NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
          Washington 
 
 
       TREATISE      fc^f"

              ON

ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD,

   AND CULINARY POIbONS.
EXHIBITING
The Fraudulent Sophistications of

BREAD,  BEER, WINE, SPIRITOUS LIQUORS,
 TE\, COFFEE, CREW1, < ONFECTIONERY,
 VINEGAR, MUSTARD.. PEPPER, CHEESE,
 OLIVE OIL,  PICKLES,
AND OTHER ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN DOMESTIC ECONOMT.

               AND

METHODS  OF DETECTING THEM.
By Fredrick Accum,
OPERATIVE CHEMIST, AND MHIBtH OF THE PRINCIPAL

  ACADEMIES AND SOCIETIES OF ARTS AND SCIENCES ./-«\
                                 V. -4
IS EUROPE.



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t: ■* '/ •■•* /f ,
          PtitlaDelpfctaj
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY AB'M SMALF
              1820. 
 
PREFACE.
  This Treatise, as its title  expresses, is
 ntended to exhibit easy methods of detect-
ing the fraudulent adulterations of food, and
 )f other articles, classed either among the
necessaries or luxuries of the table ; and  to
put the unwary on their guard against the
ase of such commodities as are contami-
nated with substances deleterious to health.

  Every person  is aware that bread, beer,
wine, and  other substances employed in do-
mestic economy,  are  frequently met with
in an adulterated state : and the late convic-
tions of numerous individuals for counter-
feiting and adulterating  tea, coffee, bread,
beer, pepper, and other articles of diet, are
still fresh  in the memory of the public.

  To such perfection of ingenuity has the
system  of counterfeiting and adulterating 
iv             Preface.
various commodities of life arrived in this
country, that  spurious  articles  are  every
where to be found in the market, made up
so skilfully, as to elude the  discrimination
of the most experienced judges.

  But of all possible nefarious traffic and
deception, practised by mercenary dealers,
that of adulterating the  articles intended
for human food with ingredients deleterious
to health, is the most criminal, and, in the
mind of  every  honest  man,  must excite
feelings of regret and disgust.   Numerous
facts  are  on record, of human food, con-
taminated with poisonous ingredients, hav-
ing been vended to the public ; and the an-
nals of medicine record tragical events en-
suing from the use of such food.

  The eager and insatiable thirst for gain,
is proof against prohibitions and penalties ;
and the possible sacrifice of  a fellow-crea-
ture's  life,  is  a  secondary consideration
among unprincipled dealers.

  However invidious the office may appear,
and however painful the  duty may be, of
exposing  the  names of  individuals, who
have  been convicted of adulterating food ;
yet it was necessary, for the verification of 
Preface.              v
my statement, that cases should be adduced
in their support;  and  I have  carefully
avoided citing any, except those which are
authenticated  in Parliamentary documents
and other public records.

  To render this Treatise still more useful,
I have also animadverted on certain mate-
rial errors,  sometimes unconsciously com-
mitted  through  accident  or ignorance, in
private  families, during the preparation of
various articles of food, and of delicacies
for the  table.

  In stating the experimental proceedings
necessary for  the  detection  of the frauds
which it has been  my object to expose,  I
have confined  myself to the task of pointing
out such  operations only as may be per-
formed  by persons unacquainted with che-
mical science ; and it has been my purpose
to express all necessary rules and instruc-
tions  in the plainest language, divested of
those  recondite  terms  of science, which
would be out  of place in a  work intended
for general perusal.

  The design  of the Treatise will be fully
answered, if the views here given shot'Id
induce a single reader to pursue the ob^ct 
vi              Preface.

for which it is published ;  or if it should
tend to impress on the mind of the Public
the magnitude of an  evil,  which, in many
cases, prevails to an  extent so alarming,
that we may exclaim with  the  sons of the
Prophet,

   " THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT."

  For  the abolition of such nefarious prac-
tices, it is the interest of all classes of the
community to  co-operate.

                FREDRICK  ACCUM
LONDON.
  1820. 
CONTENTS.
 Preliminary  Observations  on  the
   Adulteration of Food    Page 13

 Effect  of different Kinds  of Wa-
   ter EMPLOYED IN DOMESTIC ECONO-
   MY      -      -      _          33

 Characters of Good  Water    -     -37
 Chemical  Constitution of the Waters used
   in Domestic Economy and the Arts    40

 Rain Water                        40
 Snow Water     -    -     -    -    41
 Spring Water         ...     42
 River Water          ...    44

 Substances  usually contained in  Common
   Water, and Tests by which they are de-
   tected    .....48

 Method of ascertaining the Quantity of each
  of the different  Substances usually con-
  tained in Common  Water     -     54

Deleterious Effects of keeping Water for
  Domestic Economy,  in  Leaden Reser-
  voirs                             60 
 riii           CONTENTS.

 Method of detecting Lead, when contained
   in common Water                   69

 Adulteration of  Wine       -     74

 Method of detecting the Deleterious  Adul-
   terations of Wine    _    -     -     86

 Specific Differences, and Component  Parts
   oj Wine.....89

 Easy process of ascertaining the Quantity
   of Brandy contained in various  sorts of
   Wine.....92

 Tabular View, exhibiting the Per  Centage
   of Brandy or Alcohol contained in vari-
   ous kinds  of  Wine and other fermented
   Liquors     -                      94

 Constitution  of Home-made Wines       96

 Adulteration of Bread      -    98

Method of detecting the Presence of Alum
  in Bread     -    -    -    -     108

Easy Method of judging  of the Goodness of
  Bread-Corn and Bread-Flour    -  110

Adulteration of Beer      -    113 
contents.
ix
  List of Druggists and Grocers, prosecuted
    and convicted for supplying illegal In-
    gredients to Brewers for Adulterating
    Beer    -     -     -  *   -     -    H9

  Porter.....121

  Strength and Specific Differences of differ-
    ent kinds of Porter    -    -       125

  List of Publicans prosecuted and convicted
   for adulterating Beer with illegal Ingre-
    dients, and for mixing Table Beer with
    their Strong Beer     -     -         129

,  Illegal  Substances used for adulterating
    Beer.....131

  Ingredients seized at  various  Breweries
    and Brewers* Druggists, for adulterat-
    ing Beer     -          -            136

  List of Brewers prosecuted and convicted
   for adulterating Strong  Beer with  Ta-
    ble Beer     -                      143

  Old, or Entire Beer;  and  New  or  Mild
   Beer     -                          144

 List of Brewers prosecuted and convicted
   for receiving and using illegal  Ingredi-
   ents in their Brewings    -     -    151 
 X             CONTENTS.

 Method of detecting  the  Adulteration of
   Beer.....158

 Method of ascertaining the  Quantity of
   Spirit contained in Porter, Ale. #c.  160

 Per Centage of Alcohol contained in Porter,
   and other kinds of Malt Liquors     162

 Counterfeit Tea-Leaves    -     163

 Methods of detecting  the  Adulterations of
   Tea-Leaves     -     -    -     -    171

 Counterfeit Coffee    -    -     176

 Adulteration of  Brandy, Rum,  and
  Gin.....187

 Method of detecting the Adulterations of
  Brandy, Rum, and Malt Spirit       195

 Method of detecting the Presence of Lead
  in Spiritous Liquors    -    -      202

Method of ascertaining the Quantity of Al-
  cohol contained in different kinds of Spi-
  ritous Liquors    -                9Q3

 Table exhibiting the Per Centage of Alco-
  hol contained in various kinds of Spiri-
  tous Liquors    -     .    m       205 
             CONTENTS.            Xi

Poisonous Cheese, and method of detect-
  ing it    -     ...        206

Counterfeit Pepper, and Method of de-
  tecting it    -    -     -    -     211

White  Pepper,  and method of manufac-
  turing it   -     -    -    -      213

Poisonous Cayenne  Pepper, and  me-
  thod of detecting it    -     -      215

Poisonous Pickles, and method of de-
  tecting them     -    -    -      217

Adulteration of Vinegar, and method
  of detecting it                    220

Distilled Vinegar    -     -    -     221

Adulteration of  Cream, and  method
  of detecting it     ...      222

Poisonous Confectionery, and  method
  of detecting it     -    -     -      224

Poisonous Catsup, and method of detect-
  ing it                           227

Poisonous Custards     -     -     231 
 XII           CONTENTS.

 Poisonous Anchovy Sauce, and method
   of detecting it    ...     234

 Adulteration of  Lozenges, and me-
   thod of detecting them    -    -    236

 Poisonous Olive  Oil, and method of
   detecting it    -                 239

 Adulteration of Mustard      241

 Adulteration of Lemon Acid, and
  method of detecting it    -     -    243

 Poisonous Mushrooms    -   -   246

 Mushroom Catsup    -    .      250

 Poisonous Soda Water, and method of
  detecting it    -     -    _    -    251

Food Poisoned by  Copper  Vessels,
  and method of detecting it     -     252

Food Poisoned by Leaden  Vessels,
  and method of detecting it    -     257 
                A

        TREATISE

               ON

ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD,

              AND

     CULINARY POISONS.
     PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

  Of all the frauds practised by mercenary
dealers,  there  is none more reprehensible,
and at the same time more prevalent, than
the sophistication of the various articles of
food.
  This unprincipled and nefarious practice,
increasing in degree as it has been found
difficult of detection, is now applied to al-
most every commodity which can be classed
r» 
 14'    Preliminary Observations.

 among either the necessaries  or the luxu-
 ries of life,  and is  carried on  to  a most
 alarming extent in every part of the United
 Kingdom.
   It has been pursued by men,  who, from
 the magnitude and  apparent respectability
 of  their concerns, would be the least ob-
 noxious to public suspicion ; and their suc-
 cessful example  has  called  forth,  from
 among the retail dealers,  a multitude of
 competitors in the same iniquitous  course.
  To such perfection of ingenuity has this
 system of adulterating food arrived, that
 spurious articles of various kinds are every
 where to be found, made up so skilfully as
 to baffle the discrimination of the most ex-
 perienced judges.
  Among the number of substances used in
 domestic economy which are now very ge-
 nerally found sophisticated, may be  dis-
 tinguished—tea, coffee, bread, beer, wine,
 spiritous  liquors, salad oil, pepper,  vine-
 gar, mustard, cream, and other articles of
 subsistence.
  Indeed, 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.
  Some of these spurious  compounds are 
     Preliminary  Observations.    i5

comparatively harmless when used as food ;
and as in  these cases merely substances of
inferior value are substituted for more costly
and genuine ingredients, the sophistication,
though it may affect our purse,  does not
injure our health.  Of this kind are the ma-
nufacture of factitious  pepper, the adulter-
ations  of mustard,  vinegar, cream,  &c.
Others, however, are  highly deleterious ;
and to this class belong the adulterations of
beer, wines, spiritous  liquors, pickles, sa-
lad oil, and  many others.
  There are particular chemists who make
it a regular  trade to supply drugs or nefa-
rious preparations to the unprincipled brew-
er of porter or ale ; others perform the same
office to the  wine and spirit merchant; and
others again to the grocer and the oilman.
The  operators  carry  on  their  processes
chiefly in secresy, and under some delusive
firm, with the ostensible denotements of a
fair and lawful establishment.
  These illicit pursuits  have assumed all
the order and method of a regular trade j
they may  severally claim  to be  distin-
guished as  an art  and  mystery; for the
workmen employed in them are often wholly
ignorant  of the  nature  of the substances
which pass  through  their hands, and of the
purposes to which they are ultimately ap-
plied. 
 *6    Preliminary Observations.

