of consumption, are subjects of equally extensive fraud with wine. The
deceptions which are practised by the dealers in this article, are
chiefly confined to fraudulent imitations of the peculiar flavour of
different sorts of spirits; and as this flavour constitutes, along with
the strength, the value of the spirit, the profit of the dealer consists
in imitating this quality at a cheaper rate than it is produced in the
genuine spirit. The flavour of French brandy is imitated, by distilling
British molasses spirit over wine lees; previous to which, however, the
spirit is deprived of its peculiar disagreeable flavour, by
rectification over fresh-burnt charcoal and quicklime. This operation is
performed by those who are called brewers’ druggists, and forms the
article in the _prices-current_ called _Spirit Flavour_. Wine lees are
imported into this country for the purpose, and they pay the same duty
as foreign wines. Another method of imitating the flavour of brandy,
which is adopted by brandy merchants, is by means of a spirit obtained
from raisin wine, after it has begun to become somewhat sour. ‘Oak
sawdust,’ (Mr. Accum observes), ‘and a spirituous tincture of raisin
stones, are likewise used to impart to new brandy and rum a _ripe
taste_, resembling brandy or rum long kept in oaken casks, and a
somewhat oily consistence, so as to form a durable froth at its surface,
when strongly agitated in a vial. The colouring substances are burnt
sugar, or molasses; the latter gives to imitative brandy a luscious
taste, and fulness in the mouth.’ Gin, which is sold in small quantities
to those who judge of the strength by the taste, is made up for sale by
fraudulent dealers with water and sugar; and this admixture rendering
the liquor turbid, several expedients are resorted to, in order to
clarify it; some of which are harmless, while others are criminal. A
mixture of alum with subcarbonate of potash, is sometimes employed for
this purpose; but more frequently, in place of this, a solution of
subacetate of lead, and then a solution of alum,—a practice reprobated
by Mr. Accum as highly dangerous, owing to the admixture of the lead
with the spirit, which thereby becomes poisonous. After this operation,
it is usual to give a false appearance of strength to the spirit by
mixing with it grains of paradise, guinea pepper, capsicum, and other
acrid and aromatic substances.
In the manufacture of malt liquors, a wide field is opened for the
operations of fraud. The immense quantity of the article consumed,
presents an irresistible temptation to the unprincipled dealer; while
the vegetable substances with which beer is adulterated, are in all
cases difficult to be detected, and are frequently beyond the reach of
chemical analysis. There is, accordingly, no article which is the
subject of such varied and extensive frauds. These are committed in the
first instance by the brewer, during the process of manufacture, and
afterwards by the dealer, who deteriorates, by fraudulent intermixtures,
the liquor which he sells to the consumer. ‘The intoxicating qualities
of porter (he continues) are to be ascribed to the various drugs
intermixed with it;’ and, as some sorts of porter are more heady than
others, the difference arises, according to this author, ‘from the
greater or less quantity of stupifying ingredients’ contained in it.
These consist of various substances, some of which are highly
deleterious. Thus, the extract disguised under the name of _black
extract_, and ostensibly destined for the use of tanners and dyers, is
obtained by boiling the berries of the _cocculus indicus_ in water, and
converting, by a subsequent evaporation, this decoction into a stiff
black tenacious mass, possessing in a high degree the narcotic and
intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry from which it is prepared.
Quassia is another substance employed in place of hops, to give the beer
a bitter taste; and the shavings of this wood are sold in a half
torrified and ground state, in order to prevent its being recognised.
Not only is the use of all these deleterious substances strictly
prohibited to the brewer under severe penalties, but all druggists or
grocers convicted of supplying him with any of them, or who have them
in their possession, are liable to severe penalties; and Mr. Accum
gives a list of twenty-nine convictions for this offence, from the
year 1812 to 1819. From the year 1813 to 1819, the number of brewers
prosecuted and convicted of using illegal ingredients in their
breweries, amounts to thirty-four. Numerous seizures have also been
made during the same period at various breweries, and in the
warehouses of brewers’-druggists, of illegal ingredients, to be used
in the brewing of beer, some of them highly deleterious.
