SECTION I.

Transcriber’s Note

The original begins with a 22 page catalogue of “PRACTICAL BOOKS ON

Sporting Subjects”. This has been moved to the end.

DEADLY ADULTERATION

AND

SLOW POISONING UNMASKED;

OR,

Disease and Death

IN THE POT AND THE BOTTLE;

IN WHICH

THE BLOOD-EMPOISONING AND LIFE-DESTROYING

ADULTERATIONS

OF

WINES, SPIRITS, BEER, BREAD, FLOUR, TEA, SUGAR, SPICES, CHEESEMONGERY,

PASTRY, CONFECTIONARY MEDICINES, &c. &c. &c.

ARE LAID OPEN TO THE PUBLIC,

WITH

TESTS OR METHODS

FOR ASCERTAINING AND DETECTING THE

FRAUDULENT AND DELETERIOUS ADULTERATIONS

AND THE GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES

_OF THOSE ARTICLES_:

With an Exposé of Medical Empiricism and Imposture, Quacks and

Quackery, Regular and Irregular, Legitimate and Illegitimate: and

The Frauds and Mal-practices of Pawnbrokers and Madhouse-keepers.

NEW EDITION.

BY AN ENEMY TO FRAUD AND VILLANY.

“The Workshop of the Distillery [and of the Wine and Spirit Compounder]

is the Elaboratory of Disease and of Premature Death.”—_Manual for

Invalids._

Devoted to disease by baker, butcher, grocer, wine-merchant,

spirit-dealer, cheesemonger, pastry-cook, and confectioner; 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; the unprincipled dealers in drugs and medicines exert the most

diabolical ingenuity in sophisticating the most potent and necessary

drugs, (viz. peruvian bark, rhubarb, ipecacuanha, magnesia, calomel,

castor-oil, spirits of hartshorn, and almost every other medical

commodity in general demand;) and chemical preparations used in

pharmacy. _Literary Gazette._

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, GILBERT AND PIPER,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

LONDON:

MARCHANT, PRINTER, INGRAM-COURT.

THE AUTHOR’S ADDRESS

TO

THE READER.

The catalogue of frauds and enormities exhibited in the following pages

will, no doubt, excite the abhorrence and indignation of every honest

heart. Its author is, however, convinced that he will find that he has

undertaken a very unthankful office—that his book will be the dread

and abhorrence of wicked and unprincipled dealers and impostors of

all kinds; and himself exposed to their utmost rancour and bitterest

maledictions. But the die is cast: he has discharged a public duty, and

sincerely hopes that the Public may be benefited by his disclosures.

It has been justly said, that all attempts to meliorate the condition

of mankind have, in general, been coldly received, while the artful

flatterers of their passions and appetites have met their eager

embraces. And it is no less true, that it has always been the fate of

those who have attempted any great public good, to be obnoxious to such

as have profited by the errors of mankind. The divine Socrates, whose

life was a continued exertion to reprove and correct the overweening

and the vicious, died a victim to the Heathen Mythology, on account of

his maintaining the unity and perfections of the Deity, and exposing

the doctrines and pretensions of the heathen priesthood and the

Sophists, and their mercenary views; and, in later times, Galileo would

have met a similar fate, had he not bowed to error, and renounced a

sublime truth, clear as the glorious orb that was the object of it,

and which, soon after, was universally acknowledged. Even the Divine

Founder of our Faith and Religion was stigmatized as the broacher of

false opinions, and one who misled the people, by his ignorant and

malicious accusers, whose frauds and delusions it was the object of

his mission to confound and overthrow, as well as to free mankind from

the bondage of their errors. But without having the presumption or

impiety to compare himself with those benefactors of mankind, or to

put his humble endeavours in competition with their godlike attempts,

or to expect a similar result from them, it will be a great consolation

to the Author of this book, when life is departing the frail tenement

of his body, to reflect that he has brought “deeds of darkness to

light,”—that he has been the humble means of unmasking to public view

the frauds and villanies that are daily and hourly practised on the

Public Health and Welfare; and in that “trying hour” his most grateful

feeling and homage to English Law will be, that it secures to every

man the liberty of expressing his honest indignation and abhorrence of

palpable and disgusting fraud and imposture.

“Hail to the Press!—

Vast artery of life, through which the stores

That feed the growth of Truth, Opinion pours;

The mighty lens through which she points the rays

That kindle Error’s records into blaze.—

Gigantic engine! power that supersedes

The long prescriptive _Use_ that Folly pleads.—

O happy England!

Land of my fathers! may thy children keep.

E’en as they guard the empire of the deep,

The free, unshackled press, that best secures

Their rights, and liberty to truth assures.”

MEM.—I have stated at p. 11, on the authority of the author of “_The

Oracle of Health and Long Life_,” that the many sudden deaths that are

daily happening in and about the metropolis, are no doubt assignable

to the unprincipled and diabolical adulterations of food, spirits,

malt liquors, and the other necessaries of life. Since that extract

was printed in the pages of “_Deadly Adulteration and Slow Poisoning

Unmasked_,” I am sorry to say, that I have observed numerous instances

of the sudden deaths of persons in apparently perfect health, detailed

in the London and country newspapers, and even at the very moment that

I am penning this remark, I observe, in the columns of the Herald

newspaper, accounts of two persons in the prime of life and in good

health, whose deaths happened in a similar way.

CONTENTS.

Page

Introduction 3

Wines and Spirits, Adulteration of, 12

————————— Tests of, 40

Beer and Ale 50

Bread and Flour 68

Meat and Fish 78

Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, and Sugar 83

Spices 98

Pickles 104

Vinegar 105

Olive Oil 107

Salt and Mustard 108

Anchovy Sauce and Mushroom Catsup 109

Isinglass 110

Blue and Soap 111

Candles and Starch 113

Bees’ Wax 114

Butter 115

Cheese, Bacon and Hams 116

Milk and Cream 118

Potatoes, Fruit, &c. 119

Confectionary and Pastry 122

Perfumery, Cosmetics, Hair Oils, Bear’s

Grease, &c. 126

Medicines, Medical Empiricism, Quacks, and

Quackery 133

Coals 170

Colours, Hats, Broad Cloths, Laces,

Kerseymeres, Linens, Cambrics, Silks, Jewellery,

Stationery, &c. 176

Conclusion 181

Appendix 183

——— Gin, “Comfort” or “Blue Ruin” ib.

——— Fish ib.

——— Tea 184

——— Some more Morning Water and Sir Reverence

Doctors 186

——— Noodle Medical Book-wrights 187

——— The Frauds and Mal-practices of Pawnbrokers

and Madhouse Keepers 187

DEADLY ADULTERATION AND SLOW POISONING UNMASKED; with Tests

for Ascertaining and Detecting the Fraudulent and Deleterious

Adulterations, and the good and bad qualities of Wines, Spirits, Beer,

Bread, Flour, Tea, Sugar, Spices, Cheesemongery, Pastry, Confectionary,

Medicines, &c. &c. Price 5_s._ bound in cloth.

_Critical Opinions of the Work._

“We are always happy to meet with such true-hearted reformers as the

enemies to fraud and villany. Detesting the impositions of every

form and variety to which the simple inhabitants of this metropolis

are daily made victims, our author in a tone of ardent indignation,

and disdaining to mince his expressions at a crisis so full of

peril, denounces in forcible language the scandalous practices of

adulteration, from which no material of food or luxury seems to be

exempted. The style, however, is occasionally diversified, and no

sooner have we been roused into a sympathetic feeling of anger with

the author against this set of impostors, than we are called on

to unite with him in a hearty laugh at the ridiculous plight into

which, by a humourous and amusing term of expression, he puts another

community of base adulterators. We have not met, lately, with a volume

of this compass, which contains more useful information and amusing

matter than the present one.”—_Monthly Review_ for Nov. 1830.

“We honestly recommend this eventful volume.”—_New Monthly Magazine_,

Jan. 1831.

“To go over all the subjects which this admirable volume embraces,

would fill many pages of our work; we must, therefore, refer our

readers to the work itself; and we shall be greatly astonished,

if, after having perused it, they do not thank us for the

advice.”—_Monthly Gazette of Health_, for Oct. 1830.

“This is a volume of intense and surpassing interest; its use and

excellence should be known to every person who values health and life;

it should form an appendage to every family library.”

“This interesting book is evidently the production of a man of

considerable talents.”—_Lancet_, Jan. 1831.

“This is a work of great public utility, and in author, whose honesty

and public spirit have placed him in the foremost rank of benefactors

to the public welfare, is richly entitled to the gratitude of the

community.”

See also _Imp. Mag._ for Dec. 1830; _Home Missionary_, for Oct. 1830;

_News_, for Jan. 1831; _Atlas_, for Jan. 1831; _United Kingdom_, Jan,

1831, &c. &c.

Deadly Adulteration,

AND

SLOW POISONING;

OR,

DISEASE AND DEATH

IN

THE POT AND THE BOTTLE.

INTRODUCTION.

The able and patriotic Editor of the Literary Gazette, No. 156, in

the course of his review of Mr. Accum’s meritorious work on Culinary

Poisons, makes the following just and striking remarks:

One has laughed at the whimsical description of the cheats in Humphrey

Clinker, but 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.

Devoted to disease by baker, brewer, grocer, wine-merchant,

spirit-dealer, cheesemonger, pastry-cook, confectioner, &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: even the physician’s prescription is adulterated!

Mr. Accum’s account of water (i. e. the Companies’ water—the filthy

and unwholesome water supplied from the Thames, of which the delicate

citizens of Westminster fill their tanks and stomachs, at the very

spot where one hundred thousand cloacinæ, containing every species

of filth, and all unutterable things, and strongly impregnated with

gas, the refuse and drainings of hospitals, slaughter houses, colour,

lead, and soap works, drug-mills, manufactories, and dung-hills, daily

disgorge their abominable contents) 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 being 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!

That this denunciation of fraud and villany is not mere assertion, the

terrific disclosures that I am about to make (some of which are to be

found in Mr. Accum’s book, and in greater detail than the space I have

prescribed myself allows) will fully prove to the contrary, and show

that it is the duty of the government to protect the public by some

legislative provisions, and to prohibit and render penal the nefarious

practices in daily use for the diabolical and deleterious adulteration

of the necessaries of life, practices which are destructively inimical

to the public health and welfare. As Mr. Accum has pointedly said

in the preface to his work, “as the eager and insatiable thirst for

gain is proof against prohibitions and penalties, and the possible

sacrifice of a fellow creature’s life is a secondary consideration

among unprincipled dealers,” nothing short of subjecting the offence to

the operation of the criminal law seems likely to suppress the wicked

and diabolical practices, and secure the public from the silent and

unobserved effects of being slowly poisoned: transportation ought to

be the mildest punishment of the iniquitous offender. Is it not, as

the same gentleman justly observes, a reflection on English law, that

“a man who robs a fellow subject of a few shillings on the highway

should be sentenced to death, while he who distributes a slow poison

to a whole community should escape unpunished,” at most with only the

infliction of a trifling fine, which proves to him the inefficiency of

the law to restrain him from a continuance in his iniquitous practices?

The inefficacy of fines, however large, in deterring offenders from a

commission or repetition of the crime is evident, from the inadequacy

of the large penalties to which the adultering brewer, grocer,

coffee-manufacturer, &c. are subject when detected. For, besides the

difficulty of detecting this species of fraud and iniquity, the large

profits, which are often several hundreds per cent. enable the culprits

to meet the trivial loss which attends a detection, and speedily

reimburses them the penalty of a conviction.

“Plures crapula quam gladius,” says the old adage, which, in a

free translation, may be paraphrased “Cookery depopulates like a

pestilence.” To those versed in the business of disease it is well

known that this is no exaggeration. But, dismal as is the destruction

of human life from this source, it is by no means equal to that

occasioned by the effects of the nefarious traffic in the adulteration

of the necessaries of life; the pernicious and destructive mixtures

and combinations to which they are subject have produced greater

ravages on health, and given a greater empire to death than the united

scourges of famine and the sword in combination with the refinements of

cookery and the increase of gastrophilism:—they occasion the loss of

tens of thousands of human lives every year in the metropolis alone.

It has with truth been said that to so alarming an extent have the

illicit practices of poisonous adulteration arrived, “that it would be

difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met

with in an adulterated state; and there are some substances which are

scarcely ever to be procured genuine.”

These spurious mixtures and counterfeit articles are combined and

manufactured with so much skill and ingenuity, as to elude and baffle

the discrimination of the most experienced judges. And, for the purpose

of ensuring the secrecy of the nefarious traffic, “the processes

are distributed and subdivided among distinct operators, and the

manufactures are carried on in separate establishments.” The tasks

of proportioning the ingredients and that of their composition and

preparation are assigned to distinct persons. In fact, “the traffic

in adulterated commodities finds its way through so many circuitous

channels as to defy the most scrutinizing endeavour of individual

exertion to trace it to its source.” And the frequency of the act

has rendered the conscience of the offenders callous and indifferent

to the consequences. The man who would shudder at the idea of giving

a dose of arsenic to a single individual sleeps soundly in his bed,

though he knows that he administers as fatal, though a slower, poison

to thousands every day. And such a man is the baker, the miller, the

wine-merchant, the brewer, the publican, the druggist, the tea-dealer,

and every dealer who adulterates an article of food. And yet, those

thoughtlessly wicked men suffer their consciences to be seared and

bribed to silence through their self-interest and craving appetite for

unreasonable and unrighteous gain!

