The National Academy of Sciences’ Committees on the Artificial Coloring of Sugars, on the Use of the Polariscope to Determine the Value of Sugars, and on Demarara Sugars, 1876-1878

[The following narrative is taken from Frederick W. True’s Semi-centennial history of the National Academy of Sciences, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences 1863-1913, pp. 264-267.]

These three committees were appointed in 1876, 1877, and 1878 at the request of the Treasury Department, and were concerned with the question of the valuation of sugars in connection with customs duties. [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci, vol. I, p. 133. Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1879, p. 11.] For many years the duties on different grades of sugars were levied in accordance with their color, or what was known as the Dutch standard. After a time, however, the Government began to suspect that certain sugars were artificially colored, whereby the higher grades were made to assume the appearance of the lower grades [Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1877, pp. xxvi, xxvii.], and were in consequence assessed at a lower rate than that which was properly chargeable. In a test case which was tried in Baltimore in 1878, the court decided that the fact of the artificial coloring of the sugars concerned for the purpose of defrauding the revenue was proven but held that no penalty could be enforced because it was not demonstrated that the importer had a guilty knowledge that the coloring was done for the purpose of escaping the higher duty. [Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1878, p. xxvii.] Thus, while the fact that certain sugars were artificially colored was no longer in question, the position of the Government as regards the collection of duties was no better than before. Acting on the opinion of the court, however, the Treasury Department temporarily ordered that wherever the color of sugar was mentioned in the law it should be interpreted as meaning the color which it would naturally have as a result of the particular process by which it had been produced, or at the particular stage to which it the process of clarification had been carried. Whenever there was reason to suspect that sugar had been artificially colored, its saccharine strength was to be determined and duty levied in accordance with the color which it would normally have when of that strength. [Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1879, pp. xxiv, xxv.] The strength was determined by the use of the polariscope, and the Customs Office had a corps of employees, known as examiners, whose duty it was to test samples of sugar by means of the polariscope and report their findings to the chemist in charge. This system continued in practice for a few years, but always against protest of the importers, and in 1882 the Supreme Court decided that the customs officers were bound under the law to accept the color as it appeared and levy duties accordingly, although they might be entirely certain that the coloration was artificial. [Rep. Secr. Treas. for 1882, pp. xxii, xxiii.]

It is not quite clear from the records of the Academy at what point in the development of the matter its advice was sought by the Government, or what the exact relationships were between the different committees, but apparently the main questions related to the natural colors of different grades of sugar, and the use of the polariscope in determining saccharine strength.

The first committees were probably appointed in 1876 but their membership is not a matter of record. They were styled in the Annual Report of 1879 committees on “Artificial coloring of sugars designed to simulate a lower grade according to the standard on which duties are levied” and in the same place the remark is made: “This subject was repeatedly considered by committees of the academy in 1876 and 1877, and reports were made to the [Treasury] department, which for obvious reasons have not been published.” [Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1879, p. 11.] From various statements contained in the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury it seems allowable to suppose that the Academy suggested the use of the polariscope, or even made experiments demonstrating that certain sugars were artificially colored, and that the fact could be determined by means of that instrument. The President of the Academy, Joseph Henry, acted as a separate committee on the use of the polariscope or polarimeter, for determining the value of sugars, and reported in 1877. In the same year a third committee, Frederick A. Genth, reported to the Treasury Department on “Demarara sugars,” but the nature of his report is not a matter of record.

As already mentioned, the Treasury Department, about the year 1878, introduced the use of the polariscope in determining the saccharine strength of certain sugars suspected of being artificially colored, but in 1882 the Supreme Court ruled that the Department was obliged under the law to accept the color as it appeared. This unsatisfactory condition of affairs was brought to the attention of Congress the same year by the Secretary of the Treasury who remarked in his report:

On this representation Congress, in 1883, enacted the following law, authorizing the use of the polariscope in certain instances:

Thus, the use of the polariscope in levying duties on certain grades of sugar, recommended, as we may believe, by the National Academy, was finally legalized, and the executive branch of the Government was aided, for a time, at least, in its efforts to collect the proper revenue from this commodity.