Malt liquors, after they are delivered by the brewer to the
retail-dealer, are still destined to undergo various mutations before
they reach the consumer. It is a common practice with the retailers of
beer, though it be contrary to law, to mix table-beer with strong beer;
and, to disguise this fraud, recourse is had to various expedients. It
is a well known property of genuine beer, that when poured from one
vessel into another, it bears a strong white froth, without which
professed judges would not pronounce the liquor good. This property is
lost, however, when table-beer is mixed with strong beer; and to restore
it, a mixture of what is called _beer-heading_ is added, composed of
common green vitriol, alum, and salt. To give a pungent taste to weak
insipid beer, capsicum and grains of paradise, two highly acrid
substances, are employed; and, of date, a concentrated tincture of these
articles has appeared for sale in the prices-current of
brewers’-druggists. To bring beer forward, as it is technically called,
or to make it hard, a portion of sulphuric acid is mixed with it, which,
in an instant, produces an imitation of the age of eighteen months; and
stale, half-spoiled, or sour beer, is converted into mild beer, by the
simple admixture of an alkali or an alkaline earth; oyster-shell powder,
and subcarbonate of potash, or soda, being usually employed for that
purpose. In order to show that these deceptions are not imaginary, Mr.
Accum refers to the frequent convictions of brewers for those fraudulent
practices, and to the seizures which have been made at different
breweries of illegal ingredients—a list of which, and of the proprietors
of the breweries where they were seized, he has extracted from the
Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to Inquire
into the Price and Quality of Beer. It may be observed, that while some
of the sophistications of beer appear to be perfectly harmless, other
substances are frequently employed for this purpose which are highly
deleterious, and which must gradually undermine the health of those by
whom they are used.
Many other of the most ordinary articles of consumption are mentioned by
our author as being the object of the most disgusting and pernicious
frauds. Tea, it is well known, from the numerous convictions which have
lately taken place, has been counterfeited to an enormous extent; and
copper, in one form or another, is the chief ingredient made use of for
effecting the imitation.
The practice of adulterating coffee, has also been carried on for a long
time, and to a considerable extent, while black and white pepper,
Cayenne pepper, mustard, pickles of all sorts, have been all of them
debased by an admixture of baser, and, in many cases, poisonous
ingredients. Ground pepper is frequently sophisticated by an admixture
from the sweepings of the pepper warehouses. These sweepings are
purchased in the market under the initials P. D., signifying pepper
dust. ‘An inferior sort of this vile refuse (Mr. Accum observes), or the
sweepings of P. D., is distinguished among venders by the abbreviation
of D. P. D., denoting dust, or dirt of pepper dust.’
Of those various frauds so ably exposed in Mr. Accum’s work, and which
are so much the more dangerous, as they are committed under the disguise
of an honourable trade, it is impossible to speak in terms of too strong
reprobation; and in the first impulse of our indignation, we were
inclined to avenge such iniquitous practices by some signal punishment.
We naturally reflect, that such offences, in whatever light they are
viewed, are of a far deeper dye than many of those for which our
sanguinary code awards the penalty of death—and we wonder that the
punishment hitherto inflicted, has been limited to a fine. If we turn
our view, however, from the moral turpitude of the act, to a calm
consideration of that important question, namely,—What is the most
effectual method of protecting the community from those frauds?—we will
then see strong reasons for preferring the lighter punishment. We do not
find from experience, that offences are prevented by severe punishments.
On the contrary, the crime of forgery, under the most unrelenting
execution of the severe law against it, has grown more frequent. As
those, therefore, by whom the offence of adulterating articles of
provision is committed, are generally creditable and wealthy
individuals, the infliction of a heavy fine, accompanied by public
disgrace, seems a very suitable punishment: and if it be duly and
reasonably applied, there is little doubt that it will be found
effectual to check, and finally to root out, those disgraceful frauds.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
POISONING OF FOOD.