With respect to those “filthy nuisances” the gin-shops and workshops

of the wine and spirit dealers, which have not inaptly been termed

“the elaboratories of disease and of premature death,” the following

remarks, which appeared in the New Monthly Magazine for February, 1828,

are dictated in the justest spirit of criticism and of public duty. It

is to be wished that all journalists were disposed, in like manner, to

denounce fraud and imposture.

“While there is so much prating and preaching about the morals of

the people; while the increase of crime is grossly exaggerated, and

the necessity of instruction is loudly talked about! when even the

lotteries, which of late years did no harm at all, have been given

up to the prevailing fashion of affected sanctity, it is quite

preposterous that such filthy nuisances as the numerous gin-shops of

London should not merely be tolerated, but sanctioned and encouraged by

the legislature. We do not speak of regular public-houses, but of those

places which are devoted only to the sale of spirits by retail. They

cannot be necessary for the purpose of refreshments, and can only, as

they do in fact, serve to produce evils of the most lamentable nature.”

Who, that has a spark of feeling and integrity in his nature, does

not coincide in opinion with the ingenious and accomplished editor of

the distinguished periodical, from which this spirited and sensible

passage is extracted?

But the truth is, as has been well observed by the author of “The

Manual for Invalids,” that it would be difficult to discover any thing

in social life that is more virtually neglected than Public Health,

which ought to be an object of the greatest concern to all wise and

paternal governments, as well as to every influential and well-disposed

individual in the nation. “The Public Health and the Public Morals,” as

the same excellent writer sagaciously observes, “should be the object

of the greatest solicitude on the part of every government, instead of

extracting a profit from deception and villany, ignorance and vice.

Were the various descriptions of liquors in which alcohol bears so

predominant a part taxed to prohibition, there would be less of felony,

less of moral degradation, less employment for police magistrates

and judges, and less occasion for the executioner. There would be a

counterpoise in the reduction of the parochial burthens, and a greater

value given to the moral character of the people; but, unfortunately,

the produce to the revenue is such as—while it does not prevent the

injurious use of spirituous liquors, it enriches the coffers of the

nation; and the sacra auri fames has, as well in government matters as

in those of the quack, the adulterator, and the impostor, the power of

making that appear relatively right which is absolutely wrong.”

Nor is the general and immoderate use of ardent spirits only

destructive to the body, but it acts eminently as powerful incentives

to vice of every kind. Does the robber pause in his vocation? Does

the murderer hesitate to deprive his fellow-creatures of life? They

are presently wound up to a reckless sense of their crimes at the

gin-shop.—Has the seducer tried all his arts in vain to despoil his

unsuspecting victim of peace and innocence? The seductive liquor offers

him an easy prey, and leaves his immolated victim polluted, disgraced,

and lost to society. The brothel is more indebted to this source than

to all the lures of seduction. In fact, the seductive productions of

the distillery and the winepress impair the physical strength of the

country, and induce incorrigible habits of vice and intemperance.

A reflecting writer has expressed an opinion that the life of man would

generally be extended to a hundred years were it not for his excesses

and the adulteration of his food; and when we consider how many attain

even a greater age, under every disadvantage, we must allow that there

is probability in this opinion. When we observe the early disfigurement

of the human form, the swollen or shrunk body, the bloated and

self-caricatured face, with the signs of imbecility and decrepitude

which we continually see, at an age when life should be in its fullest

vigour;—when, at every turn we meet the doctor’s carriage; in every

street, behold a rivalry of medical attraction; it is impossible not

to feel a conviction that something must be essentially wrong in our

way of living. This is principally assignable to our improper and

unwholesome diet, but more especially to the vile adulterations to

which every article of diet is now impudently and wickedly subjected.

As the author of the “Oracle of Health and Long Life” observes, in a

note to page 31, “it is no doubt to the unprincipled adulterations of

food, spirits, malt liquors, &c. that a great number of the sudden

deaths, which are constantly happening in and about the metropolis, is

assignable. The adulteration, it is true, is not sufficient to cause

instant death, but it operates slowly, and silently, and imperceptibly;

so as not to excite sufficient suspicion and inquiry respecting the

cause. This is not an idle or a random remark, but one founded on

much observation and on very probable grounds. It is hoped that it

will awaken public attention and inquiry respecting these nefarious

transactions.” Following this valuable advice, I will exert myself to

the utmost to promote and call into action this necessary duty, and

with this intent the following pages were composed, for the collection

of the materials of which I have had singular opportunities afforded

me.

PART I.

WINES AND SPIRITS.

I shall divide this interesting portion of my work into two sections;

first, the Adulteration of Wines and Spirits, and the Tricks of Wine

and Spirit Dealers; and, secondly, the Tests or Methods of ascertaining

the Good and Bad Qualities of Wines and Spirits.

SECTION I.—_The Adulteration of Wines and Spirits, and the Tricks of

Wine and Spirit Dealers._

1. WINES.

The frauds and malpractices in use among the wine and spirit brewers

and compounders of the metropolis, and the noxious and deleterious

ingredients with which those unprincipled men “make up” the poisonous

compounds, that they are daily vending to the public, under the names

of wines and spirits, exceed the devices, and are, if possible,

of a more deadly operation than the sophistications and vitiated

manufactures palmed upon the public by the wicked and avaricious

cozeners of all other adulterating trades.

The art or mystery of manufacturing spurious and counterfeit wines and

liquors forms a regular trade of great extent in this metropolis, and

is carried on with so much skill and ingenuity, and has attained so

great perfection, as to render the irony of the witty author of the

Tatler no longer figurative; namely, that “the transmutation of liquors

under the streets of London was so perfect, that the operators by the

power of magical drugs could convert a plantation of northern hedges

into a vineyard; could raise the choicest products of the hills and

valleys of France under the streets of London; could squeeze Bourdeaux

out of the sloe, and Champagne from the apple.”

Nor has the reprobation of the contaminations of wines and spirits

with substances deleterious to health been confined to former times;

they have been stigmatised on account of their alarming and deadly

increase in numerous recent publications. I quote the following artless

lines, in which an honest country lad is represented as expressing his

abhorrence of his relative, a London wine-merchant’s sophistications,

not for the elegance of the poetry, but as conveying an important truth

in a plain garb; perhaps its unaffected satire is not ill adapted to

awaken attention:

“So I buss’d Luke and mother, and, vastly concern’d,

Off I set, with my father’s kind blessing,

To our cousin, the wine merchant, where I soon learn’d

About mixing, and brewing, and pressing;

But the sloe-juice and rat’s bane, and all that fine joke,

Was soon in my stomach a-rising,

Why, dang it! cried I, would you kill the poor folk?

I thought you sold wine, and not poison!”

But the particular histories of the corruptions of wines and spirits

will be more acceptable to those who are desirous of preserving their

health and enjoying their existence comfortably, than quotation; for,

were wine and spirit bibbers aware of the abominable and fraudulent

processes of adulteration in use among wine and spirit dealers and

gin-shop keepers, they would not only heartily join in the exclamation

of the “poet of Nature,” “Oh! that men should put an enemy in their

mouths to steal away their brains!” but they would be convinced that it

is not only high time that the fraud and villany of their selfish and

secret poisoners should be unmasked, but also punished and suppressed.

For this purpose I shall detail some of the noxious compositions of the

wine and spirit dealers of newspaper notoriety, and of the placarding

gin-shop keepers, whose gaudy premises, as well as those of other

puffers at cheap prices, are designed to catch the eye and arrest the

attention of the heedless and unwary. And thus I am inclined to believe

that my readers will heartily agree with one who has materially and

honourably contributed to expose the villany of adulterators of all

kinds, that, in the deterioration and pernicious sophistication of the

necessaries and comforts of existence, it may with truth be said, in a

civil as well as in a religious sense, that “in the midst of life we

are in death.”

Factitious wines are generally, in the slang phraseology of the

adulteration trade, “doctored” or “cooked,” in order to give them

particular flavours, and render them similar to the wines they are

intended to represent. Thus bitter almonds (or the leaves of cherry

laurel, which are cheaper) are added to give a nutty flavour; sweet

briar, orris-root, clary, cherry-laurel-water, and elder-flowers to

form the bouquet of high-flavoured wines; alum to render young and

meagre red wines bright; cake of pressed elderberries and bilberries to

render pale faint coloured port [or red sumach, &c. to tinge spoiled

white wines red] of a deep rich purple colour;[A] oak saw-dust,

[sloes,] and the husks of filberts, to give additional astringency to

unripe red wines; and a tincture of the seeds of raisins to flavour

factitious port wine; [with a variety of other ingredients, such

as spice, &c. to render wine pungent]. (The Vintners and Licensed

Victuallers’ Guide, p. 259.) And in the same work, p. 225, among

other deleterious ingredients, “sugar of lead”[B] is directed to be

used for fining or clearing cloudy white wines. That book and works

of a similar kind are the accredited repositories of the arcana of

sophistication for the publican and small wine and spirit dealer, and

gin-shop keeper; but, as Mr. Accum (Culinary Poisons, p. 87) says,

the more wholesale adulterators and “large capitalists,” whether wine

and spirit brewer or ale and beer brewer, obtain, on payment of a

considerable fee, a manuscript from the brewers’ and spirit-dealers’

druggist, containing the whole mystery of managing and drugging wines,

spirits, beer, or ale; or they may be initiated in the respective

crafts and mysteries, by oral instruction, and practical demonstration,

on payment of a handsome douceur.

The above is the general method of doctoring or “cooking” wine and

spirits. The following are the particular and more ingenious methods

of sophistication in use among the advertising and placarding venders

of “genuine old Port” and “amber-coloured” or “fine pale Amontillado

Sherry.” Both sorts are generally compounded of a small quantity of

the real article either in a good or a deteriorated state, according

to the taste or conscience of the compounder, with the necessary

proportions of Cape wine, cider, sal tartar, colouring matter, brandy

or rum cowe, or other adulterating slops, which are calculated to form

a tolerable basis, and to bear a resemblance in colour and flavour to

the wine desired to be imitated. As the communication of the particular

ingredients of which these factitious wines are composed cannot but be

acceptable to my readers, I shall give a particular account of each of

the processes.

Factitious, or fabricated port wine is usually made by mingling or

blending together in large vats Benecarlo, or black strap, which

is a strong coarse Spanish wine of inferior quality; Red Cape; a

sufficient quantity of Mountain to soften the mixture and give it

the appearance of richness; a portion of sal tartar and gum dragon

(the object of the first ingredient is to cause the wine to crust

soon when bottled; of the second, to impart a fullness and roundness

of flavour and consistence of body); colouring matter, or berry-dye,

which is an extract of German bilberries; brandy or rum cowe, which is

the rinsings of casks containing those liquors, obtained by throwing

in a few gallons of water into them after the liquor is drawn off,

and leaving it closely bunged up till the cask has imparted the

flavour of the liquor to the water; and a quantity of spoiled cider,

of which many thousand pipes are annually brought to the metropolis

for this purpose. Sometimes a small quantity of port is made use

of, with rectified spirits and coarse brandy, and, instead of the

colouring articles above mentioned, red saunders wood, or the juice

of elderberries or of sloes is employed. According to the Mechanics’

Magazine, the chemical analysis of a bottle of cheap port wine was as

follows: spirits of wine, three ounces; cider, fourteen ounces; sugar,

one and half ounce; alum, two scruples; tartaric acid, one scruple;

strong decoction of logwood, four ounces. And this is the “genuine old

port,” of unrivalled flavour and quality, of the London fabricators and

compounders. “Amber-coloured Sherry,” or “the fine pale Amontillado

Sherry,” of the advertising wine-factor and placarding gin-shop keepers

is manufactured of coarse highly-brandied brown Sherry, Cape wine, and

brandy cowe; to which are added extract of almond-cake or gum benzoin,

to impart a nutty flavour; cherry-laurel-water, to give a roundness of

flavour; lamb’s blood, to fine the mixture and clear or decompose its

colour; and oyster-shells and chalk, for the purpose of binding and

concentrating the whole; and this delectable composition the knavish

adept in the art of deleterious combination palms on the credulity

of the public under the inviting title of “fine pale Sherry, of

peculiar delicacy and flavour.” Had the late Dr. Kitchiner been aware

of these sophistications he would not have said “that, of the white

wines, Sherry is the most easy to obtain genuine, and is the least

adulterated.”