   To elude the vigilance of the inquisitive,
 to defeat the scrutiny of the revenue officer,
 and  to  ensure  the  secresy  of these  mys-
 teries, the processes are very ingeniously
 divided  and subdivided among individual
 operators, and the manufacture is purposely
 carr'u d on in separate establishments.  The
 task of proportioning the ingredients for use
 is assigned to one individual, while the com-
 position  and preparation of them may be
 said to form a distinct part of the business,
 and is entrusted to another workman.  Most
 of the articles are transmitted  to  the con-
 sumer in a disguised state, or in such a
 form that their real  nature cannot possibly
 be detected by the unwary.  Thus the ex-
 tract of  coculus  indicus, employed by frau-
 dulent manufacturers of malt-liquors to im-
 part  an  intoxicating quality to porter  or
 ales, is known in  the market by the  name
 of black extract, ostensibly destined for the
 use of tanners  and  dyers.   It is obtained
 by boiling the berries of the coculus indicus
 in water, and converting, by a subsequent
 evaporation, this decoction into a stiff black
tenacious mass, possessing,  in a high de-
 gree, the narcotic and intoxicating quality
 of the poisonous berry from which it is pre-
pared.   Another  substance,  composed  of
 extract of quassia  and liquorice juice  used 
     Preliminary Observations.    17

by fraudulent brewers to economise both
malt and hops, is technically called mult'un.*

  *  The Times, May <8, 1818.  The King v.
Richaid Bowman.  The defend »" was a brew-
er,  living in Wapping-street, Wapping, and
was  charged with  having in his possession  a
drug rolled multum, and a quantity of copperas.
  The  articles  were produced  by Thomas
Gates, an excise officer, who had, after a search,
fourd them on the defendant's premises.  The
Court sentenced the defendant to  pay a fine
of 200/.
  The King v. Luke Lyons.   The defendant
is a  brewer, and w;.s brought up under an in-
dictment < harging him with having made use
of various deleterious diugs in his brewery,
among  which  were capsicum, copperas, Sec.
The defendant was ordered to pay the  fines of
20/.  upon the first count, 200/. upon the third,
and  200/. upon  the seventh count in  the in-
dictment.
  The King v. Thomas Ev.ms.  The charge
against  this defendant was, that he had in his
possession forty-seven barrels of stale unpa-
latable  beer.  On the 11th of March,  J >hn
Wilson, an excise officer,  went to the store-
house, and found forty-seven casks  containing
forty-three barrelsand a h If of sour unwhole-
some beer.  Several s mples of the beer  were
produced, all of them of a different colour, and
filled with sediment.   A fine of 30/.  was or-
dered to be paid by the defendant. 
 18    Preliminary Observations.

   The quantities of coculus indicus ber-
 ries, as well as of black extract, imported
 into this country for  adulterating  malt
 liquors,  are enormous.  It forms a consi-
 derable branch of commerce in the hands
 of a few brokers-: yet, singular  as  it may
 seem, no inquiry appears to have been hi-
 therto  made by the officers of the revenue
 respecting  its  application.  Many other
 substances employed in the adulteration of
 beer, ale, and spiritous liquors, are  in  a
 similar manner intentionally disguised j and
 of the persons by whom they are purchased,
 a great number are totally unacquainted
 with their nature or composition.
  An extract,  said to be innocent, sold  in
casks, containing from half a cwt.  to five
cwt. by the brewers' druggists,  under the
name of bittern, is composed of calcined
sulphate of iron (copperas), extract of co-
culus indicus  berries,  extract of quassia,
and Spanish liquorice.
  It would be  very easy to adduce, in sup-
port of these remarks, the testimony of nu-
merous individuals, by whom I  have been
professionally engaged to  examine certain
 mixtures,  said to  be  perfectly innocent,
 which are used in very extensive manufac-
 tories of the above description.   Indeed,
 during the long period devoted to the prac- 
      Preliminary Observations.    19

 tice of my profession, I have had abundant
 reason to be convinced that a vast number
 of  dealers,  of the highest respectability,
 have vended  to  their customers  articles
 absolutely poisonous,  which  they them-
 selves considered as harmless, and which
 they would not have offered for sale, had
 they been apprised of the spurious and
 pernicious nature of the compounds, and of
 the purposes to which  they were destined.
  For instance,  I  have known  cases  in
 which brandy merchants were not aware
 that the substance which they frequently
 purchase under the delusive name of fash,
 for  strengthening and clarifying spiritous
 liquors, and which is held out as consisting
 of  burnt sugar and isinglass only,  in  the
 form of an extract, is in  reality a com-
 pound of sugar, with extract of capsicum ;
 and that to the acrid and pungent qualities
 of  the  capsicum  is to be ascribed  the
 heightened flavour  of brandy and rum,
 when coloured with the above-mentioned
 matter.
  In other cases  the ale-brewer has been
supplied with ready-ground coriander seeds,
previously mixed with a  portion  of nux
vomica and quassia, to give a bitter taste
and narcotic property to the beverage.
  The retail venders of mustard do not ap- 
 SO   Preliminary Observations.

 pear to  be aware that mustard seed alone
 cannot  produce, when  ground, a powder
 of so intense and brilliant a colour as that
 of the common mustard of commerce. Nor
 would the powder of real  mustard, when
 mixed with salt and water, without the ad-
 dition of a portion of pulverised capsicum,
 keep for so long a time as the  mustard
 usually offered for sale.
   Many other instances of unconscious de-
 ceptions  might be mentioned, which were
 practised by persons of upright and  ho-
 nourable minds.
   It is a painful reflection,  that the divi-
 sion of labour  which has been so instru-
 mental in bringing the manufactures of this
 country to their present flourishing state,
 should have also tended to conceal and fa-
 cilitate the fraudulent practices in question;
 and that  from a correspondent ramification
 of commerce  into a multitude of distinct
 branches, particularly in the metropolis and
 the large towns  of the  empire, the traffic
 in adulterated  commodities should find its
 way through so many circuitous channels,
 as to defy the most scrutinising endeavour
 to trace it to its source.
   It is not less lamentable that the exten-
 sive application of chemistry to the useful
purposes of life, should have been pervert- 
      Preliminary Observations.    %\

cd into an auxiliary to this nefarious traffic.
But, happily for the science, it may, with-
out difficulty, be converted  into a means
of detecting the abuse ;  to  effect  which,
very little chemical skill is required ; and
the course to be  pursued forms the object
of the following pages.
   The baker asserts that he  does not put
alum into bread ; but he is well aware that,
in purchasing a  certain quantity of 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 pur-
chases  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 and half-
spoiled flour.
   Other individuals furnish the baker with
alum mixed up with salt, under the obscure
denomination of stuff. There are wholesale
manufacturing chemists, whose sole busi-
ness is to crystallise alum, in such a form as
will adapt this salt to  the purpose of being
mixed in a crystalline state  with the crys-
tals of common salt, to disguise the charac- 
%%    Preliminary Observations.
ter of the compound.   The mixture called
stuff, is composed of one part of alum, in
minute  crystals, and three of common salt.
In  many other trades a similar mode of
proceeding prevails.  Potatoes are  soaked
in water to augment their weight.
  The practice of sophisticating the neces-
saries of life,  being reduced  to systematic
regularity,  is ranked by  public  opinion
among  other  mercantile pursuits ; and is
not only regarded  with less  disgust than
formerly, but is almost generally esteemed
as a justifiable way  to wealth.
  It is really astonishing that the penal law
is not more effectually  enforced  against
practices so inimical to the public welfare.
The man  who robs a fellow  subject  of a
few shillings on the high-wav, is sentenced
to death j while he who distributes a slow
poison to a whole community, escapes un-
punished.
  It has been urged by some, that, under
so vast a system of finance as that of Great
Britain, it is  expedient  that the revenue
should be collected  in large amounts;  and
therefore that the severity of the law should
be relaxed in favour of all mercantile con-
cerns in proportion  to their extent:  encou-
ragement must be given to large capitalists*
and where an extensive brewery or distil- 
      Preliminary Observations.   S3

lery yields an important contribution to the
revenue, no strict scrutiny need be adopted
in regard to the quality of the article from
which such contribution is raised, provided
the excise do not suffer by the fraud.
   But the principles of the constitution af-
ford no sanction to this preference, and the
true interests of the country require that it
should be abolished; for a tax dependent
lapon deception 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 cognisance,
there is no doubt that the revenue  would
be abundantly benefited.
   Another species of  fraud, to which  I
shall  at present but  briefly advert, and
which has increased to so alarming an ex-
tent, that it loudly calls for the interference
of government, is the adulteration of drugs
and medicines.
  Nine-tenths of the most potent drugs and
chemical preparations used in pharmacy,
are vended in a sophisticated state by deal-
ers who would be the last to be suspected.
It is well  known, that of the article Peru-
vian bark, there  is a variety of  species in- 
84   Preliminary Observations.

ferior to the genuine; that too little  dis-
crimination is  exercised by the collectors
of this precious medicament; that it  is
carelessly assorted, and is frequently pack-
ed in green hides; that much of it arrives
in Spain  in  a half-decayed state,  mixed
with fragments of other vegetables and va-
rious extraneous substances;  and in  this
state is distributed throughout Europe.
  But as if this were not a sufficient dete-
rioration, the public are often served with
a spurious  compound of mahogany saw-
dust and oak  wood, ground into powder
mixed with a proportion of good  quinqui-
na, and sold as genuine bark powder.
   Every  chemist knows that there are
mills constantly at work  in this metropolis,
which furnish bark powder  at  a much
cheaper rate than the substance can be pro-
cured for in its natural state.   The price of
the best genuine bark, upon an average, is
not lower than twelve shillings the pound ;
but immense quantities of powder bark are
supplied to  the  apothecaries  at  three  or
four shillings a pound.
   It is also  notorious that there are ma-
nufacturers  of spurious rhubarb powder,
ipecacuanha powder,* James's powder, and

