**«««*»*«»•«*»
AN EXPOSITION
PREVALENT  IMPOSITIONS
ADULTERATIONS,
PRACTISED bv
UNPRINCIPLED DEALERS

WINES  AND LIQUORS,
RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED TO THE PHYSICIANS, APOTHECARIES,
 DRUGGISTS AND HOTEL KEEPERS OF THE UNITED STATES,


  BY UDOLPHO WOLFE,

       IMPORTER, NEW-YORK.
VW
f<bZ0?
\S
       NEW-YORK:
GEORGE F. NESBITT & CO., PRINTERS & STATIONERS
    CORNER WALL AND WATER STREETS.

        1851.
 
 
AN     EXPOSITION    &c,

      RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED  TO THE PHYSICIANS, APOTHECARIES.
           DRUGGISTS, AND HOTEL KEEPERS OF THE UNITED STATES.
                BY  UDOLPHO  WOLFE,
                          IMPORTER,  NEW-YORK.
GrENTLKMEN :
  As one of the principal importers of Wines
and Brandies in the United States, who has
conducted an extensive business, in the  city
of New-York, for the last twenty years, and
who is well-known as a dealer, exclusively, in
goods of the purest quality and highest charac-
ter, I beg to address you upon a subject, at
once, of mutual interest and of great public
importance.
  In the course of a very large and increasing
correspondence with customers in the interior
of the  country, and extending over  a  large
portion of the Union, my attention has fre-
quently been called to abuses and impositions
in the wholesale as well as the retail branches
of the business,  deeply affecting the character
and interest of every honorable dealer, whether
importer or retailer ; and certainly not less
deeply  involving the health and welfare of the
community at large.  The evils to which I
allude, have been urged upon my serious con-
sideration, within a short time past, with more
than ordinary force of evidence and aggrava-
vation ; and I have been appealed to by gen-
tlemen of the  highest standing, both in the
trade and out of it—by philanthropic men of
science, physicians, clergymen, and enlight-
ened advocates of temperance, in the strictest
sense of the term—to assume the onerous task
of exposing, and, if possible, of counteracting
so prevalent and mischievous a debasement of
a branch of commerce with which. I have been
so long and prominenth identified.
  In acceding to  these respectable and re-
iterated appeals, I will not affect to  deny the
influence of inducements, pointedly addressed
to my own interests, as an importing merchant,
enjoying a substantial  degree of public confi-
dence ; but I, at the same time, claim as sin-
cere and earnest a participation as any of my
fellow-citizens, in  those disinterested motives
and considerations which evoke the higher im-
pulses of manly regard for the common wel-
fare.  X will, therefore, proceed to exemplify 
4
 the extraordinary abuses and impositions in  I
 the Wine and Spirit trade to which I have re-
 ferred, and  to propose a novel method of ob-
 viating  them,  which, I think, sustained by
 your  prompt and cordial aid, cannot fail to
 become speedily effectual.
    The  adulteration of wines, professedly of
 the best foreign vintage, and of brandies, pur-
 porting to be manufactured from the ferment-
 ed juice of  the choicest grapes of France, is
 so  notorious, not only to our men of  science
 and practicing physicians, but also to most of our
 intelligent citizens, as to cause such preten-
 sions  to be  regarded as  a mere  mockery of
 truth, and an insult to the understanding.  The
 first effect of this general conviction is neces-
 sarily to the  injury of  actual and honorable
 importers, by causing them to be  involved in
 the discrediting suspicion which justly attaches
 only to  a  very different*class of dealers.  Thus
 wines and brandies of genuine character  and
 salutary  quality become neglected, from  a
 general  hopelessness of obtaining them ; while
 others, of a spurious kind and pernicious ten-
 dency, gradually usurp their  place in  the in-
 land  market and over the wide field of con-
 sumption ; and thus a premium is practically
 offered for further and perpetual  imposition,
 in the general knowledge of its past success
 and present predominance ; and the deplora-
 ble consequences of this double triumph of a
 destructive and nefarious  traffic,  are  as  ap*
 palling to every friend of humanity as they
 are abhorrent to business  integrity.  Upon
 these  consequences, as they affect the  public
 in general, I shall be more explicit, after duly
 disclosing  the causes  which produce and  en-
 tail them.   But, in the mean time, it will be
 admitted by every candid mind, that whether
 the evil be regarded in a commercial or  a phi-
lanthropic  point  of view, it is obviously both
a  private and a public duty  to expose, de-
nounce and resist it, in defiance of any amount
of  interested  clamor  which  the  effort may
awaken, and of the vindictivo  hostility  which
  it can  scarcely fail to arouse, from the large
  class of dealers implicated in the practices ex-
  posed.  From ho  others will aught be Jiexird
  but assurances of profound approval and hearty
  congratulation.
    The expositions I am about to make, of the
  prevalent adulteration of our domestic liquors,
  may somewhat astonish many of our old  citi-
  zens in the inland States, particularly of the
  South, who may still remember the warrant-
  able confidence  which they  used  to place in
  their sound quality and established character.