The “fine old East-India Madeira, at unprecedented cheap prices, for

ready money only,” of these worthies is a commixture of a portion of

East-India Madeira with Teneriffe, Vidonia, or Direct Madeira,[C] and

East-India Cape.[D] The “fine old soft-flavoured West-India Madeira,

_of capital quality_,” and, of course, at _exceedingly low prices_,

is manufactured from a portion of genuine West-India Madeira and a

sufficient modicum of old thin Direct Madeira; and should the precious

commixture be approaching to acidity the kindness of the sophisticating

compounder obliges the palate of his poor gulled customer with the

insertion of a few ounces of carbonate of soda. The genuine colour of

pure Madeira (one of the best off-hand methods of forming an opinion

of the goodness of Madeira is, as the author of _The Private Gentleman

and Importing Merchants’ Wine and Spirit Cellar-Directory_ judiciously

says, by its colour) is much paler than that of Sherry. When it has a

pinkish hue it is a sign of its having been adulterated with Teneriffe.

“The Old London Particular,” or any other imposing and dainty

appellation extracted from the adulterating vocabulary of the artful

sophisticator, is generally composed of a combination of cheap Vidonia,

common dry Port, Mountain, and Cape wine, properly fined and reduced to

the requisite colour by means of lamb’s blood.

The Cape wine generally sold to the public is composed of the

drippings of the cocks from the various casks, the filterings of the

lees of the different wines in the adulterators’ cellars, or from

any description of bad or spoiled white wines, with the addition of

brandy or rum cowe and spoiled cider. “The delicately pale Cape Sherry,

or Cape Madeira, at astonishingly low prices,” and, of course, for

_ready money_, is composed of the same delicious ingredients, with the

addition of extract of almond cake, and a little of that delectable

liquor, lamb’s blood, to decompose its colour, or, in the cant

phraseology, to give it “complexion.”

In fact, the impositions practised in regard to this species of wine

fully justifies the reprobation of the writer in the 43d number of

the Quarterly Review. “The manufactured trash,” says the judicious

critic, “which is selling in London under the names of Cape Champagne,

Burgundy, Barsac, Sauterne, &c. are so many specious poisons, which

the cheapness of the common and inferior wines of the Cape allows the

venders of them to use as the bases of the several compositions, at

the expense of the stomach and bowels of their customers.” By mixing

these wines with the lees of other kinds, and fining and compounding

them with various drugs, they endeavour to counterfeit the more costly

vintages of Spain and Portugal, and even France.

It is unnecessary to state that the “Old Vidonia Wines,” the “Fine

old delicately-pale Bucellas,” and the “Unequalled and beneficial

Tent,” for the _sick and infirm, and the offices of our holy

religion_, “sold remarkably cheap, for ready money,” by those honest

and tender-conscienced gentry, are base substitutes for the genuine

articles. To say nothing worse, Tent, Mountain, Calcavella, &c. is

Port wine, transmuted by the addition of capillaire, &c. And, from the

report of a late case which came on before the Court of King’s Bench,

it appears that the scarce and costly Tokay, the Lachryma Christi, and

La Crême Divine, are seldom any other than identical Sicilian wines

of an inferior description; the current price of which in the market

is about twelve pounds sterling per hhd. Oh! friend Bull, how the

sophisticating rogues trifle with thy dainty palate! Hadst thou not

better rest contented with thy soul-stirring, heart-cheering, _vinum

Britannicum_,—thy home-brewed ale, and Sir John Barleycorn, instead of

filling thy _dear_ stomach with a medley of foreign slops. Oh, John,

when wilt thou learn wisdom and find a loyal pleasure in paying thy

quota of tax on articles of home manufacture! Alas! Johnny, thou art a

sadly wayward fellow! there is more hope of “the wild ass’s colt” than

of thee, when thy longings after foreign luxuries seduce thy palate and

blind thy understanding!

Nor are the costly French wines less exempt from the devices

and sophistications of the imps of the “Father of Deceit.” The

“super-excellent” or “genuine Claret of exceedingly fine description

and of the choicest quality” of the advertising and placarding dealers,

is a composition of inferior claret and a _quantum sufficit_ of Spanish

red wine and rough cider, with the colouring berry-dye. The colouring

process is sometimes performed by the agency of “black sloes,” “a

dozen new pippins,” or a “handful of the oak of Jerusalem,” are often

kindly introduced to improve its quality; and to tickle the taste of

the consumer of this wine, or of Port, “an ounce of cochineal” is

considerately thrown into a hogshead of liquor “to make it taste rough.”

When one views this goodly enumeration of items, it must be admitted

that the burthen of the old song does not appear overcharged:

“One glass of drink, I got by chance,

’Twas claret when it was in France,

But now from it moche wider;

I think a man might make as good

With green crabbes, boil’d in Brazil-wood,

And half a pinte of cyder.”

And it gives us cause to be satisfied of the truth of Milton’s remark:—

“Of deaths, many are the ways that lead

To his grim cave—all dismal.”

O ye gulled Jacky Bulls, who revel in bibbing “costly French wines,”

how angry you will be with me when I tell you that while you think

you are sipping “Genuine Sparkling Champagne,” you are titillating

your exquisite gullets with merely plain home-made English gooseberry

wine; or, what may be more alarming to you, with worthless Champagne

wine of very dangerous and deleterious quality and tendency; whose

effervescence or sparkling is produced by disengaging the carbonic

acid of the wine by the agency of sugar. To gain this end, the solid

sugar is corked up in the bottle, so that the disengaged gas is

retained under the pressure of the cork, ready to fly out whenever

it is removed. The agency of litharge of lead, in its worst form, is

often invoked in the manufacture of Champagne, as well as of other

white wines, in order to correct and render bright such wines as

have turned vapid, foul, or ropy, or to prevent the progress of any

ascescent quality that they may have acquired. The least pernicious

mode of manufacture of this wine is by adding to the spoiled

Champagnes, a portion of the low, or “third quality” wines from the

indifferent vineyards, and occasioning the admixture to undergo a fresh

fermentation, by the action of strong chemical agents; and then it is

vended as “_prime_ still Champagne.”

Some estimate may be formed of the extent of the adulteration of this

costly wine by the following notice in Dr. Reece’s Monthly Gazette of

Health for 1829.—“A company of Frenchmen,” says that honest abominator

of roguery and quackery of all kinds, “have contracted with some

farmers in Herefordshire for a considerable quantity of the fresh juice

of certain pears, which is to be sent to them in London, immediately

after it has been expressed, or before fermentation has commenced. With

the recently expressed juice they made last year an excellent brisk

wine resembling the finest sparkling Champagne; and we are told that

the speculation was so productive, that they have resolved to extend

their manufactory.” To this account I can, from a knowledge of the

concern, perfectly assent, except that the Anglo-French manufacture

does not exactly represent the first quality of Champagne wine, as it

is quite impossible for any imitative preparation to represent that

quality of wine.

Many thousand dozens of wines are sold in the course of the year in

London as old wines, under names which have scarcely any other title

to the appellation of wine than similarity of colour. “A particular

friend of mine,” says a correspondent to the Monthly Gazette of

Health, “purchased at a public sale by the hammer, a quantity of

‘super-excellent’ claret, at the rate of 50_s._ per dozen, which, on

delivery, his butler discovered to be the same wine he had exchanged

with a wine merchant at the rate of 20_s._ per dozen, being what is

termed _pricked_. The worthy Baronet complained of the imposition, but

the auctioneer would not listen to him. He had tasted it previously to

bidding for it, and that was enough for him.”

Another source of great profit to the cheap dealers, the gin-shop

keepers, and the advertizing wine-men, arises from the size of the

bottles in which they vend their compounds and mixtures, ycleped “wine.”

In the bottle-trade six various sizes are sold, namely:

The full quart, of which twelve contain three gallons of liquid, old

measure.

The thirteens, of which there must be thirteen to contain three gallons

of liquid, old measure.

The fourteens, of which there must be fourteen to contain three gallons

of liquid, old measure.

The small fourteens, of which there must be fourteen and a half, to

contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.

The fifteens, of which there must be fifteen, to contain three gallons

of liquid, old measure.

The sixteens, of which there must be sixteen, to contain three gallons

of liquid, old measure.

The two last sizes are those sold to the gin-shops and cheap wine

venders.

The above are the frauds practised by wine-dealers, by vending bottles

of inferior dimensions to the legal wine quart, which contains

thirty-two ounces; but many of the bottles imposed on unwary purchasers

do not contain more than twenty-four ounces, and few more than

twenty-six ounces.

The readiest way of detecting the fraud is by measuring the suspected

wine-bottle by Lyne’s graduated glass measure, which holds half a pint,

and is divided into ounces, &c. Or, if you have not a measure of the

kind by you, weigh the contents of the suspected bottle and compare the

weight ascertained with the following corresponding weights:

1 legal wine quart = 32 ounces; or, 256 drachms.

By subtracting the weight of the contents of the suspected bottle from

this weight, you may precisely ascertain the deficiency.

2. SPIRITS.

In the adulteration of spirituous liquors, the advertising and

placarding compounder exerts equal ingenuity and fraud, and obtains

an equally lucrative traffic as from wines. The “Curious old soft

flavoured Cogniac, ten years old,” of those nefarious dealers,

is compounded of Spanish or Bourdeaux brandy, neutral flavoured

rum, rectified spirits, British brandy, British brandy bitters,

cherry-laurel-water, extract of almond cake, extract of capsicums,

or of grains of paradise, burnt sugar or colouring matter. But more

generally that “_medicinal_” compound British brandy is palmed on

the public, for real Cogniac brandy. This diabolical farrago of

mischievous ingredients, which was held forth to the public by

interested individuals concerned in the undertaking, as calculated

“entirely to supersede the use of Cogniac brandy,” and “likely to

prove of great benefit to the _health_ and _comfort_ of the poorer

and middling classes of society,” is compounded of oil of vitriol,

vinegar, nitrum dulce, tincture of raisin stones, tinctura japonica,

cherry-laurel-water, extracts of capsicums or of grains of paradise,

orris-root, cassia-buds, bitter almond meal, colouring matter, &c. from

which enumeration of “_neat_” articles it appears that this “almost

superior brandy to Cogniac,” as its modest manufacturers term it, is a

slow poison, and equally deleterious in its effects, if not more so,

than that vile composition—“cheap gin.” That this is not an unfounded

insinuation against “the pure and unadulterated” article, sold, no

doubt, “at astonishingly low prices, and for ready money,” will appear

from the clear statement of the process of each manufacture given by

the author of The Wine and Spirit Adulterators Unmasked, pages 179

and 198. “British brandy,” says the honest Unmasker, “is _composed_

of drugs, gin only _flavoured_ by them. In the manufacture of gin,

the ingredients are put into the still, with a spirit which has been

previously rectified, and the condensed evaporation which is derived

from the whole constitutes the article gin. In the preparation,

however, of British brandy, the mixture is made without any process

through a still, being compounded more like a quack doctor’s nostrum.

The only part of the manufacture wherein distillation is concerned,

consists merely in rectifying either rum or malt whiskey, to deprive

them of their essential oils, so that they may be reduced to a state as

tasteless as possible, and thereby more readily receive the spurious

flavours intended to be imparted to them.

“The other articles are added in their raw state.—Should it be inquired

why the same process as is adopted in the manufacture of gin, should

not succeed in making British brandy, the answer is, because, in

distilling the necessary drugs with the rectified spirit, the flavour

would neither retain the sufficient predominancy, nor be sufficiently

fixed to enable the article to sustain the desired likeness to brandy,

besides that the effect of several of the ingredients, such as the oil

of vitriol, and nitrum dulce, which are used to impart a resemblance of

the vinosity possessed by genuine French brandy, would be completely

destroyed.”

“Fine old Jamaica rums of peculiar softness and flavour” are

manufactured of low-priced Leeward-island rum, ale, porter, or shrub,

extract of orris-root, cherry-laurel-water, and extract of grains

of paradise, or of capsicums. Sometimes the composition consists

of low-priced Jamaica rums, rectified spirits of wine, and the

Leeward-island rums, with the necessary acid vegetable substances, to

give them false strength and pungency and the requisite flavour; and

thus the purchaser is accommodated by the “caterers of _comfort_,”

with a rum which “CANNOT” be adulterated, of exceedingly fine and

superior flavour, _remarkably cheap and for ready money only_. The

ripe taste which rum or brandy that has been long kept in oaken casks

obtains, is imparted to new brandy and rum, by means of a spirituous

tincture of raisin-stones and oak saw-dust. And the water distilled

from cherry-laurel-leaves is frequently mixed with brandy and other

spirituous liquors to impart to them the flavour of the cordial called

Noyeau. Sugar of lead not unfrequently forms part of the flavouring

ingredients of the retailers’ rums.