   * Of this root, several \arieties are import-
ed.  The white sort, which has no wrinkles., 
Preliminary Observations.   ©5
 other simple and compound medicines of
 great potency, who carry on their diaboli-
 cal trade on an amazingly large scale.  In-
 deed, the quantity of medical preparations
 thus  sophisticated exceeds belief.  Cheap-
 ness, and not genuineness and excellence,
 is the grand desideratum with the unprin-
 cipled dealers in drugs and medicines.
   Those who are familiar with chemistry
 may easily convince themselves of the  ex-
 istence of the fraud, by subjecting to a che-
 mical examination either spirits of harts-
 horn, magnesia, calcined magnesia, calomel,
 or any other chemical preparation in gene-
 ral demand.
   Spirit of hartshorn is counterfeited  by
 mixing liquid caustic ammonia with  the
 distilled spirit of hartshorn, to increase  the
 pungency of its odour, and to enable it to
bear an addition of water.
  The fraud is detected by adding spirit of
wine to the sophisticated spirit; for, if no
and no  perceptible  bitterness in taste, and
which, though  taken  in a  large dose, has
scatcely any effect at all, after being pulver-
ised by fraudulent druggists, and mixed with
a portion of emetic tanar,  is sold,  at  a low
price, for the powder of genuine ipecacuantra
root-
                   r, 
S6    Preliminary Observations.

considerable coagulation ensues, the adul-
teration is proved.  It may also be disco-
vered by the hartshorn spirit not producing
a brisk effervescence when mixed with mu-
riatic or nitric acid.
  Magnesia usually contains a portion of
lime, originating from hard water being
used instead of soft, in the preparation of
this medicine.
  To ascertain the purity of magnesia, add
to a  portion of it a little sulphuric acid, di-
luted with ten times its bulk of water.  If
the magnesia be completely soluble,  and
the solution remains transparent, it may be
pronounced pure ; but not otherwise.  Or,
dissolve a portion of the magnesia in muri-
atic  acid, and add a solution of sub-carbo-
nate  of ammonia.   If any lime be present,
it will form a  precipitate; whereas pure
magnesia will remain in solution.
  Calcined magnesia is seldom met with in
a pure state.   It  may be  assayed by the
same tests  as the common  magnesia.  It
ought not to effervesce at all,  with dilute
sulphuric acid; and,  if the  magnesia and
acid be put together into one scale of a ba-
lance, no diminution of weight should en-
sue  on mixing them  together.  Calcined
magnesia, however, is very seldom so pure
as to be totally dissolved by diluted sul< 
      Preliminary  Observations.   27

 phuric acid; for a small insoluble residue
 generally remains, consisting chiefly of si-
 licious earth,  derived from the  alkali  era-
 fdoyed in the  preparation  of  it.  The so-
 ution in sulphuric acid,  when largely di-
 luted, ought not to afford any  precipitation
 by the addition of oxalate of ammonia.
  The genuineness of calomel may be as-
 certained by boiling, for a few  minutes, one
 part, with ^\ part of muriate of ammonia in
 ten parts of distilled water. When carbo-
 nate of potash is added  to the filtered solu-
 tion, no precipitation will ensue if the calo-
 mel  be pure.
  Indeed, some of the  most common  and
 cheap drugs do not escape the adulterating
 hand of the unprincipled druggist.   Sy-
 rup of buckthorn, for example,  instead of
 being prepared from the juice of buckthorn
 berries,  (rhamnus  catharticus,)  is made
 from the fruit of the blackberry bearing al-
der,  and the dogberrv tree.  A mixture of
the berries of the buckthorn and blackber-
ry bearing alder, and of the dogberrv tree,
may  be seen publicly  exposed  for sale by
some of the venders  of medicinal herbs.
This abuse may be discovered by opening
the berries:  those of  buckthorn have  al-
most always four seeds ; of the alder, two;
and of the dogberry, only one.  Buckthorn 
 28   Preliminary  Observations.

 berries, bruised on white paper,  stain it of
 a green colour, which the others do not.
   Instead of worm-seed (artemisia santQ-
 nica,) the seeds of tansy are frequently of-
 fered for sale, or a mixture of both.
   A  great many of the essential oils ob-
 tained from the more expensive spices, are
 frequently so much  adulterated, that it is
 not easy to meet with such as are at all fit
 for use : nor are these adulterations easily
 discoverable.  The grosser abuses, indeed,
 may be readily detected.  Thus, if the oil
 be adulterated  with alcohol, it  will  tura
 milky on the addition of water; if with ex-
 pressed oils, alcohol will dissolve the vola-
 tile, and leave the other behind;  if with oil
 of turpentine, on dipping a piece of paper
in the mixture, and drying it with a gentle
heat,  the  turpentine  will be betrayed by
its smell.   The more subtile artists, how-
ever,  have contrived other methods of so-
phistication,  which  elude all trials.   And
as all volatile oils agree in the general pro-
perties of solubility in spirit of wine, and
volatility in the heat of boiling water, &c.
it is plain that they may be variously mixed
with each other, or the dearer sophisticated
with the cheaper, without any possibility of
 discovering the abuse by any of the before-
 mentioned  trials.  Perfumers assert  that 
         Preliminary Observations.   29

   the  smell  and taste  are  the  only  certain
   tests of which the nature  of the thing will
   aduiit. For example, if a  bark should have
   in every respect the appearance of  good
   cinnamon,  and should be  proved indispu-
   tably to be the genuine bark of the cinna-
   mon tree;  yet if it want the cinnamon fla-
   vour, or has it but in a low degree, we re-
  ject  it: and the case is the same with the
   essential oil of cinnamon.   It  is only from
   use  and  habit, or comparisons with speci-
   mens of known quality, that we can judge
   of the goodness, either of  the drugs them-
   selves, or of their oils.
     Most of the arrow-root, the fecula of the
   Maranta arudinacea, sold by druggists, is
  a mixture of potatoe starch and arrow-root.
    The same system of adulteration extends
- to articles  used in various trades and ma-
  nufactures.  For  instance, linen tape, and
  various other household  commodities of
  that kind, instead of being  manufactured of
  linen thread only, are  made up of linen and
  cotton.   Colours  for painting, not only
  those used by artists, such  as ultramarine,*
  * Genuine ultramarine should become de-
prived of its colour when thrown into concen-
trated nitric acid.
                  C2 
30    Preliminary  Observations.
carmine,*  and  lake ;+  Antwerp  blue,}:
chrome yellow,^ and Indian ink ;|| but also
the coarser colours used by the common
house-painter are more or less adulterated.
Thus, of the latter kind, white lead^j  is
mixed with carbonate or sulphate of bary-
tes ;  vermilion** with  red  lead.
   Soap used in house-keeping is frequently
  * Genuine  carmine should be totally solu-
ble  in liquid ammonia.
  t Genuine  madder  and  carmine  lakes
should be totally soluble by boiling in a con-
centrated solution of soda or potash.
  \ Gemine  Antwerp blue should  not  be-
come deprived of its colour when throvsn into
liquid chlorine.
  § Genuine  chrome yellow should not effer-
vesce with nitric acid.
  ||  The  best  Indian ink breaks, splintery,
with a smooth glossy fracture, and feels soft,
and not gritty, when rubbed against the teeth.
  1 Genuine white lead should be  complete-
ly soluble  in nitric  acid, and the  solution
should remain transparent when mingled with
a solution of sulphate of soda.
  ** Genuine vermilion should become total-
ly volatilised  on heinr^ exposed to a red heat;
and it should not impart a red coiour to spi-
rit of wine, when  digested with  it. 
Preliminary Observations.    31
adulterated with a  considerable portion of
fine white clay, brought from St. Stephens,
in Cornwall.  In the manufacture  of print-
ing paper,  a large quantity of plaster of
Paris is added to the paper stuff, to increase
the weight of the manufactured article. The
selvage of cloth is often dyed with a  per-
manent colour, and artfully stitched to the
edge  of cloth dyed with  a fugitive  dye.
The frauds committed in the  tanning  of
skins,  and in the manufacture of cutlery
and jewelry, exceed belief.
   The object of all unprincipled modern
manufacturers seems to be the sparing of
their time  and labour as much as possible,
and to increase the quantity of the articles
they produce, without much regard to their
quality.   The ingenuity and perseverance
of self-interest  is  proof against  prohibi-
tions, and  contrives to elude the vigilance
of the most active government.
   The eager and insatiable thirst for gain,
which  seems to be  a leading characteristic
of the times, calls into action every human
faculty, and gives an irresistible impulse to
the power of  invention; and where lucre
becomes the reigning principle, the possi-
ble sacrifice of even a fellow creature's life
is a secondary consideration.  In reference 
3S   Preliminary Observations.

to the deterioration of almost all the neces-
saries and comforts of existence, it may be
justly observed, in a civil as well as a reli-
gious sense, that " in the midst of life we
are in death?' 
           REMARKS

                 OS THE


Effect of different Kinds of Waters

           IN THEIR APPLICATION TO

  DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND THE ARTS;

                  AND

METHODS OF ASCERTAINING THEIR PURITY.
    It  requires  not  much reflection to
become convinced that the waters which
issue from the recesses of the earth,  and
form springs, wells, rivers,  or lakes, often
materially differ from  each  other  in their
taste ana other obvious properties. There
are few people who have not observed a
difference in the waters used for domestic
purposes and in the arts ; and the  distinc-
tions of hard and soft water are familiar to
every body.
   Water perfectly  pure  is scarcely  ever
met with in nature. 
 34       Effects of  Waters.

   It must also be obvious, that the health
 and comfort of families,  and the conve-
 niences of domestic life, are materially af-
 fected by the supply of good  and whole-
 some water.  Hence a knowledge of the
 quality and salubrity of the different kinds
 of waters employed in the common con-
 cerns of life, on account of the abundant
 daily  use we make of them in the prepara-
 tion of food, is unquestionably an object of
 considerable importance, and demands our
attention.
  The effects produced by the foreign mat-
ters which water may contain,  are more
considerable, and of greater importance,
than might at first be imagined.  It cannot
be denied, that such waters as are hard, or
loaded with earthy matter, have a decided
effect upon some important functions of the
human body.  They increase the distress-
ing symptoms under which those persons
labour who are afflicted with what is com-
monly called gravel complaints ; and many
other ailments might be named,  that are
always aggravated  by  the use of waters
abounding in saline and earthy substances.
  The purity of the waters employed in
 some  of the arts and manufactures, is an
object of not less consequence. In the pro-
 cess of brewing malt liquors* soft water is 
          Effects of  Waters.       35

 preferable to hard.   Every brewer knows
 that the  largest possible quantity of the
 extractive matter of the malt is obtained in
 the least possible time,  and at  the smallest
 cost, by means of soft water.
   In the art of the dyer, hard water not
 only opposes  the  solution of  several dye
 stuffs, but it also alters  the natural tints  of
 some delicate colours  ;  whilst in others
 again it precipitates the earthy and saline
 matters with which it is impregnated, into
 the delicate fibres of the stuff, and  thus im-
 pedes the softness and brilliancy of the dye.
   The bleacher cannot  use with advantage
 waters impregnated with earthy salts ; and
 a  minute portion   of iron imparts to the
 cloth a yellowish hue.
   To the  manufacturer  of painters' colours,
 water as pure as possible is absolutely es-
 sential for the successful preparation of se-
 veral delicate pigments. Carmine, madder
lake, ultramarine, and Indian yellow, cannot
 be prepared without  perfectly  pure water.
   For  the steeping or  raiting  of flax, soft
water is absolutely necessary ;  in hard wa-
ter the flax may be immersed for  months,
till its texture be injured, and still the lig-
neous matter will not be decomposed, and
the fibres  properly separated.
   In the culinary art, the effects of water 
 36       Effects of Waters.

 more or  less pure  are likewise obvious.
 Good and pure water softens  the fibres of
 animal and vegetable matters more readily
 than such as is  called hard.  Every cook
 knows that dry or ripe pease, and other fa-
 rinaceous seeds,  cannot  readily be  boiled
 soft  in hard water ;  because the farina of
 the seed is not perfectly soluble in  water
 loaded with earthy salts.
  Green esculent vegetable substances are
 more tender when boiled in soft water than
in hard water; although hard water imparts
to them a better colour. The effects of hard
and soft water may be easily shown in the
following manner.
              EXPERIMENT.