  It is within my own recollection,  as a native
  of Charlottesville, in Virginia, when " Bum-
  gardner's Whiskey," made somewhere  west of
  the Blue Ridge, probably in Augusta or Rock-
  ingham Counties,  enjoyed  an unquestionable
  reputation, among the  highest classes, for its
  unimpeachable purity; and the name of " John
  Yerkin," a celebrated  and eccentric dealer in
  this article, at Charlottesville, is probably not
  yet forgotten.   It is  possible that domestic
  liquors of similar  character  may still retain
 | much  of their old repute, in several detached
 I localities of the country ; but much suspicion
 j is now attached,  whether  justly  or not. to
 | nearly all of them, by the  extensive trade in
 I adulterations and  impure distillations, which
 j has been forced into this country by the severe
  operation of the revenue and excise laws of
j Great Britain upon a large  number of persons
J there  engaged in the business, so that even
I  the once famous  " Monongahela " whiskey of
  the South is now as commonly and perniciously
  imitated as the Scotch and Irish, or the bran-
  dies of France.
    The  first or initiatory process in the busi-
  ness of mixing  and  adulterating imported '
  wines and liquors, generally occurs at the place
  of importation.   In the port of New-York, for
  instance,  in which the  imports  of Brandy
  arc far greater  than in any other in the coun-
  try, the number of half-pipes entered  at  the
  Custom  House,  scarcely exceeds  16,000 a
 year, and of quarter-casks and eighths, inclu- 
5
 sive,  but  little  over  35,000; yet  at  least
 twenty times this amount are sold by the Mix-
 ers and Jobbers of this city to country dealers,
 as pure French Brandy, " genuine as import-
 ed."   The adulteration is, of course, effected
 after the  liquors are taken out of bond, and a
 Custom House certificate  for  a single half-
 pipe, exhibited to the customer, generally suf-
 fices to cover twenty gallons of the spurious to
 one of the genuine article to which ft originally
 and  legitimately  applied.   Indeed, it is  per-
 fectly notorious that comparatively few of  the
 liquor-dealers in this city and elsewhere, who
 call themselves " importers," are such in  the
 bona fide sense of  the term, since they import
 only such quantities and qualities as suffice to
 give a specious shelter and security to their
 real  business as Mixers and Jobbers ; and  in-
 stead of being regarded as " importers," they
 should be universally exposed as " imposters,"
 lest the two words should become synonymous.
 I  have,, moreover,  conclusively  ascertained,
 that at least  three-fourths of all the foreign
 brandies imported, are imported expressly for
 this  business ; while the extent  to which  the
 trade of depreciation and adulteration is  ac-
 tually carried, seems to be limited only by  the
 resources  of nefarious ingenuity.   That it  has
 lonsr since amounted to the entire substitution
 of spurious  and poisonous liquors, containing
 not one drop  of the genuine, instead of  the
 mere adulteration  of the latter, is well-known
 to every man that has investigated the subject,
 and is statistically demonstrable.
   Were the practice of adulteration confined
 to the reduction, in quality and flavor, of pure
 and standard liquors, by the mere addition of
 water, the imposition would  be comparatively
 harmless,  both to the consumer  and the im-
 porter.   The consumer would merely be pay-
 ing a  very high / price for spoiled  water,  not
 absolutely injurious to  health, however inef-
 ficient if relied upon in case  of disease ; while
 the importer  would have the satisfaction of
knowing that the imposition  could not be car-
 ried beyond certain tangible limits, appreciable
 by the senses of  taste and  smell.   But, un-
 happily, tho unscrupulous trado  of  adultera-
 tion takes a much broader and more destruc-
 tive  scope.   It does  not merely defraud the
 purchaser of  money, the patient of recovery,
 and the importer of reputation, but it amounts
 to nothing less than a  traffic  in subtile poisons,
 elaborately manufactured and  universally dis-
 pensed, as refreshing, renovating and cheerful
 beverages for the whole community.    And
 the honorable importer, who  furnishes liquors
 and wines unquestionably endowed with these
 valuable properties, and which can only injure
by excessive use, as any other thing would do,
is thus made  the involuntary scape-goat  of an
infamous and  unconscionable traffic, in  which
he has no actual participation, and which is,
in every conceivable respect, directly adverse
to his interests.  A cask of wine, for instance,
which my foreign  agents  have faithfully pro-
cured, to my order, from the best vintages of
 Oporto or Madeira ; or of brandy which has
been  shipped to me by  a firm of  the highest
character  in  France, and which I sell  under
the guaranty  of  my name  and brand,  may-
thus become the vehicle of some  ingeniously
 diabolical  concoction of sour  claret, logwood,
molasses  and raw spirit; or  of a still  more
 deadly distillation of damaged rye and diseased
potatoes, colored and flavored in  imitation of
the true vinous  products which it originally
 contained.  And it  is  perfectly  well known
that the  purchase of  old brandy, wine, Hoi-
lands' gin and Scotch whiskey casks, particu-
ticularly of choice brands, with  the Custom
 House certificates belonging to them, for the
purpose of  substituting  spurious  liquors in
them, for  sale as  those which they originally
 contained, is  a  regular  trade in  New-York
and other  sea.-ports,  notwithstanding  a law of
 Congress  expressly  designed  to   meet  (his
source of imposition, by appropriate penalties.