But the perfection of adulteration is in gin,—cheap gin—“the _real_

comfort,”—patronized by the poor for its supposed GENUINENESS! This

infernal compound of combustibles is distinguished from the other slow

poisons to which a large portion of the population of “the queen of

cities,”—our “modern Carthage,” make themselves the willing victims,

by the poisonous nature of the ingredients of which it is composed.[E]

These are the oils of vitriol, turpentine, juniper, cassia, carraways,

and almonds, sulphuric ether or phosphorus, extracts of orris-root,

angelica-root, capsicums or grains of paradise, sugar, and heading. The

aid of lime-water and of spirits of wine is also invoked in the course

of the operation. The purposes of these mischievous ingredients are as

follow: The oil of vitriol is to impart pungency and the appearance

of strength, when the liquor is applied to the nose, while the extract

of capsicums or of grains of paradise is designed to perform the same

office for the taste. The extracts of orris and angelica roots give a

fulness of body and the coveted flavour called cordial to the large

proportion of the compound, which consists only of water. The remaining

oils are to give strength, the sugar to sweeten the composition, and

the lime to unite the oils with the spirit; while the sulphuric ether,

phosphorus, and heading are intended to give the semblance of being

highly spirituous from the fiery taste, and the appearance of the light

bead which is caused to appear and remain for some time on the surface

of the noxious compound. The introduction of the white arsenic is

intended to promote an irritable and feverish thirst, so that the poor

deluded consumer may be compelled to have recourse to fresh potations

of the “liquid fire.” The Hollands of the gin-shop keepers and

advertising dealers is a commixture of a small portion of the genuine

article with rectified spirits, peppermint, cloves, &c. The cordial,

called Shrub, says Mr. Accum, Culinary Poisons, p. 257, frequently

exhibits vestiges of copper, which arise from the metallic vessels

employed in the manufacture of the liquor. But, had that ingenious

gentleman been thoroughly acquainted with the manufacture of shrub in

the cellars of spirit dealers, he would not have been quite so moderate

in his remarks respecting this seductive “_cordial_.”

Such is a list of the detestable articles palmed on the public, by the

avaricious and unprincipled dealers and cozeners in the factitious

wines and spirits on constant and extensive sale throughout every

quarter of the metropolis. The credulity and infatuation of the public

in the consumption of the deadly draughts are truly astonishing, and

are a verification of the sarcasm that were the vision of death to

appear to the tippler in each glass of liquor that he puts to his lips,

yet he would still persevere in habits which are inevitably destructive

of health and comfort, and eventually productive of disease and death.

“Oh blindness to the future!—” Surely old Jeremy Taylor’s observation

respecting Apicius is equally applicable to the inveterate consumer of

wines and spirits—“It would have been of no use,” says that orthodox

old divine, “to talk to Apicius of the secrets of the other world, and

of immortality; that the saints and angels eat not! The fat glutton

would have stared awhile and fallen a-sleep. But if you had discoursed

well and knowingly of a lamprey, a large mullet, or a boar, animal

propter convivium, and had sent him a cook from Asia to make new

sauces, he would have attended carefully, and taken in your discourses

greedily.” The same feeling I expect will be displayed towards this

book by the inveterate dram-drinker: he or she will curse the author,

as a busy-body, for his intermeddling with, and abusing their “_dear_

comfort.” People are apt to conclude that a practice sanctioned by

time and numbers must be right; but there cannot be a conclusion more

fallacious. The grossest possible absurdities have been sanctioned

for the same reasons. No doubt some will defend their practice of

dram-drinking and immoderate potations of wines, and of malt and

spirituous liquors by the unsound plea that they find no ill effect

from their self immolation from drinking the deadly draughts; but

reasoners so deluded should recollect that, though there are persons

who are insensible to the immediate effects from strong liquors, either

spirituous or malt, yet to those who seldom or ever use them, they act

as quick poisons; not waiting their tedious operation in the form of

fever, gout, stone and gravel, dropsy, bile, rheumatism, head-ache,

scurvy, cancer, asthma, consumption, palsy, brain fever, apoplexy,

mania, and a long list of other frightful and loathsome diseases.

In truth, as the author of “_The Oracle of Health and Long Life_”

forcibly observes, “they paralyze the nervous system and the heart’s

action; and the tremulous hand, the palsied limbs, the bloated and

inflamed countenance, and the faltering tongue, super-induced by their

immoderate use, indicate that premature death lays claim to his deluded

and self-destroying victim!”

Nor is this the worst consequence of the immoral and unsocial act: for

the unhappy wretch who is addicted to the habitual and vicious use of

ardent spirits, besides subjecting himself to the attack of “the whole

army of diseases” which assault the human frame from intoxication,

often exhibits a more awful demonstration of the consequences of

violating the laws of morality and social decency: I allude to the

extraordinary fact of the spontaneous combustion of the body, which has

often terminated the existence of old and inveterate drunkards.

This combustion is occasioned in such persons from the whole fabric of

the body being so changed, by the constant practice of spirit-drinking,

with inflammable matter (probably hydrogen); or, chemically speaking,

it acquires so powerful an attraction for oxygen, that it suddenly

takes fire, (in some instances spontaneously, in others from the flame

of a candle or too powerful a heat of the fire,) and the body is

reduced to a cinder.

The persons in whom this dreadful visitation of apparently supernatural

punishment for the violation of the laws of nature has occurred, have

been chiefly women. In some cases the unhappy sufferers have been

found burning, “sometimes with an open flame flickering over the

body, sometimes with a smothered heat or fire, without any open flame

whatever; whilst the application of water has occasionally seemed

rather to quicken than impede the combustion.

“In no instance has the fire or flame thereby excited in the body been

so powerful as essentially to injure the most combustible substances

immediately adjoining it, as linen or woollen furniture.

“The event has usually taken place at night, when the sufferer has been

alone, and has commonly been discovered by the fœtid penetrating scent

of sooty films, which have spread to a considerable distance. The

unhappy subject has in every instance been found dead, and more or less

completely burnt up.”

The above awful account is quoted from Dr. Mason Good’s “Study of

Medicine;” but relations of numerous cases of the above horrid

termination of existence may be found in the Philosophical

Transactions, Vols. 63 and 64, in Dr. Young’s “Medical Literature,” and

in a variety of Foreign Journals, medical as well as general.

Let all those who are addicted to habitual intoxication and the

consumption of the infernal compositions of nefarious dealers in

spirits, read and re-read the above quotation, and may they take

warning, and renounce that unhappy propensity.

It is true that wine and malt liquors, and even occasionally spirits,

are far from prejudicial, when properly made, and used with discretion;

but as it is almost impossible to find them in that state, except

when home-made or home-brewed, there is certainly much risk in

drinking them. Yet, strange to say, though the stoutest among us has

no predilection for the “King of Terrors,” inclination and habit

are so strong and seductive, that the greater part of mankind still

persevere in habits with a perfect knowledge of their inevitable

consequences,—that they are destructive of health and inductive of

death. For the purpose of awakening the attention of those who are

under this unhappy delusion, is the design of the present publication.

The most grateful sensation to a well disposed heart is the salvation

of a fellow creature from misery and perdition. I beseech heaven that I

may be successful in my undertaking.

But the base and iniquitous adulterations of wines and spirits are not

the whole of the “illicit doings” of the advertisers and placarders,

and their worthy compeers, the commission-men, the wine-hawkers, and

the dock wine-merchants. “Among the deceptions practised by this class

of dealers,” says the author of Wine and Spirit Adulterators Unmasked,

p. 157, and he is no indifferent authority on the subject, “may be

reckoned the delivering of a less quantity of wine than is charged

for in the invoice, the disposing of a wine with a false description

of its being of some particularly fine and noted vintage; the sending

of another wine, of an inferior quality, as the one which had been

tasted and sold; together with a variety of other peculations. The

gin-shop-keepers and advertising dealers in spirits not only give short

measure of their adulterated ingredients, but if they sell any thing

like the genuine article they dilute it much below (often one hundred

per cent.) the legal strength, namely, seventeen per cent. below proof,

according to Sykes’s hydrometer.”

For the following valuable information respecting the ingenious

devices of the “_gentlemen_” wine-merchants, I am indebted to the

pages of “_The Private Gentleman and Importing Merchant’s Wine and

Spirit Cellar Directory_:”—A work replete with the most useful

information on the subject, as containing the best and most practical

instructions on the selection, purchase, management, medication, and

preservation of foreign wines, of any work extant in any language.

It has been well said by a judicious critic, “No book is more wanted

than a good, practical, and complete one on this important subject: it

would be worth its weight in gold, and its author would be a public

benefactor to his country. More than nine-tenths of the wine imported

into this country is either spoiled or impoverished by the ignorance

or mismanagement of the wine-dealer or the purchaser; as at present

conducted, the management of a wine-cellar is, in most cases, all

random, hap-hazard, and guess-work. Ought we to be surprised at the

result, the consequent loss or injury of the wine? It is, therefore,

with considerable satisfaction we recommend this little work as a

valuable addition to our domestic economy.”

“As many people place reliance on the genuineness of wines purchased

in the Docks, and think that such purchases are more exempt from fraud

and imposition than if obtained from the dealer’s shop or vaults,

and that they will have them ‘_neat as imported_,’ it is necessary

to caution them to be on their guard in respect of the persons with

whom they deal. Inferior articles, false descriptions, substitutions

for the one selected, and various other peculations, take place

there as frequently as is the case when wines are purchased at the

dealer’s shop, &c. Other impositions of as flagrant a nature consist

in transferring wines of a _most_ inferior sort into pipes recently

emptied, and originally filled with wine of the best vintages and

flavour; and as the outside of the cask bears the marks of the foreign

houses of character, from whose vintages the wines contained in the

casks were furnished, this fraud is found to turn to very good account.

By delusions of this kind, the most detestable trash ever vended under

the name of wine is frequently foisted on purchasers. But if this

statement is not sufficient to satisfy those who fondly suppose that by

making their purchases in the ‘Docks’ that they will always have their

expectations of obtaining unadulterated wine fulfilled, they should

recollect that the owners of wines in the ‘Dock’ are at liberty to mix

them in whatever manner and proportions they please, provided they

come under one denomination as to colour and pay the same duty. These

remarks will, I trust, satisfy my readers that ‘an extensive range of

counting-houses,’ ‘numerous clerks employed’ and professions of ‘the

high character of the house,’ should not supersede the necessity of

making a _little_ inquiry as to the _fair dealing and integrity_ of the

vender.”

The foregoing “_exposé_” of trickery and fraud, and the shameful

latitude and extensive means afforded designing and iniquitous men,

of practising their roguery on the credulity and folly of the public,

as well as to the loss of the revenue, evidently shows that our

present system of excise-laws is defective and absurd: indeed, it is

disgraced by the most perfect anomalies; for, while the brewer and

vender of spices, &c. are subjected to the strictest survey of the

excise, and the frauds and adulterations used in those trades are

punished, (when detected, though it must be acknowledged that that

happy consummation of justice is rather of rare occurrence even with

those sophisticators,) in the most prompt and efficient manner, the

venders and compounders of “seductive poison,” in the form of drams,

are allowed to manufacture and sell their deleterious inventions to

an enormous extent, and with an effrontery disgraceful to civilized

society. But, perhaps, the old artful plea of the “immense wealth,” and

“the great value of the property,” of “the large capitalists” engaged

in the nefarious trade, (the worst and most futile of all pretentions,)

have entitled the “deputations” of wine and spirit dealers and

compounders and distillers that have, from time to time, waited on

the Chancellors of the Exchequer, to “undoubted consideration;”[F]

and where the worthies have been detected (a chance which but

seldom happens) in their iniquitous practices a prudent private

compromise, or sum-total-fine, for the offence and the expenses of the

Excise-solicitor, “have shrouded the offenders and their misdeeds in

impenetrable secrecy from the public eye.”

Another lame and false doctrine that prevails in “_government logic_”

is, that where extensive concerns, whether brewery, distillery,

wine-factories, or quack-medicine-factories, yield an important

contribution to the revenue, no strict scrutiny needs to be adopted in

regard to the quality of the article from which such contribution is

raised, provided the excise and customs do not suffer by the fraud.

“But,” as that intrepid advocate of fair dealing, Mr. Accum, forcibly

and justly observes, “the principles of the constitution afford no

sanction to this preference, and the true interests of the country

require that it should be abolished; for a tax dependent on fraud must

be at best precarious, and must be, sooner or later, diminished by the

irresistible diffusion of knowledge. Sound policy requires that the law

should be impartially enforced in all cases; and if its penalties were

extended to abuses of which it does not now take cognizance, there is

no doubt that the revenue would be abundantly benefited.”

“O England! model to thy inward greatness,

Like little body with a mighty heart,

What would’st thou do that honour would thee do,

Were all thy children kind and natural?”

Were they all influenced by the same honest, bold, and disinterested

motives as the ill-fated Accum, who has been offered a vindictive

sacrifice on the altar of trading cupidity and fraud. Every honest

man must allow that _the expatriation of that gentleman is a disgrace

to the country which he has adorned and benefited by his talents, and

ought to be deplored as a loss to the real interests of science and

humanity_.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Mr. Accum, in his valuable book, enumerates, among the ingredients

for giving the deeper or purple colour to wine, brazil-wood; but that

ingenious gentleman is in error in this respect; for brazil-wood,

as is well known to every practical chemist, has the property

of imparting a blue colour to port wine, which is not quite the

complexion that the wine-manufacturer wishes to give his spurious

commodity.