A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,
AND CULINARY POISONS;
_Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,
Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cheese, Pepper, Mustard, &c. &c.
And methods of detecting them._
BY FREDRICK ACCUM.
(_From the Literary Gazette, No. CLVI. 1820._)
One has laughed at the whimsical description of the cheats in Humphrey
Clinker, but it is really impossible to laugh at Mr. Accum’s exposition.
It is too serious for a joke to see that in almost every thing which we
eat or drink, we are condemned to swallow swindling, if not poison—that
all the items of metropolitan, and many of country consumption, are
deteriorated, deprived of nutritious properties, or rendered obnoxious
to humanity by the vile arts and merciless sophistications of their
sellers. So general seems the corruption, and so fatal the tendency of
most of the corrupting materials, that we can no longer wonder at the
prevalence of painful disorders, and the briefness of existence (on an
average) in spite of the great increase of medical knowledge, and the
amazing improvement in the healing science, which distinguish our era.
No skill can prevent the effects of daily poisoning; and no man can
prolong his life beyond a short standard, where every meal ought to have
its counteracting medicine.
Mr. Accum acts the part of Dionysius with us; only the horse-hair by
which he suspends the sword over our heads allows the point gradually to
enter the flesh, and we do not escape, like Damocles, with the simple
fright: yet it is but justice to acknowledge, that in almost every case
he furnishes us with tests whereby we can ascertain the nature of our
danger; and no man could do more towards enabling us to mitigate or
escape from it.
Advising our readers to abstain from perusing the annexed synopsis till
after they have dined, that they may have one more meal in comfort ere
they die, we proceed to the various heads under which the author ranges
his dread array.
Devoted to disease by baker, brewer, grocer, &c. the physician is called
to our assistance; but here again the pernicious system of fraud, as it
has given the blow, steps in to defeat the remedy.
It is so horribly pleasant to reflect how we are in this way
be-swindled, be-trayed, be-drugged, and be-devilled, that we are almost
angry with Mr. Accum for the great service he has done the community by
opening our eyes, at the risk of shutting our mouths for ever.
His account of water is so fearful, that we see there is no wisdom in
the well; and if we then fly to wine, we find, from his analysis, that
there is no truth in that liquid: bread turns out to be a crutch to help
us onward to the grave, instead of the staff of life; in porter there is
no support, in cordials no consolation; in almost every thing poison,
and in scarcely any medicine, cure.
The work contains a great many excellent observations on the various
sorts of water, and the modes of conveying and preserving them for use:
it appears generally that leaden pipes and cisterns, and copper vessels
are highly dangerous.
Good heavens! we think we hear it exclaimed, is there no end to these
infamous doings? does nothing pure or unpoisoned come to our tables,
except butcher’s meat, which has been rendered far less nutritive than
formerly, by new methods of feeding? Why, we must answer, hardly any
thing: for our author proceeds to shew that _cheese_ (Gloucester he
mentions) has been contaminated with red lead, a deadly poison mixed
with the colouring anotto, when that article was scarce: that _pepper_
is adulterated with factitious pepper-corns “made up of oil-cakes (the
residue of lint-seed, from which the oil has been pressed), common clay,
and a portion of Cayenne pepper, formed in a mass, and granulated by
being first pressed through a sieve, and then rolled in a cask;” and
further, that “ground pepper is very often sophisticated by adding to a
portion of genuine pepper, a quantity of pepper dust, or the sweepings
from the pepper warehouses, mixed with a little Cayenne pepper. The
sweepings are known, and purchased in the market, under the name of P.D.
signifying pepper dust. An inferior sort of this vile refuse, or the
sweepings of P.D. is distinguished among vendors by the abbreviation
D.P.D, denoting, dust (dirt) of pepper dust.”
