, we may 
well ask what is the use of such experiments if we 
do not apply them to practice in the preservation of 
human life and health ? The Board of Health should 
see to this.” 
Persons who have not strong constitutions, grow- 
ing girls, young children, and nursing mothers, are 
particularly liable to the evil effects produced by this 
use of alum. Heartburn and the prevalent forms 
of indigestion are often solely traceable to the ac- 
tion of alum on the delicate coats of the stomach. 
Dr. Waller, Chemist for the New York Board of 
Health, when asked by a Sun reporter as to the 
injurious effects of alum, replied: “You know 
what the effect of alum is when you take some of it 
in your mouth; well, that is just the effect it has 
upon the coats of the stomach.” 
To make sure of knowing the action of alum, the 
Evening Post’s representative obtained the follow- 
ing expressions of opinion as to its effect when 
used in baking powder from some physicians of 
New York of the highest reputation and ability : 
The analysis of the various baking powders, as 
officially reported by the Brooklyn Board, reveals 
only two brands containing alum being sold in that 
city—Dooley’s and Patapsco. 
Dr. William A. Hammond, formerly Surgeon- 
General United States, of No. 43 West Fifty-fourth 
street, expressed himself as perfectly certain of 
the injurious effects of alum, whether used alone 
to whiten bread, or as an adulterant of baking pow- 
der. Alluding to the claim advanced that the alum 
was neutralized and changed into an insoluble salt, 
he said that this was a wholly improbable assump- 
tion, since such a perfect change could not take 
place unless the amounts of the alum and the bicar- 
bonate of soda were combined in the exact chemical 
ratio necessary for each to absorb all of the other. 
Not only was this impossible in the manufacture of 
large quantities of baking powder, but the homo- 
geneous character of the compound could not be 
exactly maintained throughout the whole mass, 
and therefore there would be sure to be a certain 
amount of free alum in any bread made with an 
alum baking powder. But even if the exact pro- 
portion were maintained, the salts formed would 
retain their injurious properties, as they would be 
dissolved in the gastric juice. The gastric juice 
As to the cream of tartar powders, the same re- 
port mentions the Royal Baking Powder as free 
from alum or any other substance injurious to life 
or health. 
There are probably more than five hundred kinds 
of baking powder manufactured in this country, 
and, while some of them are sold from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, the majority have only a local sale 
near their respective places of manufacture. 
Through Dr. Henry A. Mott, Jr., the well-known 
chemist, one of the most competent, trustworthy, 
and careful experts of this country, the following 
analyses were obtained, showing the presence of 
alum in large quantities in many of the baking 
powders having a wide sale. Dr. Mott kindly fur- 
nished not only the results of his own analyses, but 
also those of several chemists of high professional 
standing, including Professor Henry Morton, 
President Stevens Institute of Technology; Pro- 
fessor R. W. Schedler; Dr. Stillwell, of Walz fa 
Stillwell, analytical chemists, this city. Dear Sir—ln accordance with your request, I herewith em- 
body the results of the analysis of baking powders procured 
during the past three months, in all of which alum was found 
as an ingredient: 
Dr. Mott’s report is as follows; 
tiously use it; if others choose to take risks on the 
public health, we shall not follow them, preferring 
to continue the use of pure grape cream of tartar, 
which is demonstrated to be wholesome; second, 
our experience during twenty years has satisfied us 
that that which is best for the public is best for 
us. We cannot afford to peril the reputation of the 
Royal Baking Powder.” 
“DOOLEY’S,” Contains Alum 
(Dooley & Brother, New York.) 
“ PATAPSCO,” Contains Alum 
(Smith, Hanway & Co., Baltimore, Md.) 
“CHARM,” - -; Contains Alum 
(Rohrer, Christian & Co., St. Louis.) 
ANDREWS’ “ REGAL,” . Contains Alum 
(C. E. Andrews & Co., Milwaukee.) 
“ QUEEN,” Contains Alum 
(Bennett & Sloan, New Haven, Ct.! 
“VIENNA,” Contains Alum 
(Church & Co., New York City.) 
“ ORIENT,” > Contains Alum 
(Crouse, Walworth & Co., Syracuse, N Y.) 
“AMAZON,” _ _ Contains Alum 
(.Erskine & Erskine, Louisville, Ky.) 
“GULLET’S,”. Contains Alum 
Gillct. McCulloch & Co., Chicago. 
“ TWIN SISTERS,”. _ _ .. Contains Alum 
(Union Chemical Works, Chicago, III.) 
“INVINCIBLE,” Contains Alum 
(Snyder Brothers & Co., Cincinnati.) 
“KING,” Contains Alum 
“WHITE LILY,”. Contains Alum 
(Jewett & Sherman Co., Milwaukee, Wis. I 
“MONARCH,” .. ... . ... Contains Alum 
(Ricker, Crombie & Co., Milwaukee, Wis.) 
“ONE SPOON,” . Contains Alum 
(Taylor Manufacturing Co , St. Louis, Mo.) 