[B] The introduction of this deleterious ingredient into wines is to

stop the progress of their ascescency, or to recover ropy wines, or

to clarify and render transparent spoiled or muddy white wines. As to

the deleterious effects and dangerous consequences of this and other

adulterations of wines, &c. see The Oracle of Health and Long Life;

or, Plain Rules for the Attainment and Preservation of Sound Health

and Vigorous Old Age. By Medicus.

[C] Direct Madeira is that which has been shipped direct from the

island of Madeira, without having the benefit, as it is termed, of a

voyage to the East or West Indies.

[D] East-India or West-India Cape is that portion of Cape wines which

has had the benefit of a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to the

East Indies, and thence back to London. Cape Sherry is that portion

of Cape wine which bears the greatest resemblance in flavour to real

Sherry. Cape Madeira is so denominated from its resemblance, in point

of flavour, to Madeira. Cape Burgundy, Cape Hock, Cape Sauterne,

Cape Port, Cape Pontac, Cape Champagne, Cape Barsac, &c. owe their

appellations to their supposed resemblance, in point of flavour, to

those wines.

[E] The respectable author of “The Art of Brewing on Scientific

Principles” has the following note, “Spirits vended by retail are all

adulterated, and some of them to a dreadful extent. Some months since

(his work was published in 1826,) a person having writing to do that

would occupy great part of the night, purchased, at a liquor shop, in

Newgate-street, half a pint of gin; and, during the night, he drank

a goblet-full of grog, which he had made from it. He was seized with

most excruciating agony, spasms of the stomach, temporary paralysis,

and loss of intellect. These he attributed to some natural cause, and

he gave the remainder of the liquor to a person that called on him in

the morning. In about an hour that person was similarly affected. This

induced inquiry; and it was ascertained that the woman who served the

liquor had mistaken the bottle, and had sold half a pint of the fluid

intended to prepare the adulterations for sale. The last-mentioned

person who partook of the infernal mixture died of its effects.”

Similar consequences have occurred from adulterated beer. Among a

thousand other instances, see the Coroner’s inquest in the Times

Newspaper of the 29th of June, 1829.

[F] According to the testimony of the author of “Wine and Spirit

Adulterators Unmasked” the profits of the wine and spirit compounders

are so great, and the chance of the detection of their frauds and

impositions on the public and the revenue is almost so impossible,

that many of them are to be found “vieing with the nobility of the

land in the splendour of their equipages and expenditure.” He mentions

one gin-shop-keeper (a worthy in the neighbourhood of St. Luke’s)

who “drives his family to _church_, on a Sunday, in his carriage and

four.” Another, who has a “richly ornamented state bed.” A third, who

is to be found lolling “on an ottoman, in a French dressing-gown.”

And he adds, that it is usual to give from four to six thousand

guineas for the good will of a gin-shop which has an unexpired lease

of eighteen or twenty years, with the drawback of the purchaser being

quite at the mercy of the magistrates as to the renewal of his license.

SECTION II.

_The Tests, or Methods of ascertaining the Good or Bad Qualities of

Wines and Spirits._

Though there are many tests in use for the discovery of the presence

of mineral poisons, such as litharge and other preparations of lead,

or pungent vegetable nostrums, namely extract of capsicums, &c. in

wines and spirits, yet it must be admitted that there are no efficient

tests for detecting the presence of the foreign agents above mentioned

in either wines or spirits, except by chemical analysis; because, in

the fraudulent combination which takes place, those articles bear the

largest proportions which possess the same chemical properties as do

the wines and spirits with which they are compounded. The injurious

tendency of the vegetable poisons which form a component part of the

spurious compositions which are vended under the denomination of cheap

wines and spirits, and their injurious and lingering effects are so

imperceptible on the human constitution, that, as the author of “The

Oracle of Health and Long Life” observes, they must be deadly indeed to

produce immediate injury, so as to give suspicion of their presence.

The presence of sugar of lead, or any other deleterious metal in wine,

may be detected by filling a glass with wine, and adding a few drops

of Harrowgate-water, or melted brimstone, when the wine will with the

last mentioned ingredient becomes blackish, and with the other it will

immediately produce a black sediment; but if it be unadulterated it

will only lose its clearness, taste, and colour. Or the adulteration

may be discovered by adding one part of water saturated with

sulphuretted hydrogen gas, acidulated with a small portion of muriatic

acid, to two parts of wine, or any other liquid, in which the presence

of lead is suspected, when a blackish coloured precipitate will settle

at the bottom of the vessel, which, being dried and fused by means of

the blow-pipe, will yield a globule of metallic lead. The prussiate of

potash is occasionally employed for the same purpose: a drop or two

being sufficient to show a white or greyish precipitate in any fluid

in which lead is contained. When white wines have an unusual degree

of sweetness, are of a darker colour than their age and body seem to

warrant, and particularly when their use, or that of the red wines, is

followed by pains in the stomach, it may be concluded that they have

been adulterated with lead.

The process to detect the presence of alum in wine, is to take some

fresh prepared lime-water, and to mix the suspected wine with it, in

about equal proportions; if after the mixture has stood about a day, a

number of crystals is found deposited at the bottom of the vessel, the

wine is genuine; but, if alum is present in the wine, there will be no

crystals, but a slimy and muddy precipitate. Or the presence of alum

may be detected, by dropping some solution of subcarbonate of potash

into the wine, when, if the alum be present, there will be a violet

coloured precipitate, or at least cloudiness, which will vanish again

if a few drops of caustic, potash, or of muriatic acid are added to the

mixture.

Where artificial colouring matter is suspected in wine, put a quarter

of a pint of the liquor into a phial, with an ounce of fresh charcoal

finely pulverized. Then shake the mixture well for a few minutes, when,

if the wine is impregnated only with its own natural colouring, that

colour will be chemically destroyed, and the wine, when filtered, will

yield a clear limpid fluid; but, if the wine is artificially coloured,

such artificial colours will not be acted on by the charcoal, and the

mixture will appear unchanged.

Extraneous colours in wines may also be detected by means of acetate of

lead. If this test produces, in red wine, a greenish grey precipitate,

it is a sign that the wine is genuine. Wine coloured with the juice of

bilberries, or elderberries, or Campeachy wood, produces, with acetate

of lead, a deep blue precipitate; and fernambouk wood, red saunders,

and the red beet, produce a red precipitate by the agency of the

acetate of lead.

According to Cadet (Dictionnaire de Chimie, art. Vin.) this species

of adulteration may be detected by pouring into the suspected wine a

solution of sulphate of alumine, and precipitating the alum by potash.

If the wine is pure, the precipitate will have a bottle green colour,

more or less dark, according to the natural hue of the wine. But if the

colour has been artificial the following will be the results:—

Tournesol will give a precipitate of a bright yellow colour. Brazil

wood a brownish red colour. Elderberries or privet a brownish violet

colour. Wortleberries the colour of dirty wine lees. Logwood a lake red

colour.

But Dr. Henderson says, in his learned work, entitled “The History of

Ancient and Modern Wines,” p. 342, that the simple test pointed out to

him by his friend Dr. Prout is equally satisfactory, and may be applied

either to red or white wines. “On adding ammonia to wines, which had

the appearance of being genuine, he observed that the precipitate was

of an olive green colour; shewing the analogy between the colouring

principle and the vegetable blues, most of which are rendered red by

acids, and green by alkalis. This conjecture is, in some measure,

confirmed by the recent discovery of M. Breton, professor of chemistry

in Paris, with respect to the cause of that disorder in wines known

by the name of _tournure_. Wine thus affected acquires a disagreeable

taste and smell, loses its red colour, and assumes a dark violet hue,

which changes are found to proceed from the presence of carbonate of

potash, in consequence of the decomposition of the tartar contained in

the liquor. To restore the natural colour and flavour, if the disease

be not of long standing, it is only necessary to add a small quantity

of tartaric acid, which, combining with the potash, forms cream of

tartar, as is shown by the subsequent deposition of crystals. Revue

Encyclopedique, November, 1823. In genuine wines, the colouring matter

seems to partake of the character of a lake, partly held in solution

by the excess of acid present, and partly combined with the earthy

phosphates; for, in the precipitates obtained from these wines by means

of ammonia, it appears in union with the triple phosphate of magnesia.

Even the white wines of Xeres, Madeira, and Teneriffe, exhibit this

mixed precipitate; their colouring matter being probably derived from

the red grapes which enter into their composition. In fictitious wines,

on the other hand, such as those procured from the black currant,

gooseberry, orange, &c. the last mentioned salt was thrown down by

ammonia, but more gradually, in less quantities, and without any

admixture.”

The method of ascertaining the strength, or quantity of spirit or

alcohol in wines is by the following process, for the discovery of

which the public is indebted to Mr. Brande.

“Add to eight parts, by measure, of the wine to be examined, one part

of a concentrated solution of subacetate of lead; a dense insoluble

precipitate will ensue; which is a combination of the test-liquor with

the colouring, extractive and acid matter of the wine. Shake the

mixture for a few minutes, pour the whole upon a filter and collect the

filtered fluid. It contains the brandy, or spirit, and water of the

wine, together with a portion of the subacetate of lead. Add, in small

quantities at a time to this fluid, warm, dry, and pure subcarbonate

of potash, (not salt of tartar, or the subcarbonate of potash of

commerce); which has previously been freed from water by heat, till the

last portion added remains undissolved. The brandy or spirit contained

in the fluid will become separated; for the subcarbonate of potash

abstracts from it the whole of the water, with which it was combined;

the brandy or spirit of wine forms a distinct stratum, which floats

upon the aqueous solution of the alkaline salt. If the experiment be

made in a glass tube, from one half inch to two inches in diameter, and

graduated into a hundred equal parts, the per centage of spirit, in a

given quantity of wine, may be read off by mere inspection. In the same

manner the strength of any wine may be examined.”

The following is the proportion, or per centage, of alcohol or spirit

in some of the most common wines and spirituous liquors. But such of my

readers as may wish to gain more extensive information on the subject,

I refer them to the first volume of the Journal of Science and the

Arts, p. 290.

Madeira 24.42 to 19.24 average 22.77

Sherry 19.81 to 18.25 average 16.17

Claret 17.18 to 12.91 average 15.10

Port 25.83 to 19.96 average 22.99

Champagne 13.80 to 11.30 average 12.61

Cider, highest average 9.87 lowest do. 5.21

Brandy 53.39

Rum 53.68

Gin 54.32

Whiskey (Scotch) 54.32

Whiskey (Irish) 53.90

Ale (Burton) 8.88

—— (Edinburgh) 6.20

—— (Dorchester) 5.50

London Porter (average) 4.20

Small Beer (average) 1.28

The above proportional quantities of alcohol contained in the different

kinds of wine are extracted from Mr. Brande’s experiments detailed in

the work before mentioned; but as it appears that that gentleman made

his experiments on samples of wine into which adventitious alcohol had

been introduced, he seems in some instances to have assigned a greater

degree of spirituosity to some wines than the subsequent analysis of

Dr. Prout will justify, in the case of experiments made on genuine

wines. To those who are desirous of informing themselves accurately

on the subject, a reference to the Table at pages 363 and 364 of Dr.

Henderson’s work on the History of Ancient and Modern Wines, in which

the results of the experiments of Mr. Brande, Dr. Prout, and Mr. Zist,

an able chemist residing at Mentz, are detailed, is recommended.

The quantity of astringent matter, or tannin, contained in wine, may

readily be ascertained by dropping a solution of isinglass into it,

when a gelatinous precipitate takes place in proportion to the tannin,

whether it be Port, Claret, or Burgundy.

The adulteration and false strength of spirituous liquors, as brandy,

rum, and malt spirit, are detected by diluting the suspected liquor

with water, when the acrimony of the capsicum, or the grains of

paradise, or pepper, may be easily discovered by the taste. Or by

taking about a quart of the suspected liquor, and pouring it into a

retort, or small still, and boiling it gently, until the whole of

the spirituous part is evaporated, the residuum, if capsicum, grains

of paradise, &c. have been present in the liquor, will retain a hot

pungent taste. A ready way of detecting aqua-fortis, or oil of vitriol,

in spirits, is, by dropping into a glass of the suspected liquor, a bit

of chalk about the size of a pea, when the liquid, if spurious, will

become like milk, but, if genuine, the chalk will lie at the bottom.