  Let two separate portions of tea-leavee
be macerated, by precisely the  same pro-
cesses, in circumstances all alike, in similar
and separate vessels, the one containing hard
and the other soft water, either hot or cold,
the infusion made with the soft water will
have  by far the strongest  taste,  although
it possesses less  colour than the  infusion
made with the hard water.   It will strike a
more intense  black with a solution of sul-
phate of iron, and afford a more abundant 
      Characters of Good, Water.   37

precipitate, with a solution of animal jelly,
which at once shews that soft water  has
extracted more tanning matter, and more
gallic acid, from the tea-leaves, than could
be obtained from them under like circum-
stances by means of hard water.
  Many animals  which are accustomed to
drink soft water, refuse hard water.  Horses
in particular  prefer the former.  Pigeons
refuse hard water when they have been ac-
customed to soft water.
     CHARACTERS  OF GOOD WATER.

   A good criterion of the purity of water
fit tor domestic purposes, is its softness.
This quality is at once obvious by the touch,
if we only wash our hands in it with soap.
Good  water should be beautifully transpa-
rent ; a slight opacity indicates extraneous
matter.  To judge of the perfect transpa-
rency of water, a quantity of it shouid be
put into a deep glass vessel, the larger the
better, so that we can  look down perpendi-
cularly into a considerable mass of the fluid ;
we may then readily discover the slightest
degree of muddiness much better than if
the water be  viewed through the  glass
placed between the  eye and the light.  It
                   D 
38   Characters of Good Water.
 should be  perfectly  colourless, devoid  of
 odour, and its taste soft and agreeable.   It
 should send out air-bubbles when poured
 from one vessel into another; it should boil
 pulse soft, and form  with soap an uniform
 opaline fluid, which does not separate after
 standing for several hours.
   It is to the presence of common air and
 carbonic acid gas that common water owes
 its taste,  and  many  of  the good  effects
 which it produces on animals and vegeta-
 bles.  Spring water,  which contains  more
 air,  has a more lively taste than river water.
   Hence the insipid or vapid taste of newly
 boiled water, from which these gases are ex-
 pelled : fish cannot live in water deprived
 of those elastic fluids.
   100 cubic inches of the New River water,
 with which part of this metropolis is sup-
 plied, contains  2,25 of carbonic  acid, and
 1,25 of common air.  The water  of the ri-
ver Thames contains rather a larger quan-
tity of common  air, and a smaller portion
of carbonic acid.
  H vyater  not fully saturated  with com-
mon air be agitated with this elastic fluid,
a portion of the air is absorbed ; but the
two  chirf constituent gases of  the atmos-
phere,  the oxygen and nitrogen, are not 
      Characters of Good Water.   39

equally affected, the former being absorbed
in preference to the latter.
   According to  Mr. Dalton, in agitating
water with atmospheric air, consisting of 79
of nitrogen,  and 21 of  oxygen, the water
absorbs ^ of ^v nitrogen gas = 1,234, and
iV °^ -nrfr °xygen gas = 778, amounting in
all to 2,012.
   Water  is freed from  foreign matter by
distillation : and  for  any chemical process
in which accuracy is requisite, distilled
water must be used.
  Hard waters may, in general, be cured in
part, by dropping  into them a solution of
sub-carbonate of potash ; or, if the hardness
be owing only to the presence of super-car-
bonate of lime, mere boiling will greatly
remedy the defect;  part of the carbonic
acid flies off, and  a  neutral carbonate of
lime falls down to the bottom ; it may then
be used for washing, scarcely curdling soap.
But  if  the hardness  be owing  in part to
sulphate of lime, boiling does not soften it
at all.
  When spring water is used for washing,
it is advantageous to leave it for some time
exposed to the open air in a reservoir with
a large surface.  Part of the carbonic  acid
becomes thus dissipated, and part of  the
carbonate of lime falls to the bottom.  Mr. 
40      Constitution of Waters.
Dalton*  has observed that the  more any
spring is  drawn from, the softer the water
becomes.
CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE WATERS
  USED IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY  AND  THE
  ARIS.
              Rain  Water,

  Collected with every precaution as it
descends from the clouds, and at a distance
from large towns, or any other object capa-
ble of  impregnating the atmosphere  with
foreign matters, approaches more nearly to
a state of purity than  perhaps any other
natural water.  Even collected under these
circumstances, however, it invariably con-
tains a portion of common air and carbonic
acid gas.  The specific gravity of rain water
scarcely differs from that of distilled water;
and from the minute portions of the foreign
ingredients which it generally contains, it
is  very soft, and  admirably adapted for
  * Dalton,  Manchester Memoirs, vol iv.
ft. 55. 
Constitution of Waters.     41
many culinary purposes, and various pro-
cesses in  different manufactures  and the
arts.
  Fresh-fallen  snow, melted without the
contact of air, appears to be nearly  free
from air.  Gay-Lussac and Humboldt, how-
ever, affirm, that it contains nearly the usual
proportion of air.
  Water from melted  ice does not contain
so much air. Dew has  been supposed to be
saturated with air.
  Snow water has long laid under the im-
putation of occasioning  those  strumous
swellings  in the  neck  which deform  the
inhabitants of many of the Alpine vallies ;
but this opinion  is not supported by any
well-authenticated indisputable facts, and
is rendered still  more improbable, if not
entirely  overturned, by the frequency of
the disease in Sumatra*, where  ice and
snow are never seen.
   In  high northern latitudes, thawed snow
forms the constant drink of the inhabitants
during winter ; and the vast masses of ice
which float on  the polar seas, afford  an
abundant supply of fresh water to the ma-
riner.
* Marsden's History of Sumatra.
             D 2 
4S     Constitution of Waters.
             Spring Water,

   Includes  well-water and all others that
arise from some depth below the surface of
the earth, and which are used at the foun-
tain-head, or at least before they have run
any considerable distance  exposed to the
air. Indeed, springs may be considered as
rain  water which has passed  through the
fissures of the earth, and,  having accumu-
lated at the bottom of declivities, rises again
to the surface forming springs and wells.
As wells take their origin at some depth
from the surface, and below the influence
of the external atmosphere, their tempera-
ture  is  in general  pretty uniform during
every vicissitude of season, and always se-
veral  degrees lower than the  atmosphere.
They differ from one another according to
the nature of the strata through which they
issue ;  for though the ingredients usually
existing in them are in such minute quan-
tities as to impart to the water no striking
properties, and do  not  render it unfit for
common purposes, yet they modify its na-
ture  very considerably.  Hence the water
of some springs is said to be hard, of others
soft, some sweet, others brackish, according 
Constitution of Waters.
43
to the nature and degree of the inpregnat-
ing ingredients.
   Common springs are insensibly changed
into mineral or  medicinal springs, as their
foreign contents become larger or more un-
usual ;  or,  in some  instances,  they derive
medicinal  celebrity from  the  absence of
those  ingredients   usually occurring  in
spring-water ; as, for example, is the case
with the Malvern spring, which  is nearly
pure water.
   Almost all spring-waters possess the pro-
perty termed hardness  in a greater or less
degree ; a  property  which depends  chiefly
upon the presence of super-carbonate,  or
of sulphate of  lime, or of both ; and the
quantity of these  earthy salts  varies very
considerably in different  instances.  Mr-
Dalton* has shewn that one  grain of sul-
phate of lime, contained in 2000 grains of
water, converts it into the  hardest  spring
water that is commonly met with.
  The  waters  of  deep wells are  usually
much harder than  those of springs  which
overflow the mouth of the well; but there
are some exceptions to this rule.
  The purest springs are those which occur
* Manchester Memoirs vol. x. 1819. 
44     Constitution of Waters.

in primitive rocks, or beds of gravel, or fil-
ter through sand or silicious strata.  In ge-
neral, large springs are purer  than small
ones : and  our old wells contain finer water
than those that are new, as the soluble parts I
through which the water filters in channels
under ground become  gradually washed
away.

             River Water,

  Is a term applied to every running stream
or rivulet exposed to the  air, and  always
flowing in an open channel.  It is formed of
spring water, which, by  exposure, becomes
more pure, and of running land or surface
water, which, although turbid from particles
of the alluvial soil suspended in it, is other-
wise  very  pure.  It is purest when it runs
over a gravelly or rocky bed, and when its
course is swift. It is generally soft, and more
free from  earthy salts than spring  water;
but it usually contains less common air and
carbonic acid gas ;  for, by the agitation of
a long current, and exposed to the temper-
ature of the atmosphere, part of its carbonic
acid gas is disengaged, and the lime held
in solution by it is in part precipitated, the
loss of which contributes to the softness of
the water.  Its specific gravity thereby be- 
       Constitution of Waters.     45

comes less, the taste not so harsh, but less
fresh and agreeable ;  and out, of a  hard
spring is often made a stream of  sufficient
purity for most of the purposes where a soft
water is required.
  The water called in this metropolis New
River Water, contains a minute portion of
muriate  of  lime, carbonate  of lime, and
muriate of soda.
  Some streams, however, that arise from
clean silicious beds, and flow in a sandy or
stony channel, are from the outset remarka-
bly pure ; such as the mountain lakes and
rivulets in the rocky districts of Wales, the
source of the beautiful waters of  the  Dee,
and numberless other  rivers  that  flow
through the hollow of every valley.  Swit-
zerland has long been celebrated for the
purity and excellence of its waters, which
pour  in copious streams from the moun-
tains, and give rise to the finest rivers in
Europe.
   Some rivers, however, that do not take
their rise from a rocky soil, and are indeed
at  first considerably charged with foreign
matter, during a long course, even over a
richly cultivated plain, become remarkably
pure as to saline contents ; but often fouled
with mud containing much animal and ve-
getable matter, which are rather suspended 
46     Constitution of Waters.