Indeed, considerable fortunes have been  made
by this nefarious practice.  Empty casks, with 
C
 the brand of " A Seignette," "P. H.  God-
 dard,"  Otakd^ Duprv  &  Co.," and  other
 eminent  manufacturers of fine Rochelle and
 Cognac brandies, are often eagerly bought,
 at prices Varying from $6 to $10 each, for this
 purpose, and  are watched and booked,  from
 place to place, until they are obtained.   Nor
 is this all ; even the French willow-twigs, that
 are wound round the hoops of those casks, are
 actually imported for the manufacture of others
 of tho same peculiar appearance ; and not only
 the manufacturers', but  the Custom House
 brand, and  that of the importer, are all dar-
 ingly  counterfeited to accomplish the  same
 object.   It is  but a short  time since, that the
 agent  of  " A  Seignette," in  this city,  em-
 phatically notified some of the distillers, in this
 part of the country of his intention  to prose-
cute them for these  frauds and forgeries, un-
 less  they  were promptly relinquished; but
 with what effect is easily imagined.
   The adulteration of wines, in this and  other
 sea-board  cities,  although probably less ex-
 tensive than that of brandies andpther liquors,
 is nevertheless entitled to a distinct exposition,
 on account of its  heartless  cruelty towards
 those helph^s  tenants of  the sick-chamber to
 whom the  pure and  salubrious quality of the
 wine? prescribed for their support is frequently
 an object of vital consequence.  Port  Wint,
 which is  usually  prescribed  be physicians  as
 more  immediately  recuperative  and  perma-
 nently sustaining  than any  other, and the
medical efficacy of which, in  case* of exces-
 sive  hemorrhage,  from maternal  mischances,
 and in other acute cases of  extreme debility,
 cannot  probably be  supplied  by any  other
 remedy known to the profession, can seldom
 ba obtained of good  quality,  except  by im-
 porters well established in the Oporto trade,
 or direct from the  London Docks—the Eng-
 lish  merchants having long  monopolized the
 best  markets  of Portugal,  for this  article,
 through the political influence of their govern-
 ment.   Deleterious  nutations of this  wine
!  especially, are  therefore very  numerous, not
i  to speak of many actual importations of simply
j  worthless  quality.  The most  common imita-
i  tions, are made from cider or spoiled claret, by
  means of alum, logwood, elder-berries (or red
i  beet-root,) oak saw-dust, syrup, common whis-
|  key, and bitter almonds, clarified by gypsum,
,  The more skilful  class of manufacturers, who
- carry on extensive business  in  the fabrication
  of this spurious article, proceed in accordance
;  with regular chemical recipes, and have become
  so proficient for practice, as to deceive even
  reputable wine-tasters, of inadequate informa-
;  tion and experience.  Indeed, the only possible
|  security for  retailers of Port Wine, is to buy
;  directly from an importer whose character and
  standing are a gurantee of its genuineness and
  quality. It can otherwise only  be determined
I  by its good or  ill  effects upon the  consumer ;
j  for although there  are  chemical tests  appli-
i  eaple to most spurious wines, the use of them
  is generally impracticable, out of a laboratory,
  and would be altogether unavailable for do-
  mestic application.
j     In illustration  of the consummate art with
I  which the fabricators of factitious Port pursue
I  their deceptive vocation, it  is  only necessary
|  to state, that even the red deposit, technically
|  known  as crust, which  is  left in  casks  and
I  bottles of this wine, after it has remained un-
!  disturbed to an  advanced  age, and which is
i  principally  a  bi-tartrate of potash, originally
i  inherent in  the  grape is artificially produced,
;  as an evidence at  once of the genuine cha-
:  racter and veritable maturity of the spurious
  article.  A hot solution of cream of  tartar,
  colored with a strong decoction of logwood,
|  and left to crystallize for a short time in the
I  casks  or  bottles, is the  only  material  neces-
  sary to the exploit of proving that to be a fine
  old port Wine, which,  but the day previous,
I  was the villainous compound I  have described.
     Whilst  the absolute  fabrication  of  the
  popular white wines, Madeira  and Sherry, is
i  probably  much  less common than  that  of  , 
7
Port, those of the  most inferior  quality are
made to  assume the semblance of the best,
by devices equally, nefarious and  adroit, and
still more dangerous to health and life.   One
of these  expedients  is, to  restore thin sour
wines, of  this class,  by means of preparations
of lead, which have  the effect of neutralizing
and  arresting the process of acescence, and,
at the same time, of rendering these wines as
beautifully transparent  as those ef  good qua-
lity.   But the acetates of lead, thus formed,
however  small in quantity, become slow poi-
sons, when taken into the stomach, nor can the
minutest  portion be  received with impunity.