The adulteration of brandy with British molasses or sugar spirit, is

ascertained by rubbing a portion of the suspected liquor between the

palms of the hands, when the spirit, as it evaporates, leaves the

disagreeable flavour which is peculiar to all British spirits. Or the

liquor may be deprived of its alcohol, by heating a portion of it in

a spoon over a candle till the vapour ceases to catch fire on the

approach of a lighted taper. The residue thus obtained, if genuine

brandy, possesses a vinous odour, resembling the flavour of brandy,

whilst the residue produced from sophisticated brandy, has a peculiarly

disagreeable smell, resembling gin, or the breath of habitual

drunkards. The purity of spirits may also be easily ascertained by

setting fire to a little of the suspected article in a spoon, when, if

they be unadulterated, they will all burn away, without leaving any

moisture behind. The presence of lead, or any of its preparations, in

spirituous liquors, may be detected by the same method as has been

stated in the case of wine. Where gin has been highly sweetened with

sugar, by evaporating some of the suspected liquor in a spoon over a

candle, the sugar will appear in the form of a gum-like substance when

the spirit is volatilized.

The presence of lead as a component part of cider or perry, whether

happening accidentally from the leaden bed of the press, or inserted

intentionally for the purpose of neutralizing the super-abundant acid

of the liquor, may be tested by putting a solution of molybdate of

potash into the suspected liquor; when a white precipitate will take

place, even though the lead should exist in the smallest possible

quantity. It is needless here to enumerate the various tricks of “the

knowing ones” for giving a factitious crust to wine bottles,[G] by

means of Brazil wood and potash; or the colouring and eating away of

wine corks,[H] to represent long residence in the neck of the bottle,

though perhaps only driven in yesterday. Nor is the crusting even of

the wine-casks, which is accomplished by means of crystals of the

super-tartrate of potash, to be trusted to.

Those who wish to know the _allowable secrets_ of the adulteration

trade will find them fully explained in “_The Private Gentleman or

Importing Merchants’ Wine and Spirit Cellar Directory_,” with many

other “Secrets Worth Knowing” by cozeners; but it may be observed that

the older port wine is, the less of the tartar, or super-tartrate of

potash is contained in it, and the greater the deposition on the sides

of the cask or bottle. But new wine may be put into old casks or old

bottles. Therefore, to ascertain the quantity of the salt, take a pint

of wine, and boil it down to one-half, into which drop a solution of

muriate of platina, when a precipitate will take place, greater or

less, in proportion to the quantity of salt contained in the wine.

FOOTNOTES:

[G] The crusting of wine in the natural way generally takes place

in about nine months; but, among the artizans of the factitious

wine-trade, it is accomplished in a much shorter time. Those ingenious

gentry line the inside of the bottles they intend to fill with their

compound called wine, by suffering a saturated hot solution of

super-tartrate of potash, coloured red with a decoction of Brazil

wood, to crystallize within them. Others of that honest fraternity,

who dislike trouble, put a tea-spoon full of the powder of catechu

into each bottle, and by this artifice soon produce a fine crusted

appearance of “aged wine.” This simulation of maturity is often

accomplished by the humbler dealer by covering the bottles with snow,

or by exposing them to the rays of the sun, or by keeping them for a

few days in hot water. Where the casks are to be bottled off by the

purchaser, or in his presence, they are stained in the inside with the

artificial crystalline crust of super-tartrate of potash, as a proof of

the age of the wine.

[H] To produce the dilapidations of “Father Time” on wine corks,

the dry rot, however injurious to others, is of great advantage to

wine-dealers, as it soon covers the bottles with its mouldy appearance,

and consumes the external part of the cork; so that with a trifling

operation on the bottles after they are filled, and then deposited in

cellars pretty strongly affected with the dry rot, they can furnish the

admirers of “aged wine” with liquor having the appearance of having

been bottled seven or eight years, though it has not in reality been

there so many months. The staining of the lower extremities of the

corks with a fine red colour, produced from a strong decoction of

Brazil wood and alum, to make them appear “aged,” or as if they had

been long in contact with the wine, is another of the devices of the

factitious wine-trade, and forms a distinct branch of its operations.

SECTION III.

_Beer and Ale._

“The nutricious and strengthening[I] beverage” of the English,

“their own native old Sir John Barleycorn,” is not exempt from the

sophistications and corruptions of the adulterator! Ye topers of

“_pure_ extract from malt and hops,” do you hear this? That your own

sweet proper suction—your ancient and legitimate accompaniment of the

sirloin and the plum-pudding, is composed of every thing else than what

it ought to be,—in fact, that it is one of the slowest and most fatal

poisons with which your good friends “the _honest_ English brewers”

are continually entertaining you. Aye, John, it is the truth—and the

whole truth. But should you, with your usual “well-clothed stupidity,

and sneering ignorant scepticism,” feel inclined to doubt my assertion,

a reference to the “Minutes of the House of Commons, appointed for

examining the price and quality of beer,” will furnish you with a

goodly list of nearly two hundred Excise prosecutions and convictions

(between the years 1812 and 1819), of wholesale and retail brewers,

publicans, and brewers’ druggists, for the nefarious adulterations of

your favourite beverage, or for having in their possession, or selling

the poisonous ingredients for the purpose; in which there are several

instances of penalties of £500, with costs having been inflicted on the

offenders. Since that time, seizures of illegal and poisonous articles

have also been often made by the Excise, and convictions have taken

place. During the latter end of the last year, and at the commencement

of the present year, seizures have been made, and convictions have

taken place, nearly equal in number to those before stated: indeed, as

a writer on the subject truly observes, “scarcely a week passes without

witnessing the detection of some wicked greedy wretch,” who has been

sporting with the lives and health of his fellow-creatures. And, when

you have satisfied your incredulous understanding of your “_honest_”

countrymen’s dealings with you, you may, perhaps, by reading the

following extract from Mr. Accum’s book on Culinary Poisons, p. 189,

be satisfied that you are not exactly swallowing a “cordial balsam,”

or “the elixir of life,” when you are pouring into your portly stomach

that delectable mixture, in the composition of whose combustible

materials the brewer’s (or “_gentleman_”) druggist, the brewer, and the

publican have kindly and humanely exerted their honest and patriotic

skill.

“That a minute portion of an unwholesome ingredient, daily taken in

beer,” (says the intrepid advocate of offended justice, whose civil

death to science and suffering humanity is to be sincerely deplored,)

“cannot fail to be productive of mischief, admits of no doubt:

and there is reason to believe that a small quantity of a narcotic

substance daily taken into the stomach, together with an intoxicating

liquor, is highly more efficacious than it would be without the liquor.

The effect may be gradual; and a strong constitution, especially if

it be assisted with constant and hard labour, may counteract the

destructive consequences, perhaps for many years, but it never fails to

show its baneful effects at last.”

But, perhaps, friend John, you will say that this is all talk, and a

mere bug-a-boo of the “radicals” to annoy you in your daily potations

of your “favourite beverage,”—thy own native nutritious liquor. And

you will call for something like proofs, or an enumeration of the

deleterious substances or ingredients which have been found in the

possession of brewers and publicans, and for the admixture of which

with their “_neat article_,” they have been subject to the Law’s angry

visitations. This is a reasonable request, and it shall be satisfied to

the best of my power.

Know then, friend Bull, that the following _harmless_ and

_invigorating_ ingredients have been found in the possession of thine

honest fellow-countrymen, the brewers, according to the list of the

Excise prosecutions detailed in the Minutes of the Committee of the

House of Commons, appointed for examining the price and quality of beer

in the year 1819.

1. Cocculus Indicus, or, as it is vulgarly called, occulus Indian

berry. This is a powerfully narcotic, and most intoxicating and

deleterious drug. In its mildest form, it produces excruciating

head-aches and distressing sickness, when the beer is over-dosed. So

great was the demand for this poisonous drug, that it rose, as Mr.

Accum says, within the space of ten years, from 2_s._ to 7_s._ per lb.

The extract or poisonous principle obtained from the berries is so

abundant as to be easily separated from the substance, and is called by

the chemist picrotoxin, a term derived from two Greek words, namely,

πιχρος, bitter; and τοξιχον, poison. What thinkest thou of this, friend

John? In India, the berries are thrown on the surface of the water for

the purpose of intoxicating the fish, when they float on the water, and

are easily taken by the hand.

2. Black Extract, or, as it is called, in the slang phrase of the

Adulterating Vocabulary, Hard Multum, which is also an extract of the

poisonous Indian berry, or a composition of opium and other ingredients.

3. Nux Vomica and St. Ignatius’s Bean, which are both poisonous; but

the first is so extremely deleterious a drug, ten or twelve grains of

it being sufficient to kill a dog, that it is now expunged from the

Pharmacopeias. Yet, although no one ever hears of its application,

except for poisoning rats, it is imported in large quantities, and tons

of this deadly poison are ground every year in the drug-mills of the

metropolis. The bitter bean, or, as it is more commonly termed by the

tender-conscienced gentry, who sport with the health and lives of their

fellow-creatures, St. Ignatius’s bean, in order, no doubt, to appease

the qualms of conscience under a sanctified name, is no less injurious

to health.

4. Opium, Tobacco, Extract of Poppies, Henbane, Bohemian Rosemary,

and Coriander seed, which are all highly dangerous when improperly

used. Chemical experiment has proved that less than one pound of the

last-mentioned ingredient equals in strength and stupefactive quality

one bushel of malt.

5. Essentia Bina, or Double Essence; that is, sugar boiled down to

a black colour and an empyreumatic flavour. But, instead of the

concentrated essence, the intent of which is to produce the requisite

colour in porter, the colouring matter now generally used by the more

respectable part of the trade is malt roasted in iron cylinders until

it is black like coal. In this state it is called patent malt, and is

not prohibited by the Excise.

6. Heading Stuff, that is green copperas, or, as it is vulgarly called,

Salt of Steel. This poisonous ingredient is used for the purpose of

giving the beer a frothing head; sometimes used alone; sometimes it is

mixed with alum.—In the hands of one adulterator, 310lbs. of copperas

and 560lbs. of hard multum were found and condemned. A sufficient dose

for slowly poisoning half a generation!

7. Capsicum, grains of paradise, carraway seeds, treacle or molasses,

liquorice root, &c.

8. Wormwood, aloes, quassia, bitter oranges, &c.

9. Lime, marble dust, powdered oyster shells, hartshorn shavings,

jalap, spirit of maranta, &c.

These ingredients, nocuous and innocuous, are intended to produce the

following effects:

1. To give a factitious strength and intoxicating quality to the beer.

2. To increase the bitter principle, and consequently to save hops.

3. To add a stimulating aromatic flavour.

4. To produce a fine mantling head to porter, and strike a fine nut

brown colour over the froth.

And, 5. To prevent acidity, or to diminish or destroy it when formed.

“It is absolutely frightful,” exclaims Mr. Donovan, (Domestic Economy,

p. 201,) “ to contemplate the list of poisons and drugs with which

malt liquors have been (as it is technically and descriptively called)

_doctored_. Opium, henbane, cocculus indicus, and Bohemian rosemary,

which is said to produce a quick and raving intoxication, supplied

the place of alcohol. Aloes, quassia, gentian, sweet scented flag,

wormwood, horehound, and bitter oranges, fulfilled the duties of hops.

Liquorice, treacle, and mucilage of flax seed, stood for attenuated

malt sugar. Capsicum, ginger, and cinnamon, or rather cassia-buds,

afforded to the exhausted drink the pungency of a carbonic acid. Burnt

flour, sugar, or treacle, communicated a peculiar taste which porter

drinkers generally fancy. Preparations of fish, assisted in cases of

obstinacy with oil of vitriol, procured transparency. Besides these,

the brewer had to supply himself with potash, lime, salt, and a variety

of other substances, which are of no other harm than in serving the

office of more valuable materials, and defrauding the customer.” In

this extract it is observable that that ingenious gentleman has drawn

up his account in the past tense, as if there were no adulterations

now!!! The author of “The Art of Brewing,” in the Library of Useful

Knowledge, has adopted a juster and a more honourable course; besides

giving a fuller list of poisonous articles, he has spoken boldly and

truly, and tells us that poisonous adulterations are “still used

extensively” by those who “sport with the lives of their fellow

creatures for the sake of gain,” and that “the seizures and convictions

that have been so often made, and are still making by the Excise,” are

proofs of the fact. It is, however, with much satisfaction (for no

other motive influences me in making the horrific disclosures detailed

in this volume than a regard for the public welfare and for public

justice) that the statement made in that publication respecting the

introduction of gypsum into the manufacture of Burton Ale has been

disproved in the recent application made to the Court of King’s Bench

by the Burton Ale Brewers, who assert that the peculiarity of flavour

belonging to their liquor is occasioned by the water from which it is

made running over a rock of gypsum, and thus impregnated with that

substance.