“IMPERIAL,” Contains Alum 
(Sprague, Warner & Griswold, Chicago.) 
‘ HONEST,” . . Contains Alum 
(Schoch & Wechsler, St. Paul, Minn. 
“ ECONOMICAL,” Contains Alum 
(Spencer Bros. & Co., Chicago, 111. ) 
“ EXCELSIOR,” Contains Alum 
(L. E. Taylor, Chicago, Hi.) 
“CHARTRES,” Contains Alum 
(Thomson & Taylor, Chicago.) 
“ GRANT’S,” Contains Alum 
(J. C. Grant, Philadelphia.) 
“ GIANT,” Contains Alum 
(W. F. McLaughlin, Chicago.) 
“QUEEN,” Contains Alum 
(Star Chemical Works, Chicago.) 
Reporter. “Can you give me any information 
in regard to cream of tartar, how and where you 
procure it ? ” 
Mr. Ploagland. “Certainly! There are sev- 
eral substitutes or patent ‘ cream of tartars ’ on the 
market, made principally from terra alba or burnt 
bones, the latter being treated with strong corro- 
sive acids, but the cream of tartar vve use is a 
fruit acid—it exists naturally in the Grape-—and 
during fermentation of the tart wines in France, it 
is deposited on the sides and bottom of the casks. 
In its unrefined state it is called crude tartar or 
argols, and is taken from the cask after the wine 
has been drawn off. Each farmer has his crop of 
it according to the amount of wine he has produced. 
This company is the largest user of cream of tartar 
in the world, and we have our agents in various 
parts of Europe, collecting the crude material. It 
is imported into this country as argols, and then 
subjected to a higher process of refining, by which 
it is purified especially for our purposes, forming 
pure white crystals, which we grind to powder, and 
in this form we use it as an ingredient of our Bak- 
ing Powder.” 
Other interviews were had, all to the same gene- 
ral effect, namely, that alum is used by many man- 
ufacturers to cheapen their powder, and enable 
them to undersell their competitors. Many of 
them are probably ignorant of the evil effects of 
alum on the system, while others are indifferent so 
long as they make money, and no one can be said 
to have dropped dead from taking their powder. 
Yours, very truly, 
HENRY A. MOTT, Jr., Ph.D., E.M. 
By this exposure of the injurious effects of alum 
in Baking Powder, the public must not be fright- 
ened from using baking powders when properly 
made. In the report of Professor Elwyn Waller, As- 
sistant Health Inspector of New York Board of 
Health, on Baking Powder in 1872, the public are 
recommended to purchase one of the well-known 
brands of baking powder, in preference to purchas- 
ing the cream of tartar separately, as this substance 
was found in all cases to be adulterated with sul- 
phate of lime, commonly called terra alba, and to 
such an extent that in most cases the cream of 
tartar was really terra alba to which a small quan- 
tity of cream of tartar had been added. The 
inspector further states that when the mixture is 
made on a larger scale in a factory, and the baking 
powder is put up in packages ready for use, the 
manufacturer experiences no difficulty, in the first 
place of securing good materials free from adulter- 
ation, and secondly in mixing these materials in 
the proper proportions. 
New York, Jan. 5, 1879. 
Having obtained the foregoing, the reporter 
called at the office of the Royal Baking Powder 
Company, No. 171 Duane street, the manufacturers 
of the Royal Baking Powder, a brand which the 
report of the Brooklyn Health Board revealed to 
be pure. Mr. J. C. Hoagland, President of the 
Company, gave the following replies : 
Reporter. “ What is the cause of the present 
excitement about baking powders ?” 
Mr. Hoagland. “ It is due to the substitution 
of alum for cream of tartar by some manufac- 
turers.” 
REPORTER. “ Have you ever used any alum in 
the Royal Baking Powder?” 
Mr. Hoagland. “ No, sir.” 
Reporter. “ But I find that it is used by others. 
What is it used for ?” 
Mr. Hoagland. “I presume because it is 
cheaper than cream of tartar, which it replaces.” 
Reporter. “ You would, therefore, obtain a 
larger profit by .using alum than by using cream of 
tartar ?” 
Dr. Mott, the Government chemist, in his review 
of the subject in the Scientific American, makes 
special mention of having analyzed the Royal Bak- 
ing Powder, and found it composed of wholesome 
materials. He also advises the public to avoid pur- 
chasing baking powders as sold loose or in bulk, as 
he found by analyses of many samples that the 
worst adulterations are practiced in this form. The 
label and trade-mark of a well known and respon- 
sible manufacturer, he adds, is the best protection 
the public can have. 
Mr. Hoagland. “ Yes, for a time such substi- 
tution would more than double our profits.” 
Mr. Hoagland. “ For two reasons: first, the 
authorities on this point are so positive and con- 
clusive that the continued use of alum in this way 
is dangerous to health, that we could not conscien- 
Reportkr. “ Why, then, do you not use it?”