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23
COLOURING MATTERS OF SWEETS.
it still continues an offence for a Pharmaceutical Chemist
to sell white wax with paraffin without declaring the
mixture. On the other hand, if Avhite wax or beeswax is
asked for at a general shop, or a grocer's, or an oilshop, the
presumption is that the wax is not required for medicinal
purposes, but for ordinary use, and if mixed with other
waxes there may be no offence under the Sale of Food and
Drugs Acts. There may, of course, be a contravention of
the Merchandise Marks Acts, a statute which it is not the
duty of local authorities to put in force.
Colouring Matters of Sweets.
Of the sixteen samples of sweets, the more brilliantly
coloured samples were coloured with aniline dyes. The
tinctorial powers of these colouring matters are so
intense that each sweet contains only a minute proportion,
nevertheless, when it is remembered that at the present
time so many articles of food are in this way tinted, the
daily consumption of aniline colours may easily become
sufficient to produce physiological effects. Some of the
aniline dyes in large doses are actively poisonous, but what
effect minute doses long-continued of poisonous aniline dyes
may produce is unknown; all that can be affirmed is that
such are likely to produce forms of indigestion, and conduce
to general nerve disturbance. Hence, in the writer's opinion,
some limit should be put to the use of such colouring
matters, and those that have been shown to be poisonous
ought to be prohibited altogether.
The other samples taken under the Act call for no
special remark, the amount of fines paid in 1896 for
adulteration was trifling, viz., a little over £10.