Medical annals abound with terrible cases of
disease, both  acute  and  chronic,  that  have
been superinduced  by the absorption of lead
into  the system ; and  of these cases, not a
few are attributed to the use of this metal by
unprincipled jobbers in wines.   The common
manufacture of the favorite  brands of Cham-
pagne, from poor Rhine wines, or even homely
cider,  duly  clarified,  flavored,  tinted,  and
charged with carbonic acid gas, is an innocuous
piece of knavery, in comparison with poisonous
expedients of that kind.  What then shall be
said  of the almost universal adulteration (or
rather substitution)  of foreign brandies, and
other spirituous liquors, of established quality
and  Utility, by domestic  distillations a thou-
sand-fold more injurious, in their natural and
inherent properties, both to body and mind,
than  any other  species of slow poison that
cupidity has devised or  infatuation has im-
bibed ?
   The great  and  essential distinction, in a
chemical and  medical point of view, between
the  common distilled  spirits of this country
and the pure  brandies of France, arises, first,
from the  widely different  natural  products
from which they are respectively obtained; and,
secondly, from the strongly contrasted proper-
ties which they acquire in the distinct processes
of their  manufacture.  Every true brandy is
derived from the fermented juice of the grape.
I  It, therefore, exists in all true  wines, and  is
j  sometimes extracted from them by distillation.
  The best brandies of  France, are made from
  the  choicest  fruit of  the vineyard,  carefully
  selected for  the purpose, and from which all
  decayed and unripe specimens ate scrupulous-
  ly  excluded.  They  are  consequently dis-
  tinguished for the fine  vinous  flavor, aroma,
  and  cardiac  properties  peculiar to  superior
  wine?, and from which,  indeed, they  chiefly
  differ in being more highly concentrated, from
  the exclusion of tartaric acid.  They contain
  no alcohol  whatever, strictly as such, and no
  fixed  nor corrosive essential oil.  The  spirit
  which  they contain is  the wine-spirit,  which
  differs  essentially  from  the  alcohol  distilled
  from grain and potatoes, and ignorantly called
  spirits  of wine.  Such alcohol, in fact, can no
  more  be  obtained from  grapes, than  wine-
  spirit  can be  obtained from grain; and  that
  the distinction between these products is not
  merely verbal and technical, but consists in
  their radically and actively distinctive  com-
  ponents and  properties j is a matter of chemi-
  cal demonstration, strikingly illustrated in the
  manifest difference of  their  effects upon the
  human system.   The  alcohol distilled from
  grain,  invariably contains substances, in com-
  bination  with  it,  peculiar  to  the  grain,
  and  which,   however  harmless and  nutri-
  tive  in their natural  organic condition,  be-
  come  pernicious  and  poisonous, through the
  chemical transformations which they undergo,
  and the new compounds they form, in the pro-
  cess of manufacture.  These compounds are
  seven  or eight in number, as already discover-
  ed, and they are  found to be of such singular
  scientific interest  as to  constitute a new de-
  partment  of chemical  investigation.   It  is
  only necessary, however, at present, to  men-
  tien one of them, termed oleum sitticum, or
  the essential oil of grain, as inseparable from
  all the common  distillations of that material,
  and as one peculiarly injurious to the  human
  stomach  and nervous  system.  It  is  an  oil 
8
 which  cannot be  decomposed by any of the
 ordinary methods  of distillation, and  its de-
 composition is only effected by heat, at about
 the temperature at which iron itself dissolves.
 It is this oil  which  gives to alcohol, rye
 whiskey, and all distillations from grain, in
 which  the putrefactive  process has  preceded
 the  fermentative,   their  rank  and  peculiar
 odor.
    That this poisonous  substance is a product
 of putrefaction, as  contradistinguished  from
 fermentation, is inferred from the fact that it
 is  not  obtainable, even by distillation, from
 malt liquors,  brewed from malt that has pro-
 perly germinated, and that has not been  dam-
 aged prior to its being boiled and fermented.
 Nor  does it  exist in the  pure Schiedam Gin
 of Holland, for the same reason ; and it is not
 found in any liquor which, like  the  pure Ja-
 maica Rum, is  distilled  from sugar that has
 suffered no putrefactive decomposition pre-
 vious to fermentation.   In short, it  appears,
 after elaborate  chemical inquiry to be a pu-
 trefactive  product of the gluten of grain, or
 other vegetables, generated  when the  starch
 of plants  is partially converted into sugar by
 the putrefactive instead of the natural or ger-
 minative process.   Nearly all  plants  contain
 starch, as one  of  their first organic constitu-
 ents.   It is first found  in the  lobes of their
 seeds, where it is converted into sugar by oxy-
 genation, and furnishes food to the young roots
 and shoots, in the course of germination.  This
 natural  process is  effected  artificially,  with
 complete success, in the germination of barley,
 for the  manufacture of  malt, the fermented
 decoction of which  generates  the malt-spirit of
 beer, and  of all pure distillations from grain.