As we read on, we learn the method of manufacturing adulterated vinegar,
adulterated cream, adulterated lozenges, adulterated mustard,
adulterated lemon acid, poisonous Cayenne, poisonous pickles, poisonous
confectionary, poisonous catsup, poisonous custards, poisonous anchovy
sauce, poisonous olive oil, poisonous soda water; and, if not done to
our hands, of rendering poisonous all sorts of food by the use of copper
and leaden vessels. Suffice it to record, that our pickles are made
green by copper; our vinegar rendered sharp by sulphuric acid; our cream
composed of rice powder or arrow root in bad milk; our comfits mixed of
sugar, starch, and clay, and coloured with preparations of copper and
lead; our catsup often formed of the dregs of distilled vinegar with a
decoction of the outer green husk of the walnut, and seasoned with
all-spice, cayenne, pimento, onions, and common salt—or if founded on
mushrooms, done with those in a putrefactive state remaining unsold at
market; our mustard a compound of mustard, wheaten flour, cayenne, bay
salt, raddish seed, turmeric, and pease flour; and our citric acid, our
lemonade, and our punch, to refresh or to exhilarate, usually cheap
tartareous acid modified for the occasion.
Against all these, and many other impositions, Mr. Accum furnishes us
with easy and certain tests: his work, besides, contains many curious
documents and useful recipes; and it is replete with intelligence, and
often guides to the right while it exposes the wrong.
-------
_Other Works lately published by FREDRICK ACCUM._
DESCRIPTION
OF
THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING
COAL GAS,
For the Lighting of Streets, Houses, and Public Buildings,
WITH ELEVATIONS, SECTIONS, AND PLANS,
Of the most improved Sorts of Apparatus now employed at the
Gas Works in London,
And the principal Provincial Towns of Great Britain.
_Price 15s._
-------
CHEMICAL AMUSEMENT,
Comprising a Series of curious and instructive Experiments in Chemistry,
which
are easily performed, and unattended by Danger.
_The Fourth Edition. Price 9s._
-------
_This Day is published_,
A TREATISE
ON THE
Art of Brewing,
Exhibiting the London practice of Brewing Porter, Brown Stout, Ale,
Table
Beer, and various other kinds of Malt Liquors.
BY FREDRICK ACCUM.
-------
_By the same Author_,
A TREATISE
ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE
From Native Fruits;
Elucidating the Chemical Principles upon which the Art of Wine-making
depends. The Fruits best adapted for Home-made Wines, and the Methods of
preparing them.
-------
A MANUAL OF ANALYTICAL MINERALOGY,
Intended to facilitate the practical Analysis of Minerals, by pointing
out to the Student concise Directions for performing the Analysis of
Metallic Ores, Earths, and other Minerals. _Second Edition. 2 Vols.
Price 15s._
-------
A SYSTEM OF THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY,
_In Two Vols. with Plates. Second Edition. Price 15s._
-------
ELEMENTS OF CHRYSTALLOGRAPHY,
_After the Method of Haüy with Plates and Graphic Designs_,
Exhibiting the Forms of Crystals, their Geometrical Structure, and
general Laws, according to which the immense variety of actually
existing Crystals are produced. _Price 15s._
-------
A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHEMICAL APPARATUS AND
INSTRUMENTS,
WITH FIFTEEN QUARTO COPPER-PLATES.
-------
A PRACTICAL ESSAY ON CHEMICAL RE-AGENTS OR TESTS,
Exhibiting the general Nature of Chemical Re-Agents or Tests—the Effects
which they produce upon different Bodies—the Uses to which they may be
supplied, and the Art of applying them successfully.
_Second Edition. Illustrated by a Series of Experiments. Price 9s._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ The references to figures 1 through 4 on pages 130 and 132 do not
exist in any edition of the book. This has been confirmed by the
Project Manager.
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).