A committee studying food purity came to some startling conclusions:

"Candy was found to contain arsenic and dyed with copper chloride; conniving brewers mixed extracts of 'nux vomica,' a tree that yields strychnine, to simulate the bitter taste of hops. Pickles contained copper sulphate, and custard powders yielded traces of lead. Sugar was blended with plaster of Paris, as was flour. Milk had been watered down, then bulked up with chalk and sheep's brains. Hundred-pound bags of coffee labeled 'Fine Old Java' turned out to consist of three-fifths dried peas, one-fifth chicory, and only one-fifth coffee."

Chinese imports? Hardly. The study was undertaken in 1859, and described common practices in the United States in those days.

That's from an article in the Boston Globe by Stephen Mihm, under the ehadline, "A nation of outlaws." He suggests that China may be in a phase of "adolescent capitalism," and catalogues a boggling series of crimes against consumers committed by American manufacturers in the 19th century. It's an interesting perspective on today's headlines.