 In  the grape, and similar fruits, which are also
 the seeds  of  the plant,  the  starch is trans-
 formed into sugar by the same acetous action
 of the oxygen of the air ; and it is well known
 that the sugar  or  sweetness of the fruit in-
 creases  as  its  acidity  diminishes; and this
marks the progress of the  operation to com-
plete maturity,  prior  to which  the fruit  is
unfit either for food or for  fermentation into
wine.   The same process takes place in the,
sugar-cane, the beet-root,"and all other vege-
tables yielding sugar.   The  carbon, potash,
soda, gluten, &c, contained in the starch, are
converted into carbonic, tartaric, citric, malic,
oxalic, and other acids, according to the pecu-
liarities of the  fruit or plant,  by combining
with  different proportions of  oxygen ;  and
these acids are ripened into sugar by temper-
ature, and the chemical action of  solar light,
as the equivalents of the  acids and alkaline
bases become  sufficiently adjusted  to  enable
the compound to crystallize into the  chemical
salt which we term sugar.  This process, pro-
ducing sugar, is  sometimes termed saccharine
fermentation, to distinguish it from the vino%ts,
which is  productive of tvine, containing the
new compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxy-
gen,  which we denominate  alcohol.  Vinous
fermentation, however, is but a continuation
 of the saccharine, in giving an ascendency to
 the alkalies  over the acids.   In  sugar, these
 opposite principles are balanced according to
 the law of equivalents pertaining to that sub-
 stance as a crystallized salt.   In alcohol, they
 are adjusted  in  the proportions necessary to
 render that salt a definite liquid ;  and it is the
 different  proportions  in which  the  same ele-
ments are combined, in these substances, that
endows them  with their distinctive properties.
The proportion of hydrogen in sugar and  alco-
hol  is the same ; but in sugar,  oxygen, the
acidifying  principle, is in the proportion  of
three to one,  as compared with the  amount of
oxygen in alcohol ; so that, in being converted
into alcohol, sugar  has lost in oxygen what  it
has  relatively gained in  carbon.   And  that.
the new product is  a terminal  result  of the
previous two  stages  of fermentation, is to be
inferred from  the fact, that it is subject to the
action of no further  stage, when existing as a
separate extract,  and  can be  changed  only
when remaining in  connection with vegetable 
9
acids, by  a process the  reverse of  that  by  |
which it was produced.
   The  action known  as  putrefactive fermen-
tation, is precisely this reverse process.  Com-
mencing at the stage denominated acetous fer-
mentation,  of which the product is vinegar, it
gives ascendency, in a  destructive form, to the
acidifying principle, over the alkaline  bases,
from which sugar,  and  thence  alcohol, were
derived ; and, pursuing this  retrograde or re-
active  course, ends only  by decomposing tho  j
substances upon which it acts, into their ori-
ginal,  inorganic elements.   " Putrefaction,"
says Liebig, " is  a process of oxidation, in
which  the oxygen  of all  the substances pre-
sent comes into play."
   Now, nearly all the grain, potatoes, molas-
ses,  and other vegetable  substances, used in
the manufacture of the common alcoholic be-
verages pervading this country, and employed
in the  adulteration of imported liquors and
wines, has advanced into the acetous or putre-
factive stage before it is subjected to distilla-
tion.  This is  generally caused by the undue
quantity of water in which  the  grain,  espe-
cially,  is  soaked; and which  would induce
putrefaction, instead   of  full germination,  in
any single grain so mistreated, by being sown
in a swamp or undrained field.   That some
sugar is formed in a mass  of grain thus treated,
before the putrefactive fermentation becomes
predominant, there is no doubt, or no alcohol
could  be  obtained from it; but  since  every
kind of fermentation is  productive  of new
compounds, from  the decomposition  of  old
ones,  it is equally certain that the  products
of putrefaction, in  such  a mass of grain, are
distilled off with the spirit formed from the su-
gar, and remain, atleast,.in admixture, if not
in chemical combination with it.    This must
 necessarily be the case with the poisonous vo-
 latile  oils, at least, on account of  their almost
 inseparable admixture  with the  spirit;  and
 what  a  frightful variety of them may have
 been  formed in the  half putrid mass of acid
starch, imperfect  sugar,  crude gluten, gum,
and spirit, thus heterogeneously submitted to
distillation, it requires no profound knowledge
of  chemistry to  conceive.   They are  so  nu
merous and various, in fact, as  to  constitute,
as I have already said, a new and important
branch of chemical  analysis.   And  it should
bo recollected, moreover, that distillation does
not  change  the properties of the fluid sub-
stances upon which it acts, but merely extracts
them as they are,  in proportion to their vola-
tility.