than held in true solution.  Such is the
water of the river Thames, which, taken
up at London at low water mark, is  very
soft and  good ; and, after rest, it  contains
but a very small portion of any thing that
could prove pernicious, or impede any ma-
nufacture.   It is also excellently fitted for
sea-store ; but it then undergoes a remark-
able spontaneous change, when preserved
in wooden casks.   No  water  carried to
sea becomes putrid sooner than that of the
Thames.  But  the mode now adopted in
the navy of substituting iron  tanks for
wooden  casks,   tends greatly to obviate
this disadvantage.
   Whoever will consider the situation of
the Thames, and the immense population
along its banks for so many miles, must at
once perceive the prodigious accumulation
of animal matters of all kinds, which  by
means  of the  common  sewers  constantly
make their way into it. These matters are, no
doubt,  in part the cause of the putrefaction
which it is well known to undergo at sea, and
of the carburetted and sulphuretted hydro-
gen gases which are evolved from it. When
a wooden cask is opened, after being kept a
month  or two, a  quantity of carburetted
and sulphuretted hydrogen escapes, and the
water is so black and offensive as scarcely 
       Constitution of Waters.     47

to be borne.   Upon racking it off, however,
into large earthen vessels, and exposing it
to the air, it gradually deposits a quantity
of black slimy mud, becomes clear as crys-
tal, and remarkably sweet and palatable.
  It might,  at first sight, be expected that
the water of the Thames, after having re-
ceived all the contents of the sewers, drains,
and water courses, of a large town, should
acquire thereby such impregnation with
foreign matters, as to become very impure;
but it appears,  from  the most accurate ex-
periments that have been made, that those
kinds of impurities have no perceptible in-
fluence on the salubrious quality of a mass
of water so immense, and constantly kept
in motion by the action of the tides.
  Some traces of animal matter may, how-
ever, be  detected  in the water of  the
Thames;  for if nitrate of lead be dropped
into  it,* "you will  find that it becomes
milky, and that a white powder falls to the
bottom, which  dissolves  without efferves-
  * Observations on  the Water with which
Tunbridge Wells is chiefly supplied for Do-
mestic Purposes, by Dr. Thomson ;  forming
an Appendix to an Analysis of the  Mineral
Waters of  Tunbridge Wells,  by Dr. Scuda-
more. 
48       Substances contained

cence in nitric acid.  It is, therefore, (says
Dr. Thomson) a combination of oxide of
lead with some animal matter."
SUBSTANCES USUALLY CONTAINED IN COM.
  MON WATER, AND TESTS BY WHICH THEY
  ARE  DETECTED.

  To acquire a knowledge of the general
nature of common water, it is only necessa-
ry to add to it a few chemical tests,  which
will  quickly indicate the presence  or ab- !
sence of the substances that  may be ex-
pected.
  Almost the only salts contained in com-
mon waters  are the carbonates, sulphates,
and muriates of soda, lime, and magnesia;
and  sometimes a very minute  portion of
iron  may also be detected in them.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Fill  a wine-glass  with  distilled  water,
and add to it a few drops of a solution of
soap in alcohol, the water will remain tran-
sparent.
  This  test  is  employed  for ascertaining
the presence  of earthy salts in  waters. 
in Water.
49
Hence it produces no change when mingled
with distilled or perfectly pure water; but
when  added to  water containing earthy
salts, a white  flocculent matter becomes
separated,  which speedily collects  on the
surface of the fluid.   Now, from the quan-
tity of flocculent matter produced, in equal
quantities  of water submitted to the test,
a tolerable notion may be formed  of the
degrees of hardness of different kinds of
water, at least so far as regards the fitness
of the water for the  ordinary purposes of
domestic economy.  This may be rendered
obvious in  the following manner.
              EXPERIMENT.

   Fill a number  of wine-glasses with dif-
ferent kinds of  pump  or well water,  and
let fall into each  glass a few drops of the
solution of soap in alcohol.   A turbidness
will instantly ensue, and a flocculent matter
collect  on  the  surface  of the  fluid,  if
the  mixture be  left  undisturbed.   The
quantity of flocculent matter will be  in the
ratio  of the  quantity of earthy salts con-
tained in the water.
   It is obvious that the  action of this test is
not discriminative, with regard to the che-
                   E 
50      Substances contained

mical  nature of the  earthy  salt present
in the water.  It serves only to indicate
the presence or absence of those  kinds of
substances which occasion  that quality in
water which is usually called hardness, and
which is  always owing to salts  with an
earchy base.
   If we wish to know the nature of  the
different acids and earths contained in  the
water, the  following  test may  be   em-
ployed.*
              EXPERIMENT.

  Add about twenty drops of a solution of
oxalate of ammonia, to half a wine-glass of
the water ;  if a white precipitate ensues, we
conclude that the water contains lime.
  By means  of this test, one grain of lime
may be detected in 24,250 of water.
  If this test occasion a white precipitate
in water taken  fresh  from the  pump  or
spring, and not after the water  has been
boiled and  suffered to grow cold,  the lime
is dissolved  in the water by an  excess of
  * It is absolutely essential  that the tests
should be pure. 
              in  Water.            5i

carbonic acid; and if it continues to produce
a precipitate in the water which has been
concentrated by boiling, we then are sure
that the lime is combined with a fixed acid.
             EXPERIMENT.

  To detect the presence of iron, add to a
wine-glassful of the water a few drops of an
infusion of nut-galls ; or better, suffer a nut-
gall to be suspended  in it for twenty-four
hours, which will cause the water to acquire
a blueish  black colour,  if iron be  present.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Add a few grains of muriate of barytes,
to half a wine-glass of the water to be ex-
amined ; if it produces a turbidness which
does not disappear  by the admixture of a
few drops of muriatic acid, the presence of
sulphuric acid is rendered obvious.
             EXPERIMENT.

  If a few drops of a solution of nitrate of
silver occasions a milkiness with the water, 
52       Substances contained
which vanishes again by the copious addi-
tion of liquid ammonia, we have reason to
believe that the water contains a salt,  one
of the constituent parts of which is muriatic
acid.
             EXPERIMENT.

  If lime water or barytic water occasions
a precipitate which again vanishes by the
admixture of muriatic acid, then carbonic
acid is present in the water.
             EXPERIMENT.

   If a solution of phosphate of soda produces
a milkiness with the water, after a previous
addition to it of a similar quantity of neutral
carbonate of ammonia, we may then expect
magnesia.   The application of  this test is
best made in the following manner :
   Concentrate a quantity of the water to be
examined to about ^ part of its bulk, and
drop  into  about  half  a  wine-glassful,
about five grains of neutral carbonate of
ammonia. No magnesia becomes yet preci-
pitated  if this  earth be present;  but on
adding a like quantity of phosphate of soda, 
in Water.
53
the magnesia falls down,  as an insoluble
salt.  It is essential that  the carbonate of
ammonia be neutral.
  This  test  was first pointed out  by Dr.
Wollaston.
  The presence of oxygen gas loosely com-
bined in water may readily be discovered
in the following manner.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Fill a  vial with water, and add to it a
small quantity of green sulphate  of iron.
If the water be entirely free of oxygen, and
if the vessel be well stopped and completely
filled, the  solution is transparent;  but if
otherwise, it soon becomes slightly turbid,
from the oxide of iron attracting  the oxy-
gen, and a small portion of it, in this more
highly oxidated state, leaving the acid and
being precipitated.  Or, according to a me-
thod pointed out by  Driessen, the water is
to be boiled for two hours in a flask filled
with it,  and immersed in a vessel  of water
kept boiling, with the mouth of the flask
under the surface of the water: it is to be
inverted in quicksilver, taking care that no
air-bubble  adheres to the side of the flask,
and being tinged with infusion of litmus, a
                  E2 
 54       Analysis of Water.

 little nitrous gas is to be introduced : if the
 oxygen gas has been sufficiently expelled
 from the water, the purple colour of the
 litmus does not change; while, if oxygen
 be present, it immediately becomes  red.*
  If we examine the different waters which
 are used for the ordinary purposes of life,
 and  judge  of them by the above tests, we
 shall find them to differ considerably from
 each other.  Some contain a large quantity
 of saline and earthy matters, whilst others
 are nearly pure.  The differences are pro-
 duced  by the great solvent power which
 water exercises upon most substances. Wells
 should never be lined with  bricks, which
reader soft water hard ; or, if bricks be em-
ployed, they should  be bedded in and
covered with cement.
METHOD OF ASCERTAINING  THE  RELA-
  T1VE QUANTITY OF EACH OF THE DIFFER-
  ENT  SUBSTANCES  USUALLY  CONTAINED
  IN COMMON WATER.

  To ascertain the quantity of earthy and
saline matter contained in water, the follow-
ing is the most simple and easy method.
* Philosophical Magazine, vol. xv. p. 252. 
Analysis of Water.       55
             EXPERIMENT.

  Put any measured quantity of the water
into a platina, or silver evaporating  basin,
the weight of which is known, and  evapo-
rate the water upon a steam bath, at a tem-
perature of about 180°, nearly to dryness ;
and,lastly, remove the basin to a sand bath,
and let the mass  be  evaporated to perfect
dryness.  The  weight  of the platina  ba-
sin  being already known, we have only
to weigh it carefully.  When the solid sa-
line contents of the water is attached to it,
the increase of weight gives the quantity of
solid matter contained in a given  quan-
tity of the water.

             EXPERIMENT.

  Pour upon the saline contents a quantity
of distilled water equal to that in which the
obtained salts were  originally dissolved.
If the whole saline matter become dissolv-
ed in this water,  there is reason to believ«
that  the saline matter has not been altered
during the evaporation of the water.  But
if a portion remain undissolved, as is usu-
ally the case, then  we may conclude that
some of the salts have mutually decom- 
5ft       Analysis of  Water.

posed each other, when brought into a con-
centrated state by the evaporation, and that
salts have been formed which did not ori-
ginally exist in the water before its  evapo-
ration.
  We have already mentioned that almost
the only salts contained in common waters,
are the carbonates, sulphates, and muriates,
of soda,  lime,  and  magnesia;  and some-
times a very  minute portion of iron. Hav-
ing determined the different acids and bases
present, in the manner stated at p. 49, we
may easily ascertain the relative weight of
each.
  The following formula suggested by Dr.
Murray,*  is fully as  accurate  a means of
analysing waters as any other, and it is easy
of execution.  The  weight of the saline
ingredients of a given quantity of water be-
ing  determined, we  may proceed to the
accurate  analysis of it   in the following
manner.

              EXPERIMENT.

   Measure out a determinate volume of the
   * Transactions  of the  Royal Society of
Edinburgh, vol. viii. p. 259. 
Analysis of  Water.       57
water (as 500 or 1000 cubic inches,) and
evaporate it gradually, in an unglazed open
vessel defended from dust, to one third of
its original bulk ; then divide this evapo-
rated liquid into three equal portions.
              EXPERIMENT.