In the year 1807, a paragraph appeared in almost all the London

daily papers, asserting that porter, brewed in London, contained

deleterious drugs. The London porter brewers, indignant at the

“_unjust_ and _causeless_” accusation, had a meeting, and one and

all agreed to prosecute the offending journalists. They of course

made affidavits, and complied with all the requisites of the law to

establish their “_innocence_.” They moved the Court of King’s Bench

for criminal informations against three-fourths of the daily press,

and their Counsel made long speeches on “the guilt and unfounded and

malicious libels of their accusers.” All looked well for obtaining a

verdict of guilty against the denouncers of fraud and villany, and

establishing the _purity_ and _justice_ of “the brewing interests,”

by the verdict “of an impartial and intelligent jury,” had not the

late Lord Ellenborough declared the affidavits of the swearing-brewers

insufficient, as the cunning varlets had only denied the introduction

of deleterious ingredients _in_ brewing; whereas, to ground their

application and entitle them to the rule, they should have denied

having used them _after_ the beer was brewed. But as the pillory might

have stared the honest gentry in the face had they made this “_hard_”

assertion in their affidavit, the _knowing_ folks here broke down; they

could go no further. After making the town echo with the cries of “the

infamous press,” they prudently dropped all proceedings against the

proscribed journalists. The inference to be drawn is not difficult to

surmise; but the fact is, that the publicans, who have of late been

so sharply prosecuted by the Excise for adulterating their beer, can

best answer the question: From whom did they learn the respectable

art of beer-sophistication? Was it not from their “betters,” the

“beer-mongers?”

If the foregoing statement of ingredients contained in the above

infernal list is not sufficient to induce thee, friend Bull, to lay

aside thy incredulity, and open thy eyes to the frauds that are

daily practised on thy unsuspecting nature, I can only add that

one of the “craft” (see Child, on Brewing, p. 18) tells thee that

porter cannot be made of the necessary flavour and taste to suit the

Londoner’s appetite, and of the proper colour to tickle his fancy by

its appearance, of wholesome malt and hops, and that those simple

ingredients would not furnish a profit sufficient to satisfy the modern

brewer’s cupidity. Well may the old ladies exclaim (and no doubt, Mr.

Bull, thou hast a penchant for displaying thy Latinity) O _trickery_! O

_mouthes_!

But supposing, dear Bull, that all the above “horrid array” of

poisoning and stupefying ingredients was “mere fudge,” and that you

should have the fortune to deal with a brewer and publican, who have

the “fear of the Lord” before their eyes, and who “wax strong in well

doing,” recollect that the present manufactured “_entire_ beer” of the

most _honest_ trading brewer alive is a very heterogeneous mixture—a

composition of all the waste and spoiled beer of the publicans, the

bottoms of their butts—the leavings of their pots—the drippings of

their machines for drawing the beer—the remnants of beer that lay

in the leaden pipes of the brewery, with a portion of brown stout,

bottling beer, and mild beer. So admits that “paragon of brewers,”

Mr. Barclay. (See Parliamentary Minutes, p. 94.) Surely, John, it

is not courteous and loving treatment of thy “better half” and her

“dutiful daughters” to expect them to sully their delicate throttles

with the leavings and hawkings of some bearish beast of a coal-heaver

or a night-man! This, friend John, is one of the “indicia” of the

necessity of thy cultivating the clean and wholesome “home brewery” of

thy forefathers; and in the promotion of this laudable and necessary

undertaking I hope I shall be able to assist thee in my projected

work, “THE FAMILY BREWING ORACLE,” and that, by its means, thou wilt

be enabled to drink a wholesome and nourishing beverage, either ale or

porter, at the trifling cost of from five farthings to three halfpence

per pot, after the tasting of which thou wilt never allow a drop of

brewers’ or public-house porter, or intermediate beer, or any other

vile or new-fangled substitution for the home-brewed liquor of thy

ancestors, to enter thy chaps.

But, in your honest sincerity and “usually naive manner,” you will

exclaim “but we have methods and tests for detecting the adulteration

of our native liquor—our vinum Britannicum—our own Sir John Barlycorn.”

Aye, have you, Old Gentleman! then I give you joy of your discovery,

and hope thou wilt put it into constant practice every day of thy

life before thou takest a sup of the delectable and heart-cheering

composition. But, for my part, John, give me leave to say that I have

always understood that the detection of the adulteration of beer with

vegetable substances deleterious to health is extremely difficult, if

not beyond the reach of chemical agency or analysis; and in most cases,

particularly where cocculus indicus, or its extract, has been used,

quite impossible. The tests for ascertaining the admixture of sulphuric

acid are more determinate, and are ably detailed in Mr. Accum’s work,

p. 193.

Among the minor crimes of fraudulent brewers is the art of converting

new beer (that is beer that is just brewed) into old or entire beer;

and this operation (which, in the cant phraseology of the trade, is

called _bringing the beer forward_, or _making it hard_) is performed

by an easy, expeditious, and economical method: an imitation of the age

of eighteen months is produced in an instant, or, as modern statesmen,

versed in the _wonderful_ arcana of political science, would phrase

it, “As soon as you could say Jack Robinson.” To put into execution

this rare feat of “brewers’ art” you have nothing more to do, in

order to convert any wishy-washy slop into an old entire beer, and,

consequently, to render it “_rich, generous, of a full-bodied taste,

without being acid, and of a vinous odour_,” than to throw in a quantum

sufficit of sulphuric acid.[J] Stale, half spoiled, or sour beer,

may as easily be converted into mild beer, by the proper quantity of

alkali, or alkaline earth, oyster-shell-powder, subcarbonate of potash

or soda; which substances have the effect of neutralizing the excess of

acid.

Another of the less culpable adulterations by both brewer and publican

is the admixture of small with strong beer. According to the evidence

of the solicitor of the Excise (Mr. Carr), given before the Committee

of the House of Commons, appointed for examining the price and quality

of beer, in the year 1819, (see Minutes of the House of Commons, p. 32,

&c.) the retailers of beer in London and its neighbourhood, purchase

stale table-beer, or the bottoms of casks, from a set of men who go

about and sell such beer at table-beer price to mix in the publicans’

cellars with the new beer they receive from the brewer. Among some of

the trade it is the custom to mix the poor low-priced country ales with

porter.

But, O John, thou lover of a “_cauliflower head!_” art thou aware how

this object of thy admiration, and indeed natural property of good beer

is produced? No doubt thou wilt be hard of belief in this respect;

but I must be candid with thee, and tell thee that the “fine frothy

head,” the ne plus ultra of thy admiration and test of good porter, is

produced by thy honest friend and crony, the publican, by the simple

admixture of the delectable and harmless article “_beer heading_” with

the “genuine stuff” he receives from his worthy compeer, the brewer.

When thy “gentle friend” observes the frothy property of the beer to

be lost by his admixture of the legitimate modicum of small beer or

“aqua pura,” molasses, extract of gentian-root and isinglass, (all

which ingredients, no doubt, good soul, he adds for thy better health,

and to save it from the injurious effects of too strong potations,)

he prudently throws in his beer-heading, which is a composition of

common green vitriol, or copperas, alum, and salt. The publicans are

supplied with this article either by the _regular_ and _accredited_

manufacturer, or they are instructed in its manufacture by those

vile and infamous publications in circulation, known by the name of

Publicans or Vintners’ Guides, Directors, Friends, &c.—I have carefully

gone through those pestiferous books, and examined their farrago of

mischievous receipts and instructions for the adulteration and “making

up” of wines, spirits, beer, &c. and can safely say that more infernal

ingenuity, and a more reckless want of honesty and humanity have

never been displayed in the basest concoctions of fraud and villany

than is the case in those wretched publications. It is, however, but

fair to exempt from this censure a work which has recently appeared,

entitled “_Clarke’s Publican and Innkeeper’s Guide, and Wine and

Spirit Dealer’s Assistant_;” which, though not entirely exempt from

objection, is evidently the production of a skilful, and, what is of

greater importance to the public, of an honest man, and possesses the

great recommendation of instructing the trade in all the _allowable_

secrets of the craft, without endangering the health and lives of the

consumers; while it enables its readers to obtain better and more

efficient results by its directions than can possibly be obtained by

following the deadly and inefficient receipts of its predecessors.

I have now, friend Bull, brought my disclosures respecting thy

favourite beverage—thy fondly but mistakenly imagined “_pure_ extract

from malt and hops,” to a close; but, shouldst thou still be hard of

belief, I recommend thee to put thy tongue into the enchanting cauldron

of some brewer-friend of thine; but, remember that I cannot ensure thee

that thou will redraw it quite as unaffected or renovated as the tragic

poet describes Æson to have sprung from the cauldron of Medea.

In the above detail of adulterations in the public brewery of this

country, no personality is intended in the tone of reprehension

assumed on the subject; the remarks are intended to be applied only

to “the most worthless part of the trade, to such as disgrace the

name of brewer, by sporting with the lives of their fellow creatures

for lucre’s sake.” Those odious and detestable wretches deserve the

severest castigations, and every member of the community should lend

his hearty co-operation to their exposure and punishment. But while it

is the duty of every man whom nature has gifted with a heart capable of

feeling for his fellow creatures, to expose the monsters who secretly

poison the human race, it must be admitted that the very heavy and

injudicious taxation to which brewers are subject has compelled

even many of the more conscientious of the trade to have recourse to

measures which are not quite agreeable to the dictates of honesty,

and to draw immense lengths of wort from the least possible quantity

of malt, so that the liquor is neither of a nutritive nor a relishing

quality. But the error in this case arises from the same cause as it

does in that of wines—the incompetency of the persons (who were either

the favourites, the dependants, or the retainers of the existing

ministry of the day) appointed to frame the statutes regulating

those trades; and, laughable to say, those precious legislators have

prohibited the use of articles which are not only innoxious, but

occasionally advantageous.[K] In the statute of Charles the Second,

which regulates the management of foreign wines, the blunder is

singular; by that act several substances are forbidden to be mixed

with wine, which, in themselves, are not only innocuous, but are

highly conducive to its purity and right preservation, and give it the

necessary brightness and perfection!

Oh, Bull, when will thy law-makers and law-concocters learn _a little_

of that old-fashioned and much neglected commodity,—COMMON SENSE. Were

the same good sense and knowledge of the subject, and of the condition

of society, indicated by them as are displayed by the more unassuming

but efficient department of the state machinery—the dispensers of

our laws (of course I cannot be mistaken to mean the justices of the

peace!) the country would not be put to the expense of making laws one

day which are to be repealed the next, and there might appear some just

pretension for the high-sounding titles of “English Justinians,” and

“heaven-born legislators,” with which a portion of the periodical press

is idly and continually bespattering certain members of the executive

department of the government.

As my printer tells me that a few lines are wanting to complete this

page, and being desirous to give my readers all I can afford for their

money, a word or two on the legislative mania which seems to have taken

hold of some honourable members “of the noblest assembly of freemen in

the world,” may not be misplaced. And for the sake of brevity, I shall

adduce, as an example, the memorable attempt to modify the Quarantine

Laws on the advice, testimony, and _experience_ of the renowned Dr.

M’Lean. When arguments being taken as facts, and the absurdities of

reasoning as the evidence of experience, the whims and reveries of that

gentleman, who was described by one (a member of St. Stephen’s) of the

anti-contagionists as “one of those extraordinary persons who will be

pointed out by the finger of the future historian,” would have received

the stamp and authority of law, and we should have had the blessing of

plague being as common in our houses as measles, coughs or colds, had

not “the ignorance of those who attempt to mislead the public, and the

indiscretion of those who are inclined to believe them,” been exposed

and refuted by the late Dr. Gooch, in his invaluable paper “Is the

Plague a Contagious Disease?” which appeared at the time (anno 1825),

in _The Quarterly Review_, and is now appended to his _Account of

Female Diseases_.

FOOTNOTES:

[I] Among the numerous delusions with which the senses of the “error

ridden” nation of Englishmen—aye, and the “bonnie Scots,” and the “Sons

of the Emerald Isle,” are benighted, is the false and erroneous opinion

that strong stimulating liquors impart strength to the body. As a very

sensible writer observes on this subject,—“To depend on spirituous

liquors for the power to labour, is as wise as it would be in a man,

setting out for York, to get a friend to give him a kick on the b—— to

help him forward. His friend must continue the same kind office all

the way, or he would continually flag.” No work of the present age has

contributed more effectually to remove these mistaken notions than

“_The Oracle of Health and Long Life_.” May its well-intentioned and

judicious author have the consolation of finding that his important

instructions have contributed to the health and welfare of the

community; and may the unqualified approval of his little volume,

by the respectable part of the periodical press of the country be a

stimulus to fresh exertion to render the work faultless.

[J] Mr. Brewer Child’s recipe (see Treatise on Brewing, p. 23) for

making new beer old, is to throw in a dash of vitriol. “A smack of

age,” he likewise adds, at p. 18, “is also given to beer, by the

addition of alum.” Well done, brewer Child; thou art an expeditious

chap! Thou mightest have been of service in the Court of Chancery, _in

tempore_ Lord Chancellor Eldon, of _doubting_ and delaying memory.