  The vegetable principle of  grain first sub-
ject to putrefaction, is supposed to be gluten,
a substance distinct from starch, though gene-
rally found in connection with it. It is deemed
the most nutritive of  all vegetable matter, in
its natural state, and the  most prolific of per-
nicious compounds when in a state of  putre-
faction.  In  the  state of a pure extract, it is
without taste or smell, and is insoluble either
in water or alcohol ; but it is soluble both in
alkalies and  acids, and when  subjected to  the
action of the latter, whether from exposure to
the air, or to acids already in  the course of
acetous  reaction,  it putrefies, and  evolves an
offensive odor,  precisely  similar  to that of
animal substances in the same condition.   In
this state, it has not only the property of  de-
composing water, by evolving its hydrogen,
but most other liquids ;  and of forming phos-
phates, acetates, lactates, carbonates, and hy-
drosulphates of ammonia, in  their stead.   It
is supposed to be  the cause of fermentation of
every kind, including that of digestion in the
human stomach, when supplied with food or
nutritious  beverages containing it.   But in
alcoholic liquors, distilled from  the  corrupt
mass  I  have described, it is taken  up  and
retained in its putrid stage, and acts, unques-
 tionably, as a putrefactive agent upon the hu-
 man  system into which it is  absorbed.   The
 mere alcohol with which it is combined, rapid-
 ly passes off, by the evaporation caused by the
 heat of the body ;  but this putrefactive agent 
10
remains in"the  circulation, corrupting all the
fluids and solids of the frame ; preying  upon
several of the principal viscera, especially, by
an  action precisely  similar to that of erema-
causis, or rottenness, in  plants ;  and thence
impairing the brain and nervous tissues.  Its  j
external effects, are chiefly manifested on  the  J
nose and its neighboring integuments, because  :
this organ  is  the principal  channel for  the  J
evaporation of the  foul  spirit containing  it,  ,
and for  collecting it ag a  local deposite ; and  !
the chronic inflammation, eruption, and turges-  i
 sence of this feature, are but exemplifications
 of the   destructive  action of this  inveterate  j
 poison  upon the more  susceptible interior or- j
 gans.                                       I
    That this inseparable ingredient of common  •
 spirituous  liquors, whatever  chemical name it
 may hereafter  receive, is a putrescent  agent;
 and that  it is similar  in its  operation,  and in
 these its  effects, to that of  a morbid virus
 otherwise imbibed by the system, is now gene-
 rally admitted, however slow and  moderate,
 comparatively, may be  its  apparent results.
 The celebrated putrescent poison generated in
 a  certain  kind  of European sausages,  in a
 state of decay, which has attracted so much
 attention in the medical  and chemical  publi-
 cations of  Germany, and which is followed by
 lingering  symptoms of a remarkable charac-
 ter—a  gradual waste  of  all  the  muscles  de"
 pandent  upon  the  sympathetic  system  of
 nerves ; hoarseness and dryness of the throat,
 wjjfcb. incessant thirst and offensive saliva ; and,
 finally,  general emaciation and anasarca, unti
 death completes the course of the disease—is
 scarcely more  speedy in its action,  than that
 of  bad liquors,  which,  indeed,  in  many  in-
 stances, are attended  by symptoms exactly
 similar.  When a portion of this impure spirit
 is  rubbed between  the  palms of the hands,
 and permitted, for a moment, to evaporate, it
 not only leaves the  odor of  the volatile oil to
 which I have referred,  but,  in  combination
 with it, the rank sulpho-hydrogenous and am-
moniacal  smell  peculiar to putrefaction, and
which  gives such  intolerable offensiveness to
the breath of those who habitually use it as a
beverage.  But"when  a pure French brandy
is tested in this manner, it yields only the fine
vinous aroma of the grape or wine from which
it is made ; and which persons, the  most ig-
norant of the causes of the contfast, cannot
fail to remember  by comparison.
   It would be sickening to detail the various
expedients and devices by which these abomi-
nable liquors are made so to imitate  those  of
good quality, in most of their external charac-
teristics, as to  deceive a large  portion  of the
intelligent  community, and even  of medical
 practitioners, in  the country,  who have had
 but  little  experience in  their comparative
 effects.   To  a  certain  extent, even in flavor
 and smell, they often counterfeit the genuine
 with  remarkable  resemblance.  In  some in-
  stances, they are  re-distilled  with the  lees of
  wine, spices, red-pepper and  damaged raisins,
  to effect this object, without mitigating, in the
  slightest degree,  their pernicious properties.
  But when  judged  of by their widely different
 effects,  they can never be mistaken.
    One  of the most decisive of these effects—■
 because one whici is thoroughly and unques-
 tionably established by the experience of whole
 nations  of mankind, and by the  concurrent
 experience of large classes in every nation—
 is  the tendency of bad liquors to  intoxicate,
 and to induce confirmed habits of intoxication,
 while that of good ones is to promote  a fas-
 tidious individual sobriety, and  habitual tem-
 perance, as a social and national characteristic.
 In France, where even choice  brandies are  so
 cheap as to be accessible to the poorest classes,
and where  liquor  licenses are unknown^ in-
toxication is a rare exception  to the  predomi-
nant rule of temperance  which is universally
admitted to be  a  distinguished trait of that
country.  In Great Britain, on the contrary,
where the home-made liquors are similar  to
our own, drunkenness  is as  common, and 
11
amounts to  a national disgrace.   Among the
wealthier classes, however, both of that coun-
try and this, by  whom imported  wines  and
liquors   of  good  quality  arc chiefly used,
and would he  used exclusively, if  they could
be obtained with  certainty, inebriety is  now
almost  as   rare  as   it  is  among the poorer
classes  of  France, who enjoy the same be-
verages  habitually.   The  cause  of  these
decided and  broad distinctions, is  clear  and
unquestionable.   Bad liquors intoxicate, even
when used  in  moderate   quantities,  while
good ones do not; and bad ones create a mor-
bid appetite for undue indulgence—a perpetu-
al want which is itself a disease—until a habit
is established by almost involuntary repetition,
fatal alike to health, to intellect, to character,
to prosperity, and to every domestic and social
tie ;  while good ones  have a diametrically op-
posite effect.  All wines and liquors of a pure
and agreeable quality, render the appetite too
fastidious for over-indulgence, as  a general
rule ; for excess soon makes them disagreeable :
they are felt to  be perverted and cloying, as
in a surfeit; and they complete the full-mea-
sure  of their agreeable and tempting influence
by  affording perfect satisfaction.  But  bad
liquors  never  satisfy; they create  a  burning
thirst, which ever seeks for more—a  mental
and  bodily  malady, in  fact, which fatuously
seeks for a remedy in the very cause of the
disease.  And  this peculiar and unparalleled
effect of bad liquors, otherwise unaccountable,
is produced, no doubt, by a specific poison in-
herent in them,from which others are exempt.