  Drop into the first portion, muriate of ba-
rytes ; wash the precipitate, collect it, dry
it at  a red  heat  upon platina  foil, and
weigh it; digest it in nitric acid, dry it, and
weigh it again.   The loss of weight indi-
cates the quantity of carbonate of barytes
which the precipitate contained.   The  re-
sidual weight is Sulphate of  barytes ;  the
carbonic acid in the water is  equivalent to
0,22 of the weight of the carbonate of  ba-
rytes ; the sulphuric acid to  0,339 of  the
weight of the sulphate of barytes.
              EXPERIMENT.

  Precipitate the second portion of the con-
centrated water,  by the addition of nitrate
of silver ;  wash the precipitate, dry it, and
fuse it on apiece of foil platina, previously
weighed.   By weighing the foil containing 
58       Analysis of  Water.
the fused chloride of silver, the weight of
the precipitate may  be  ascertained.  The
fourth part of this weight is  equivalent to
the weight  of the muriatic acid contained
in the portion of water precipitated.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Precipitate the third portion of the water
by  the  addition  of oxalate of ammonia ;
wash and dry the precipitate ; expose it to
a red heat, on a platina foil, or in a capsule
of platina; pour on it some dilute sulphuric
acid ; digest for some time, then evaporate,
to dryness,  expose  the capsule to a pretty
strong heat, and, lastly, weigh the sulphate
of lime thus produced : 0.453 of its weight
indicate the  quantity of lime in the portion
of water precipitated.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Add to the same third portion of the wa-
ter  thus  freed  from lime,  a portion of a
solution of neutral carbonate of ammonia,
and then add phosphoric acid, dr pby drop
as long as any precipitate falls down.  Wash
the precipitate, dry  it, and  expose it to a 
Analysis of Water.        59
red heat in a platina capsule: it is phosphate
of magnesia.  0.357 of the weight of this
salt is equivalent to the weight of the mag-
nesia contained in the water.
             EXPERIMENT.

  If the water contain a minute portion of
iron, a quantity of it equal to one of the
three preceding portions, must bctakm and
mixed with a solution of benzoate of  am-
monia. The precipitate being washed, dried,
and exposed to a red heat, and  weighed,
nine-tenths of its weight indicate the weight
of protoxide of iron contained in the water.
  In this manner the quantity of all the
substances contained in the water will be
ascertained, except there be any soda. To
know the amount of it, the following me-
thod, pointed out by Dr. Murray, answers
very well.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Evaporate a portion of the water to one
third of its bulk.   Precipitate the carbonic
and sulphuric acids by the addition of mu-
riate of barytes, taking care not to add any
excess of the tests. 
 60      Deleterious Effects  of

   Precipitate the lime by oxalate of ammo-
 nia, and the magnesia by carbonate of am-
 monia and  phosphoric acid.  (Page  52.)
 Then evaporate the  liquid thus  treated to
 dryness.  A quantity of common salt will
 remain : let this be exposed to a red heat^
 0.4 of its weight indicate the sodium con-
 tained in the bulk of water employed ; and
 0.4 sodium are equivalent to 0.53 of soda.
   It seems hardly requisite to mention some
 other  substances  that  occasionally make
 their appearance in the waters used for do-
 mestic purposes.  A fine divided sand is
 a common constituent, which is easily ob- <
 tained in a separate state.  We  have only
 to evaporate a  portion of the water to dry-
 ness,  and redissolve the saline residue in
 distilled water.  The silicious  sand remains
 undissolved, and betrays itself by its inso-
 lubility in acids, and its easy fusibility into
 a transparant glass, with soda,  before the
 blow-pipe.


-DELETERIOUS EFFECTS  OF KEEPING WA-
  TER  FOR OOMESTIC ECONOMY IN LEADEN
  Rt.SERVOlRS.

   The deleterious effect of lead, when ta-
 ken into the stomach, is at present so uni-
 versally known, that it is quite unnecessary 
           Lead on  Water.        61

to adduce  any argument in proof of its
dangerous tendency.
  The  ancients were, upwards of  2000
years ago, as well aware  of the pernicious
quality  of this metal  as we are at the pre-
sent day; and indeed they appeared to have
been much more apprehensive of its effects,
and scrupulous in the application of it to
purposes of domestic  economy.
  Their precautions may have been occa-
sionally carried to an unnecessary  length.
This  was the natural consequence of the
imperfect state of experimental knowledge
at that period.  When men where unable
to detect the poisonous matters—to be over
scrupulous in the use of such water, was an
error on the right side.
  The moderns, on the other hand, in part,
perhaps, from an ill-founded confidence,
and inattention to a careful and continued
examination of its effects, have fallen into
an opposite error.
  There can be no doubt that the mode of
preserving water intended for food or drink
in leaden reservoirs, is exceedingly impro-
per ; and although pure water exercises no
sensible action upon metallic lead, provided
air be excluded, the metal is certainly acted
on by the water when  air is admitted : this
                   F 
62     Deleterious Effects of

effect is so obvious, that it cannot  escape
the notice of the least attentive observer. ^
  The white line which may be seen at the
surface of the water preserved in  leaden
cisterns, where the metal touches the water
and where the air is admitted, is a carbonate
of lead, formed at the expense  of the metal.
This  substance,  when taken  into the sto-
mach, is highly deleterious to health. This
was the reason which induced the ancients
to condemn leaden pipes  for  the convey.
ance of water ;  it having been  remarked!
that persons who swallowed the  sediment
of such water, became  affected with dis-
orders of the bowels.*
  Leaden water reservoirs were condemn-
ed in ancient times by Hyppocrates, Galen,
snd Vitruvius,  as  dangerous: in addition
to which, we may depend on  the observa-
tions of Van Swieten, Tronchin, and others,
who have quoted  numerous  unhappy ex-
amples of whole families poisoned by wa-
ter which had remained in  reservoirs of
lead.  Dr.  Johnston,  Dr.  Percival, Sir
George Baker, and Dr. Lamb, have like-
wise recorded  numerous instances  where
dangerous diseases ensued from  the use of
water impregnated with lead.

  * Sir G. Baker, Med. Trans,  vol. i. p. 280. 
Lead on  Water.        63
  Different  potable waters  have unequal
solvent  powers on  this metal.   In some
places the use of leaden pumps has been
discontinued,  from the  expense entailed
upon the proprietors by the  constant want
of repair.   Dr. Lamb* states an instance
where the proprietor of a well ordered his
plumber to  make  the lead  of a pump of
double the thickness  of the metal usually
employed for pumps, to save the charge of
repairs ; because he had observed that the
water was so hard, as he called  it, that it
corroded the lead very soon.
  The following instance is  related by Sir
George Baker :f
  " A gentleman was the father of a numer-
ous offspring,  having  had one-and-twenty
children,  of whom eight died young, and
thirteen  survived  their parents.   During
their infancy,  and  indeed until they had
quitted the place of their usual  residence,
they were all remarkably unhealthy ; being
particularly  subject to disorders of the sto-
mach and bowels. The father, during many-
years, was paralytic ;  the  mother, for a
long time, was subject to colics and bilious
obstructions.
* Lamb on Spring Water.
f Medical  Trans, vol. i. p. 420. 
64      Deleterious Effects of

   " After the death of the parents, the fa-
mily sold the house which they had so long
inhabited.   The purchaser found it neces-
sary to repair the  pump.   This was made
of  lrad ;  which,  upon examination was
found to be  so corroded, that several perfo-
rations were observed  in  the  cylinder, in
which the bucket plays ; and the cistern is
the upper part was reduced to the thinness
of common brown paper, and was full of
holes, like a sieve."
  I have myself seen numerous instances
where leaden cisterns have been completely
corroded by the action of water with whiclj
they were in contact: and there is, perhaps,
not a plumber who cannot give testimony of
having experienced numerous similar in-
stances in the practice of his trade.
  I have  been frequently called upon  to
examine leaden cisterns, which had become
leaky on account of the action of the water
which they contained ; and I could  adduce
an instance  of a  legal controversy having
taken place  to settle the disputes between
the proprietors of an estate and a plumber,
originating  from a  similar cause—the
plumber being accused of having furnished
a faulty reservoir; whereas the case was
proved to  be owing to the chemical action
of the water on the lead.   Water contain- 
Lead on Water.         65
 ing a  large  quantity of  common  air and
 carbonic acid gas, always acts very sensibly
 on  metallic lead.
  Water, which has no sensible action, in
 its natural state, upon lead, may acquire
the capability of acting on it by heteroge-
neous  matter, which it may accidentally re-
ceive.   Numerous instances have shewn
that vegetable matter, such as leaves, falling
into leaden  cisterns filled with water, im-
 parted to the water a considerable solvent
 power of action on the lead, which, in its
natural state  it did not possess.  Hence the
necessiry of keeping leaden cisterns clean ;
 and this is the more  necessary, as their
 situations expose them to accidental impu-
 rities.   The  noted  saturnine colic  of Am-
 sterdam, described by Tronchin, originated
from such a  circumstance ; as also the case
related by Van Swieten,*of a whole family
afflicted with  the  same  complaint, from
such a cistern.  And it is highly probable
that the case of disease  recorded by Dr.
Duncan,f proceeded more from some foul-
ness in the cistern, than from  the  solvent
  * Van Swieten ad Boerhaave, Aphorisms,
1060, Comment.
  t Medical Comment, Dec. 2, 1794.
                  F 2 
66      Deleterious Effects of

power of the water.  In this instance the
officers of the packet boat used water for
their drink and  cooking out of a leaden
cistern, whilst the sailors used  the  water
taken from  the  same source, except that
theirs  was kept in wooden vessels.   The
consequence was, that all the officers were
seized with the colic, and all the men con-
tinued healthy.
  The carelessness of the bulk of mankind,,
Dr.  Lambe  very justly observes, to these
things, " is  so great, that to  repeat them
again and  again  cannot  be wholly use-
less."
  Although the  great majority of persons
who daily use water kept in leaden cisterns
receive no sensible injury, yet the apparent
salubrity  must  be ascribed to the  great
slowness of  its operation, and  the  minute-
ness of the dose  taken, the effects of which
become modified  by  different causes and
differe nt constitutions, and according to the
predisposition to  diseases inherent in dif-
ferent individuals.  The supposed security
of the multitude who  use the water with
impunity, amounts to no  more  than pre-
sumption, in  favour of  any individual,
which  may  or may not  be confirmed by
experience.
  Independent of the morbid susceptibility 
Lead on Water.         67
 of impressions  which  distinguish certain
 habits, there is, besides, much variety in
 the  original constitution  of the  human
 frame, of which we are totally ignorant.
   " The susceptibility or proneness to dis-
 ease of each individual, must be esteemed
 peculiar to himself.   Confiding to the ex-
 perience of others is a ground of security
 which may prove fallacious ; and  the dan-
 ger can with certainty be obviated only by
 avoiding its source.   And considering the
 various and complicated  changes of the
"human frame, under different circumstances
 and at different ages,  it is neither impos-
 sible  nor improbable  that the  substances
 tak>:i into the system at  one period, and
 even  for  a  series of  years, with apparent
 impunity may, notwithstanding, at another
 period, be eventually the occasion of dis-
 ease and of death.
   " The experience of a single person, or of
 many persons, however numerous, is  quite
 incompetent to the decision of a  question
of this nature.
   " The pernicious effects of an intemperate
 use of spiritous  liquors is not less certain
 because we  often see habitual  drunkards
 enjoy a state of good  health, and arrive at
 old age : and the same may be said of in-
 dividuals who indulge in vices of all kinds, 
68     Deleterious Effects,  $c.