[K] On this subject, Mr. J. D. Williams, the Editor of Sir William

Blackstone’s Commentaries, has rendered no trifling service to society,

by his petition, presented to the House of Commons, by the Marquess of

Blandford, on June 17th, 1830; in which he prayed the appointment of

fit and competent persons for the digestment and simplification of, or,

in the emphatical language of Lord Bacon, for “the choice and tender

business of reducing and harmonizing,” the hybrid and confused state

of the law. As he justly said, “no useful and beneficial amendment

or amelioration can reasonably be expected; but the Statute Book

will still continue to be disgraced with enactments which will be at

variance with common sense, the first principles of justice, and even

nullify the intent and purport of the enactments themselves, while the

concoction of laws is entrusted to others than persons endowed with

a spirit of comprehensive knowledge, great enlightenment, enlarged

and liberal understandings, and who are acquainted with the nature of

the subjects on which they presume to legislate.” The instances which

that gentleman adduced in his well intended petition of “the great and

singular blunders” as to “erroneous conclusions in the first principles

of science,” committed by some of our law-makers are really amusing—if

any honest man can derive amusement from his country’s injury and

degradation.

PART II.

_A Word or Two, by way of Introduction._

I have told thee, friend Bull, while discoursing of the little slips

and sleights of hand in use among thy good and ancient friends, the

wine and spirit dealer, the gin-shop keeper, the brewer, and the

publican, that thou wouldst be satisfied that “Death was not only in

the Bottle,” but that thou wouldst find that the complaint of the sons

of the prophet, “There is Death in the Pot” ought not to have been

confined to the narrow limits of Gilgal, but that it extends in all

its operations to the illicit doings in thy own “dear native little

island”—the “land of the _good_ and the _wise_.” I shall now proceed

to unfold to thee this part of my duty, and then I apprehend that thou

wilt lay aside thy usual scepticism and incredulity, and acknowledge

that I have made out to thy satisfaction the truth of my horrific title

“DEADLY ADULTERATION AND SLOW POISONING; OR, DISEASE AND DEATH IN THE

POT AND THE BOTTLE.” I shall begin with the “_Staff of Life_.”

SECTION I.

_Bread and Flour._

Good bread is light, porous, and spongy; of a sweet nutty smell;

and when pressed with the finger is tough and resists the pressure

like sponge, recovering with a spring its original texture as soon

as the finger is removed: if any fracture appears, it is a sign of

adulteration. The more numerous and large the cells or little holes are

in it, the more perfectly is the bread made, and the better adapted for

digestion.

Bread to be good, should be made of wheat flour; but the adulteration

trade in this prime article of human consumption display no less

ingenuity in the art of fraud and deception than their rivals

in iniquity do in the wine and spirit and beer sophistications:

convictions are on record of bakers having used pulverised gypsum

or plaster of Paris, whiting, slacked lime, chalk, finely powdered

granite, pipe-clay, particularly the white Cornwall clay, the flour of

garden peas and horse beans, potatoes, bone-ashes, alum, spirits of

vitriol, ammonia, magnesia, &c. They allege that, as they are often

supplied by the mealmen with flour made from the worst kinds of foreign

damaged wheat, and which is frequently mixed with a variety of other

cereal grains in the course of grinding, they cannot produce bread of a

sufficient degree of whiteness, lightness, and porosity, to please the

caprice of the London palate, without having recourse to the conjoint

aid of alum, ammonia, and potatoes.[L] This is the allegation made by

the _respectable_ part of the trade, and those who, with sufficient

disposition to wickedness, are deficient in the knowledge of the art

of slow and imperceptible poisoning. What excuse the _irrespectable_

part of the trade can make for their nefarious traffic in the remaining

portion of the enumerated articles must be left to the tender and

honest consciences of those gentry.

“The baker,” says Mr. Accum, in his Preliminary Remarks, p. 11,

“asserts that he does not put alum into bread; but he is well aware

that, in purchasing a certain quantity of half spoiled flour, he must

take a sack of _sharp whites_, (a term given to flour contaminated with

a quantity of alum,) without which it would be impossible for him to

produce light, white, and porous bread, from a half spoiled material.

“The wholesale mealman frequently purchases this spurious commodity,

(which forms a separate branch of business in the hands of certain

individuals,) in order to enable himself to sell his decayed flour.

“Other individuals (namely, the “_gentlemen_” druggists) furnish the

baker with alum mixed up with salt, under the obscure denomination

of _stuff_. There are wholesale manufacturing chemists, whose sole

business is to crystallize alum in such a form as will adapt this salt

to the purpose of being mixed with crystals of common salt, to disguise

the character of the compound.

The mixture called _stuff_ is composed of one part of alum, in minute

crystals, and three of common salt.”

I omit to object to the adulteration of flour produced by the sand,

which is unavoidably occasioned by the rubbing of the mill-stones

together. The author of the “History of Inventions,” vol. i. p. 98,

estimates that every person swallows 6lbs. yearly, in the quantity of

flour and bread which he consumes.

The foregoing statement of _artist_ ingenuity displayed by the

Messieurs “Crust,” must be allowed to be liberal treatment of poor Mr.

John Bull, in comparison with the acts of their rivals in the noble

art of sophistication, the gin-shop-keeper, the brewer, the publican,

and the other “trading interests of the nation.” But it will be better

treatment to furnish the old gentleman with a test or two to enable him

to detect the frauds of his said good friends, Messieurs les Crust and

their compatriots, the mealmen.

The ready tests or methods for ascertaining those adulterations are:

If an undue proportion (for bakers contend that the bad quality of

the flour sold to them by the miller renders the addition of potatoes

advantageous to the purchaser as well as to the baker) of ground or

grated potatoes has been used, the bread will be moist, have a sourish

smell, and, when stale, if a pressure be made upon it with the finger,

a fracture will appear in the bread, that is, it will not recover its

texture as sponge will do when compressed. Also, it will not keep, but

in a few days become mouldy. Where bean-flour has been used, which

bakers generally prefer, on account of the great portion of gluten

which it contains, (and for this reason it bears a higher price in

the market than flour itself,) the bread will soon dry and crack; or

the fraud may be discovered by the smell on toasting a slice of the

bread before the fire. The adulteration, by means of flour of peas is

more common among bakers, and more difficult of detection than that of

beans: the only means for ascertaining the fraud, by inspection, that I

am aware of, are those of its drying and cracking soon, and being more

heavy and considerably less porous than bread made entirely of wheaten

flour. The admixture of clay, gypsum, chalk, whiting, slacked lime,

bone-ashes, &c. is to be ascertained by the close texture, brittle or

crumbly nature, undue weight, smell, and taste of the article. But

analysis in each case is the truest test; and this may be performed in

the following manner.

Cut the crust of the loaf into very thin slices, and, breaking these

into pieces, put them into a glass cucurbit, with a large quantity of

water; set this into a sand furnace, and let it stand therein with a

moderate warmth for about the space of twenty-four hours. By this time

the foreign ingredients will have separated from the genuine flour; the

alum will have dissolved in the water, and may be extracted from it in

the usual way. The jalap, if any have been used, (for it is not all the

fraternity or brotherhood that have the consideration or humanity to

introduce it into their life-destroying compositions,) will swim upon

the top in the form of a coarse film; and the other ingredients, being

heavy, will sink quite to the bottom, while the genuine flour will

remain above them in the consistence of pap, which, being drawn off,

will leave the adulterated articles in the form of a white powder at

the bottom.

But as cucurbits and sand-furnaces are not “a part and parcel” of every

family’s household chattels, if the off-hand tests above mentioned

are not satisfactory, slice the loaf as before directed, and, putting

the slices, with a sufficient quantity of water, into a pipkin, over

a gentle fire, you will find in the course of a little time that

the bread will be reduced to a pap, and, on drawing that off, the

bone-ashes and other adulterating ingredients may be found in the form

of a white powder at the bottom.

The pernicious ingredients, alum and spirits of vitriol, used by bakers

in the manufacture of bread, are intended, in the cant phrase of the

trade, “as binders and whiteners.” Few persons will credit the fact

that this last-mentioned article is made use of in the manufacture of

bread; but, if any person feels himself aggrieved by the assertion,

I am prepared to verify my information, and point out the culprits.

By the insertion of these ingredients, tens of thousands of children,

under three years of age, are annually consigned to the grave in this

“happy” country; and to their cause, in conjunction with the horrid

articles before stated, are to be assigned the number of sudden deaths

that are daily occurring, and a large portion of the diseases under

which mankind are suffering.

The presence of alum may be detected by immersing a small piece of the

crumb of new baked bread in a quantity of cold water sufficient to

dissolve it; when, if a pernicious quantity of alum be present in the

composition the water will acquire a sweet astringency to the taste;

the more astringent of course the greater has been the quantity of alum

used. Or a heated knife may be thrust into a loaf before it has grown

cold; if the bread be free from alum, scarcely any alteration will be

visible on the blade; but, should alum have been made use of, as soon

as the knife cools, a slight aluminous incrustation will appear upon

it. But this last method is, as Mr. Accum properly observes, but an

equivocal test, on account of the impurity of the common salt used in

making bread. When spirits of vitriol, diluted with water, have been

used, the only test to detect this most pernicious and unprincipled

adulteration is by chemically analysing the suspected article.

But the adulteration-trade observing that the insertion of the “horrid

array” of pernicious articles, which their diabolical ingenuity

substituted in the stead of wholesome meal or flour, had an astringent

effect on the human constitution, and, fearing the consequences of a

detection, have lately had recourse to the introduction of jalap into

their sponge, in order to give their mischievous composition a laxative

or purgative effect on the constitution of their deluded customers.

The best test of the insertion of this drug is its effects. Others

counteract the constipating effects of the alum by the addition of

subcarbonate of potash, which neutralizes the excess of the sulphuric

acid of the alum, and promotes the disengagement of the carbonic acid

gas, whereby the particles of the flour are more minutely divided, and

the bread rendered lighter.

Having stated the ready methods of ascertaining the good or bad

qualities of bread, it is a necessary consequence that I should not be

silent about those of flour.

The following are the usual tests for ascertaining the quality of

flour. Grasp a handful briskly, and squeeze it for half a minute; if

pure and unadulterated, it preserves the form of the cavity of the hand

in one piece when placed upon the table, although it may be roughly set

down. Adulterated flour, on the contrary, soon falls down. That mixed

with whiting, white clay, or the like materials, is the most adhesive,

though it soon gives way; but if the adulteration be ground bones,

gypsum, or plaster of paris, it almost immediately falls. Where there

is the presence of much bran, the grasped specimen will soon crumble,

and this fraud may, also, be discovered by the colour and feel. It

may also be observed that genuine flour will retain the impression of

even the grains of the skin longer than that which is adulterated, the

latter soon throwing off the fine marks. Also, let a person, having a

moist hand, rub flour briskly between the palms of both hands; if there

be whiting in it, he will find resistance; but none, if the flour is

pure. Or, partially dip the fore-finger and thumb into a little sweet

oil, and take up a small quantity of the flour between them; if it

is pure it may be rubbed for any length of time, and will not become

sticky or adhesive, and the substance will turn nearly black; but if

whiting is present, it will soon be worked up into the consistence of

putty, and its colour but little altered. Lemon juice, or vinegar,

dropped upon flour, will also show the presence of whiting or plaster

of paris; if the flour is pure it will remain at rest; but if it is

adulterated an immediate commotion takes place. Where there is time

to try the unsoundness of flour, put a table-spoonful into a basin

and mix it with cold water, until it is of the consistence of batter

pudding; then set a small pan upon the fire containing half a gill of

water, and when the water is hot, pour in the batter just before it

boils, and let it boil for about the space of three minutes. If sound,

the flour will unite like a good pudding does; if unsound it breaks,

curdles, and appears somewhat watery. By observing it while it is warm,

some judgement may be formed of its different degrees of unsoundness.

The usual test of people in the flour-trade is to knead a small

quantity of the article; if good, an adhesive, ductile, and elastic

paste is immediately formed, which may be elongated and drawn in every

direction, without being entirely separated. The only ready test for

the detection of _sharp whites_ and _stuff_ is by the taste.

When the farina of potatoes, or, as it is commonly termed,

potatoe-starch, is mixed with flour, the fraud may, according to M.

Chevalier, a French chemist, be discovered by sprinkling a little of

the suspected article on black paper, when through a powerful lens, or

microscope, the farina or starch may be discovered by the brilliancy of

its particles.

To ascertain the presence of insects in flour, examine it in a good

light, and if your suspicion be correct, you will observe the whole

surface in motion, and on a nicer inspection there will be found in

it a great number of little animals of the colour of flour, and of an

oblong and a slender form. When they have once taken possession of a

parcel of this commodity, it is impossible to drive them out; and they

increase so fast, that the only method of preventing the total loss of

the whole parcel, is to make it into bread as soon as possible. The

only known way of preventing those insects from breeding in flour is to

preserve it from damp; to effect which it should be always carefully

and thoroughly dried before it is put up, and the barrels, also, should

be carefully dried before the flour is stored in them, and placed in a

room tolerably warm and dry.

FOOTNOTES:

[L] The addition of the farina or starch of the potato improves the

bread, by counteracting its constipating effects, and by minutely

dividing the particles of the flour during the fermentation; and for

this reason its introduction into home-made bread would, as the author

of “The Oracle of Health and Long Life,” says, be beneficial to health,

as making it more nutritious and digestible.