   When, therefore, the advocates of  temper-
ance, as an organized class, denounce  the use
of such liquors by doctrine and precept,  and
discountenance it by  their example, they are
engaged in  a  work, at once, of philanthropy
and  patriotism, which  every  good man and
citizen ~ should respect and encourage.  Even
when they proceed to the questionable extreme
of compelling the disuse of them, by legislative
     ments  inhibiting their sale,  the policy,
  doubtful in practical effect,  and despotic in
  principle, as it may be considered, is never-
  theless palliated by the  regard  for the com-
  mon weal—the salios populi—which  inspired
  it, and  for the  possible good which it may
  achieve.   But when these champions of a good
  cause proceed to the further extreme of con-
  demning and prohibiting the  use of all agree-
  able, cheering, nutritious and renovating bev-
  erages, as equally bad, merely because an abu-
  sive  use of them is injurious, they have  no
  other rational support for their excessive zeal
  than an  argument  which would apply, with
  nearly equal force, to every enjoyment in life.
  And when  they advance further still in their
  doctrinal  career, and so far overleap the last
  boundaries of reason and fact, as to denounce
  the use of such  beverages, even for  medical
  purposes, declaring  them to  be  pernicious in
  all  conceivable  cases,  they  merely  exhibit
  themselves as marvels of fanaticism, ignorance,
:  and absurdity.   They show, to all temperate
  and judicious minds, that they have arrived at
.  that "established point, in the  circle of mental
  and emotional extravagance, where extremes
|  meet, and where the enlightened philanthropy
i  with which they began their journey, becomes
  the blind inhumanity with which they end it.
    It is not true that all generous and  cheerful
  beverages,  of a vinous origin, are  necessarily
  injurious to men, even in a  state  of average
  health.   Some never require  them, and some
  they would injure 5 while to others they  are
|  both grateful and  beneficial.   No  ab^Iute
  law of diet, of this kind,  can possibly apply to
  a being so various and versatile as man.  The
  most omnivorous of beings, he needs to be so,
  for his physical wants are as  numerous as the
  elements of which he is composed ;  and of all
  other beings, he is the most subject both to
  mental and corporeal exhaustion.   He is also
  the most social, rational and sympathetic of
  beings, and nothing  has so directly tended to
  cultivate these qualities and affections, for the
  general benefit, as the festive intercourse which 
12
   has been fostered  by the cheerful  beverages
   which his  generous impulses  have suggested,
   and his intelligence has supplied.   That a na-
   tion or race of total abstinents would not ne-
   cessarily be so enviable an elevation of human
   nature as its  enthusiastic  advocates, in this
   country, hypothetically contend, is  simply an
   historical  fact, tested for  ages, and brought
   down to contemporary observation.   The Ma-
   hometans, who embrace  many races and na-
   tions,  and constitute a large  portion of  man-
   kind,  have been total  abstinents, from  all
   stimulating drinks, for far more  than a  thou-
   sand years, and are still bound  to be so, by
   the precepts and obligations of a religion more
   scrupulously observed than any other in the
 '  world.   Yet they are manifestly inferior, in
   every achievement of intellect, in domestic and
   political advancement, and in all  schemes of
   philanthropy  and improvement, to  the low-
   est of  the wine-drinking nations of the earth.
     But when the friends  of temperance so far
   forget  the application of that  principle, to the
   intoxicating  indulgences  of the  fancy, as to
   throw  every possible impediment,  both  by
   means  of pseudo-medical dogmatism and legis-
  lative restriction, in the way of supplying phy-
  sicians  for their patients, and of perfectly tem-
  perate  persons  for themselves, with pure and
  salutary wines  and liquors, in  many instances
  absolutely  essential  to  the restoration  and
 maintenance of  health and strength, the same
 feelings and views which have  induced me to
 concur with them in exposing and denouncing
 an  Infamous traffic  in the pernicious liquors
 now popularly consumed, compel me to oppose
 them, by adopting a  new and secure method
 of supplying such superior  and  valuable ones,
 for  such humane and useful purposes.  It  is
 with this view,  pre-eminently, and with the
 hope that the  opportunity of procuring good
 wines and liquors, without  the  least  liability
 of deception or dissatisfaction, will gradually
abolish the use of deleterious ones, at least for
medioal and  domestic purposes, that  I pro-
   pose to send those of the best quality, and no
   others, to the order of Physicians,  Apothe-
   caries, Druggists, and Hotel-keepers, in every
   part of the United States, in  portable  and
   convenient quantities, direct from my own cel-
   lars, and at the lowest market prices for which
   they can be supplied.' I will therefore prompt-
   ly execute all such orders for—
   BRANDIES.—Of  the brand of Otard, Du-
            puy  & Co., Hennessy, P. H. God-
            dard, and other eminent  brands of
            Cognac and Rocheli.e,  carefully
            packed—
        In cases of 12 bottles each ;
        In boxes containing  demijohns  of 5 gal-
         lons each ;
        In kegs of 5 and 10 gallons each ; or
        In the original  packages of halves, quar-
         ters and eighths of pipes.