evidently destructive  to  life;  many  of
whom, in spite of their bad habits, attain to
a vigorous old age."*
   In confirmation of these remarks, we ad-
duce the following account of the effect of
water contaminated by lead, given  by Sir
G. Baker:
   " The most remarkable  case on the sub-
ject  that now occurs to my memory, is that
of Lord Ashburnham"s family, in Sussex; to
which, spring water was supplied,  from a
considerable distance, in leaden pipes.  In
consequence, his Lordship's servants were
every year tormented with colic, and some
of them died.  An eminent physician,  of
Battle, who corresponded  with me  on the
subject, sent up some gallons of that water,
which were analysed by Dr. Higgins, who
reported that the water  had contained more
than the common quantity of carbonic acid-
and that he  found in  it lead  in solution^
which he attributed to the carbonic acid.
In consequence of this, Lord Ashburnham
substituted wooden for leaden  pipes ; and
from that time his family have had no par-
ticular complaints in their  bowels."
  Richmond, Sept. 27, 1802.
* Lambe on Spring Water. 
69
METHOD OF DETECTING LEAD, WHEN CON-
           TAINED IN WATER.

  One of the most delicate tests for detect-
ing lead, is water impregnated with sulphu-
retted  hydrogen gas, which instantly im-
parts to the fluid  containing the minutest
quantity of lead, a brown or blackish tinge.
  This test is so delicate that distilled wa-
ter, when condensed by a leaden pipe in a
still  tub, is affected b> it.   To  shew the
action of this test, the following experiments
will  serve.
              EXPERIMENT.

  Pour into a wine-glass containing  dis-
tilled water, an  equal  quantity  of water
impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen
gas : no change will take place ; but if a \
of a grain of acetate of lead (sugar of lead
of commerce), or any other preparation of
lead, be added, the mixture will instantly
turn brown and dark-coloured.
  To apply  this test, one part of the sus-
pected water  need merely to be mingled
with a like quantity of water impregnated
with sulphuretted hydrogen.  Or better, a 
70      Method of detecting

larger quantity, a gallon for example, of the
water may be concentrated by evaporation
to about half a pint, and then submitted to
the action of the test.
  Another and more efficient mode of ap-
plying this test, is, to pass a current of sul-
phuretted hydrogen gas  through the sus-
pected water in the following manner.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Take  a bottle  (a)  or Florence  flask,
adapt to the mouth of it a cork furnished
with a glass tube (b), bent at right angles;
let one leg of the tube be immersed in the
vial (c) containing the water to be examined;
as shewn in the following sketch.   Then
take one part of sulphuret of antimony of
commerce, break it into pieces of half the
size of split pease, put it into the flask, and 
Lead in  Water.         71
 pour upon it four parts of common concen-
 trated muriatic acid  (spirit of salt of com-
 merce).  Sulphuretted hydrogen gas will
.become disengaged from the  materials in
 abundance, and pass  through  the water in
 the vial (c). Let the  extrication of the gas
 be continued for about five minutes ;  and if
 the  minutest quantity of lead be  present,
 the  water  will acquire  a  dark-brown  or
 blackish tinge.   The extrication of the gas
 is facilitated by the application of a  gentle
 heat.
   The action of the sulphuretted hydrogen
 test, when applied in this manner, is asto-
 nishingly great;  for one part of acetate of
 lead may be detected by means of it, in
 20000 parts of water.*
  * See An Analysis of the Mineral  Waters
of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. Scudamore, p. 55.
  The application of the sulphuretted hydro-
gen test requires some precautions in those
cases where other  metals besides lead  may
be expected; because silver, quicksilver, tin,
copper, and several other metals, are affected
by it, as well as lead; but there  is no chance
of these metals being met  with in common
water.—-See Chemical Tests, third edition, p.
207. 
72       Method of det&cting
  Another test for readily detecting lead in
water, is sulphuretted chyazate of potash,
first pointed out as such by Mr. Porret. A
few drops of this re-agent, added to water
containing lead, occasion a white precipi-
tate, consisting of small brilliant scales of
a considerable lustre.
  Sulphate of potash, or sulphate of soda,
is likewise a very delicate test for detecting
minute portions of lead.  Dr. Thomson*
discovered, by means of it, one part of lead
in 100000 parts of water; and this acute
Philosopher considers it  as the most une-
quivocal test of lead  that we possess.   Dr.
Thomson remarks that " no other precipi-
tate can wen be confounded with it, except
sulphate of barytes ;  and there is no proba-
bility of the presence of barytes existing in
common water."
  Carbonate of potash, or carbonate of soda,
may also be used as agents to detect the
presence of lead.  By means of these salts
Dr. Thomson was enabled to detect the pre-
sence of a smaller quantity of lead in dis-
tilled water, than by the action of sulphu-
retted hydrogen.   But  the  reader must
  * Analysis of Tunbridge Wells Water, by
Dr. Scudamore, p. 55. 
Lead in  Water.         73
here be told, that the use of these tests can-
not be entrusted to an  unskilful hand ; be-
cause the alkaline  carbonates throw down
also lime and  magnesia,  two  substances
which are  frequently  found  in common
water ; the former tests, namely, water im-
pregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas,
and  nascent sulphuretted  hydrogen, are
therefore preferable.
  It is absolutely  essential that the water
impregnated with  sulphuretted  hydrogen,
when employed as a test for detecting very
minute quantities of lead, be fresh  prepar-
ed ;  and  if sulphate of potash,  or sulphate
of soda, be  used as  tests,  they should  be
perfectly pure.  Sulphate of potash is pre-
ferable to sulphate of soda.  It is likewise
advisable to act with these tests upon wa-
ter concentrated by  boiling.  The water to
which the test has been  added does some-
times appear not to undergo any change at
first; it is therefore  necessary to suffer the
mixture  to  stand for  a few hours ; after
which time  the action of  the  test  will be'
more evident.  Mr.  Silvester* has  propos-
ed gallic acid as a delicate test for detecting
lead.
* Nicholson's Journal, p. 33, 310.
              G 
74
Adulteration of Wine.
   It is sufficiently  obvious, that  few of
those commodities, which are the objects.4
of commerce, are adulterated to a greater-
extent than wine.   All persons moderately
conversant with the subject, are aware, that
a portion of alum is  added to young and
meagre red wines, for the purpose of bright-
ening their  colour; that Brazil  wood,  of
the husks of elderberries and  bilberries,*™
are employed to impart a deep rich  purple!
tint to red Port  of a pale,  faint colour;
that gypsum is used to render cloudy white
wines transparent ;f  that an additional as-
  * Dried bilberries are imported from Ger-
many, under the fallacious name of berry-dye. -
  f Th.it gypsum had the property of clarify-
ing wines, was known to the ancients.  " The
Geeks, and Romms put gypsum in their new
wines, stirred it often round, then let it stand
for some  time; and when it had settled, de-
cuns<-d t> e cleur liquor. (Geofion, lib. vii. p.
483, 494.) They knew that the wine acquired, 
Adulteration of Wine.      75
tringency is imparted  to immature  red
wines  by means of  oak-wood sawdust,*
and the husks of filberts ; and that a mix-
ture  of  spoiled  foreign  and home-made
wines is converted into the wretched com-
pound frequently sold in this town by the
name of genuine old Port.
  Various expedients are resorted to for
the purpose of communicating particular
flavours to insipid wines.  Thus a nutty fla-
vour is produced  by bitter almonds ; facti-
tious Port wine is flavoured with a tincture
drawn from the seeds of raisins  ; and the
ingredients  employed to form the bouquet
of high-flavoured wines, are sweet-brier,
oris-root, clary,  cherry  laurel wate^r, and
elder-flowers.
  The flavouring ingredients used by ma-
nufacturers, may  all be purchased by those
dealers in wine  who are initiated  in the
mysteries of the trade ; and even a  manu-
script  recipe  book  for  preparing  them,
by this addition, a certain sharpness, which it
afterwards lost; but that the good effects of
the ejypsum were lasting."
  * Sawdust for  this purpose is chiefly sup-
plied by the ship-builders, and forms a regular
article of commerce of the brewers' druggists. 
76      Adulteration of Wine.

and the whole  mystery  of managing all
sorts of wines, may be obtained on payment
of a considerable fee.
  The sophistication of wine with substan-
ces not absolutely noxious to health, is carri-
ed to an enormous extent in this metropolis.
Many thousand pipes of spoiled cyder are
annually brought hither from the country,
for the purpose of being converted into fac-
titious Port wine.  The art of manufacturing
spurious wine is a regular trade of great
extent in this  metropolis.
  " There is,  in this city, a certain fraterni-
ty of chemical operators, who work under- *
ground in  holes, caverns, and  dark retire-
ments, to conceal  their mysteries from the
eyes and observation of mankind.  These
subterraneous philosophers are  daily em-
ployed in the  transmutation of liquors, and
by the power of magical drugs and incanta-
tions, raising  under the streets of London
the choicest products of the  hills and val-
leys of France.   They can squeeze Bour-
deaux out of the sloe, and draw Champ -gne
from an apple. Virgil,  in  that remarkable
prophecy,

    Incukisque ruhens pendebit sentibus uva.
                           Viig.  Eel. iv. 29.
The ripening grape shall hang on every thorn. 
Adulteration of Wine.      77
seems to have hinted at this art, which can
turn a plantation of  northern hedges into a
vineyard.  These adepts are known among
one another by the name of Wine-brewers;
and, I am afraid, do great injury, not only
to her Majesty's customs, but to'the bodies
of many of her good subjects."*
   The following are a few of the recipes
employed in the manufacture of  spurious
wine :

  To make British Port Wine.\—" Take of
British gr. pe wine, or good cyder, 4 gallons ;
of the juice of red beet root two quarts; bran-
dy, two quarts ; logwood 4 ounces ; rhatany
root, bruised, half a pound: first infuse the log-
wood and rhatany root in brandy, and a gallon
of grape wine or cyder for  one week;  then
strain off the liquor, and mix it with  the other
ingredients; keep it  in a cask for  a  month,
when it will be fit to bottle."