   GINS.—Wolfe's « Swan Gin" and Wolfe's
            " Schiedam Schnapps,"   manufac-
            tured by him in Holland.
   WHISKEYS.—Scotch   and  Irish, of the
            best brands.
  RUMS.—Pure Jamaica  and Santa Croix.
  WINES.—Port, of the best vintages, direct
           from Oporto or the London Docks
       Madeira,  Sherry, (Pale or Brown )
       Burgundy, Champagne, Claret, and
        Sauterne,  in all their varieties, and
        of the best vintages.
    All these Liquors and Wines will be packed
 to order, in quantities similar to those named
 for the Brandies;   and in  all instances  will
 bear my seal, and be accompanied by my cer-
 tificate.
   It is requested that all orders may contain
 explicit directions for  marking, and, if- possi.
 ble,as to the best line  of conveyance.
   Prices and  Terms of Credit (when  re-
quired) will be  stated  in answer  to applica-
tions by letter, (post-paid,) or to personal in-
quiries, at my Office, 22 Beaver Streft
New-York.                               '
  I  respectfully  proffer my  character and 
standing, as  an  extensive and  experienced
importer of Brandies, Wines and other Liquors,
as a guaranty for the quality of each and all
of those which  I may transmit, in pursuance
of this arrangement.
  In conclusion, I beg to  express my sincere
and  assured conviction,  that a method,  like
the  one which  I here adopt,  of insuring to
every Physician, Apothecary,  Druggist,
and  Hotel Keeper,  in  every State of the
Union, Wines and  Liquors exempt from the
possibility of adulteration,—thus warranted to
be  of  the  quality  which  they  purport  to
be, and thus reliable for  medicinal prescrip-
tion, as well as ordinary purposes—cannot fail
to receive the approbation of every' judicious,
humane, and unprejudiced  person to whom it
shall become known.  That it will tend to di-
minish the consumption of the common, dele-
terious, and spurious liquors which now almost
exclusively pervade the country, admits of no
doubt.   That the latter  are  destructive  to
public health and  morals,  by their  poisonous
and intoxicating  properties, and by the con-
firmed  habits  of  intemperance which  they,
and  they alone,  induce,  I have  sufficiently
shown, in the  above exposition, to justify the
most strenuous endeavors  for their discounte-
nance   and disuse   that   intelligence  and
humanity can suggest.
  That palatable liquors and  wines,  of all
kinds, the good with  the bad, will be banished
from society, and all  men become content  to
drink, like the inferior animals, of water alone,
no sane man can  expect, and no enlightened
and liberal man  can desire.  It can no more
be rationally  expected,  than  that  mankind
should agree to confine themselves to the food
of the lower  animals.  Artificially  prepared
drinks,  arc  as   natural  and  as   useful  to
man,  as   artificially  prepared  food,  and
probably  originated  at  as  early  a period
of his civilization.  He  may, and frequent-
ly does,  minglo  the  bad with the  good in
both ; the selection is left to his  experience
and discretion.  No sumptuary laws,  in  any
age or nation, for the regulation of the meats
and drinks of the people, have ever been at-
tempted  by  the  most despotic  civil govern-
ments ; and such as have been instituted un-
der  governments purporting to be  of divine
authority, have  altogether failed  in  benign
effects.   The  faithful  Mahometan  drinks
neither wine  nor distilled liquors ; but he in-
toxicates  himself with opium and other drugs,
and more than compensates for his abstinence
from  agreeable beverages, not necessarily in-
toxicating and  often  salutary, by  an unre-
strained  indulgence in  other and lower sen-
sualities.
  While, therefore, it is evidently the interest
of every community to  protect itself from in-
jurious diet of all kinds, it<can only do  so, and
more  especially with  regard to popular beve-
rages, by  making sound practical distinctions
between the evil and the good.   To banish the
latter with the former,  whether by the force
of conventional prejudices and opinions, or be-
cause even they are liable to abuse, would be
equally impracticable  and unwise ; and could
result only in  superinducing secret and clan-
destine indulgences, or   destructive  substitu-
tions, of a still more degrading and disastrous
character.
  Respectfully submitting both my views and
my proposals to your intelligent and  candid
consideration,
              I am, Gentlemen,
                     Your ob't serv't,
                  UDOLPHO WOLFE.
  Office, 22 Beaver-st.> New-York.