  British Champagne.—" Take of white sugar,
8 pounds ; the whitest brown sugar, 7 pounds,
crystalline lemon acid, or tartaric acid, 1 ounce
and a quarter, pure water,  8 gallons ; white
* Tatler, vol. viii. p. 110, edit. 1797. 8vo.
t Dr. Reece's Gazette of Health, No. 7.
                 G2 
78      Adulteration of Wine.
 grape wine, swo quar«s, or perry, 4 quarts; of
 French brandy, 3 pints."
   "Put the sujjar in the  water, skimming it
 bccasionally for two hours, then pour it into a
 tub and  dissolve in it  the acid; before  it is
 cold, add some yeas- and ferment   Put it into
 a clean cask and  add the  other  ingredients.
 The cask is then to be well bunged, and kept
 in a cool place for two or three months ; then
 bottle it and keep it cool for a month longer,
 when it will be fit for use.  If it should not be
 perfectly clear after stan ting in the cask two
 or three  months, it  should  be rendered 3o by
 the use of isinglass.  P,y adding I lb. of fresh
 or preserved  strawberries, and 2  ounces of
 powdered cochineal, the  pink Champagne  may
 be made."

   Southampton Port.*—•" Take cyder, 36 gal-
 lons ;  elder wine,  11 gallons;  brandy. 5  gal-
 lons ; damson wine, 11  gallons ; mix."

  The particular and separate department
in this factitious wine trade, called crusting,
consists  in  lining  the  interior  surface of
empty wine-bottles, in part, with a red crust
of super-tartrate of potash, by  suffering a
saturated hot solution of this salt, coloured
* Supplement to the Pharmacopoeias, p. 245. 
Adulteration of  Wine.      79
  red with a  decoction  of Brazil-wood, to
  crystallize within them ;  and after this si-
  mulation of maturity  is perfected,  they
  are filled with  the compound called  Port
  wine.
    Other artisans are regularly employed in
  staining the lower extremities  of bottle-
  corks with a fine red colour, to appear, on
  being drawn, as if they had been long in
  contact with the wine.
    The preparation of an astringent extract,
  to  produce,  from spoiled home-made and
  foreign wines, a " genuine old  Port," by
  mere admixture ; or to impart to a weak
  wine a rough austere taste,  a fine colour,
  and a peculiar flavour ;  forms one branch of
  the  business of particular wine-coopers :
  while the mellowing and restoring of spoil-
  ed white wines, is the sole occupation of
  men  who are called refiners of wine.
    We have stated that a crystalline crust
  is formed on the interior surface  of bottles,
  for the purpose of misleading the unwary
  into  a  belief that the  wine  contained in
^them is of a certain age.  A correspondent
  operation is performed on the wooden cask ;
  the whole interior of which is stained arti-
  ficially with a  crystalline crust  of super-
  tartrate of potash, artfully affixed in a man-
  ner precisely similar to that before stated. 
80      Adulteration of  Wine.
Thus the wine-merchant, after bottling off
a pipe of wine, is enabled to impose on the
understanding of his customers, by taking
to pieces the cask, and exhibiting the beau-
tiful  dark  coloured  and  fine  crystalline
crust, as an indubitable proof of the age of
the wine; a practice  by no means uncom-
mon, to  flatter  the vanity of those who
pride themselves in their acute discrimina-
tion of  wines.
   These  and  many other sophistications,
which have long been practised with impu-
nity, are considered as legitimate by those
who pride themselves for their skill in the
art of managing,  or, according to the fa-
miliar phrase, doctoring wines.  The plea
alleged  in exculpation  of them, is, that,
though  deceptive, they are harmless :  but
even admitting this as a palliation, yet they
form only one department of  an art which
includes other processes of a  tendency ab-
solutely criminal.
   Several  well-authenticated facts have
convinced me that the adulteration of wine
with substances deleterious to health, is
certainly practised oftener than is, perhaps,
suspected; and  it would be  easy to give
some  instances  of very  serious  effects
having  arisen from  wines contaminated
with  deleterious substances,  were this a
subject on which I meant  to speak.   The 
        Adulteration of  Wine.     84

following statement is  copied from the
Monthly Magazine for March 1811,p. 188.
  "On the 17th of January,  the  passen-
gers by the Highflyer coach, from the
north, dined, as usual, at Newark. A bot-
tle of Port wine was ordered ; on tasting
which, one of the passengers observed that
it had an unpleasant flavour, and  begged
that it might be changed. The waiter took
away the bottle, poured into a fresh decan-
ter  half the wine which had been  objected
to,  and filled it  up from  another bottle.
This he took into the room, and the greater
part was drank  by the passengers,  who,
after the coach had set out towards Gran-
tham,  were  seized with extreme sickness;
one gentleman in particular, who had taken
more of the  wine  than the  others, it was
thought would have died, but has since re-
covered. The half of the bottle of wine sent
out of the passengers' room, was put  aside
for  th>j purpose of  mixing negus.  In the
evening, Mr. Bland, of Newark, went into
the  hotel, and drank a glass or two of wine
and water.  He returned home at his  usual
hour, and went to  bed ; in  the middle of
the  night he was taken so  ill, as to induce
Mrs. Bland  to send for his brother, an apo-
thecary in the town ;  but before that gen-
tleman arrived, he was dead.  An inquest
was held, and the jury, after the fullest en- 
 82      Adulteration of Wine.

 quiry, and the examination of the surgeons
 by whom the body was opened, returned a
 verdict of—Died by Poison."
   The most dangerous adulteration of wine
 is by some preparations of lead, which pos-
 sess the property of  stopping the progress
 of acescence of wine,  and also of render-
 ing white wines, when muddy, transparent.
 I  have good reason to state that lead, is cer-
 tainly employed for this purpose.  The ef-
 fect  is v.ry rapid ; and there appears to be
 no other method known,  of  rapidly reco-
 vering ropy wines.   Wine merchants per-
 suade themselves that the minute quantity
 of lead employed for that purpose is per-
 fectly harmless, and that  no atom of lead
 remains  in the  wine.   Chemical analysis
 proves the contrary; and the  practice of
 clarifying spoiled white wines by means of
 lead, must be pronounced as highly dele-
 terious.
   Lead, in whatever state it be taken into
 the  stomach, occasions terrible  diseases;
 and  wine, adulterated with the minutest
 quantity of it, becomes a slow poison. The
 merchant or dealer who practises this dan-
 gerous sophistication,  adds the  crime  of
 murder to  that of fraud,  and deliberately
 scatters the seeds  of disease and  death
among those consumers who contribute to
his emolument.   If  to debase  the current 
Adulteration of Wine.      83
coin of the realm be denounced as a capital
offence, what punishment should be award-
ed  against a practice  which converts into
poison a liquor  used for sacred  purposes.
  Dr. Watson* relates, that the method of
adulterating  wine  with  lead, was at one
time a common practice in  Paris.
  Dr. Warrenf states an instance of thirty-
two persons having become  severely ill,
after drinking  white wine  that  had been
adulterated with lead.  One of them died,
and one became paralytic.
  In Graham's Treatise on Wine-Making,i:
under the article of Secrets, belonging to
the mysteries of vintners, p. 31, lead is re-
commended to prevent wine from becoming
acid. The following lines are copied from
Mr.  Graham's work:
  * Chemicl Essays, vol. viii. p 369.
  t Medical Trcins. vol. ii. p. 80.
  | This book,  which has tun through many
editions, may be supposed to  have done some
mischief.—In the Vintner's Guide, 4th edit.
1770, p. 67, a lump <fsug.tr of lead, of the
size of a walnut, and  a table-spoonful of sal
enixum,  aie directed  to >>e  added  to a tierce
(forty-two gallons)  of muddy wine, to cure it
of its muddiness. 
84     Adulteration of  Wine.
      " To hinder Wine from turning.
   " Put  a pound  of  melted lead,  in  fair
water, into  your  cask,  pretty warm,  and'
stop it close."

         " To soften Grey Wine.
   " Put in a little  vinegar wherein litharge
has been well steeped, and boil some honey,
to draw out the  wax.  Strain it through a
cloth, and put a  quart of it into a tierce of
wine, and this will mend it."

   The ancients  knew that lead rendered
harsh wines milder, and preserved it from
acidity, without being aware that it was per-
nicious : it was  therefore long used with
confidence ;  and when its effects were dis-
covered, they were  not ascribed to that
metal, but to some other cause.*  When
the Greek  and  Roman wine merchants
wished  to try  whether  their wine was
spoiled, they immersed in it a plate of lead;f
if the colour  of the lead were corroded,
they concluded that their wine was spoiled.
   * Beckman's History of Inventions, vol. i.
p. 398.
   t Pliny, lib. xiv. cap. 20. 
Adulteration of Wine.       85
Wine may  become accidentally impreg-
nated with lead.
  It is well known that  bottles in which
wine  has been kept, are usually cleaned
by means of shot, which by its rolling mo-
tion detaches the super-tartrate of potash
from the sides of the bottles.   This prac-
tice, which  is generally  pursued by wine-
merchants, may give rise to serious conse-
quences,  as  will become evident from the
following case :*
  " A gentleman who had never in his life
experienced a day's illness,  and who was
constantly in the  habit of drinking half a
bottle of Madeira wine after his dinner, was
taken ill, three hours after dinner, with a se-
vere pain in the stomach arid violent bowel
colic, which gradually yielded within twelve
hours to the remedies  prescribed by  his
medical adviser.   The day following he
drank the remainder of  the same bottle of
wine which was left the  preceding day, and
within two hours afterwards he was again
seized with the  most violent  colliquative
pains, headach, shiverings, and great pain
over the  whole body.  His apothecary  be-
coming  suspicious  that the wine he had
  * Philosophical Magazine, 1819, No. 257,
p. 229.
                   H 
86      Adulteration of Wine.

drank might  be the  cause of the disease,
ordered the bottle from which the wine had
been decanted to be brought to him, with
a view that he might examine the dregs, if
any were left. The bottle happening to slip
out of  the hand of the servant, disclosed a
row of shot wedged forcibly into the angu-
lar bent-up circumference of  it.    On ex-
amining the beads of  shot, they crumbled
into dust, the outer crust (defended by a
coat of black lead with which the shot is
glazed) being alone left unacted on, whilst
the remainder of the  metal was dissolved/
The wine, therefore, had become  contami-
nated with lead and arsenic, the shot being
a compound of these metals, which no doubt
had produced the mischief."
TEST FOR DETECTING THE DELETERIOUS
       ADULTERATIONS OF WINE.

  A ready re-agent for detecting the pre-
sence of  lead, or any other deleterious me-
tal in wine, is known  by the name of the
wine test.  It consists of water saturated
with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, acidulated
with muriatic acid. By adding one part of
it, to two of wine, or  any other liquid
suspected to contain lead, a dark coloured 
Adulteration of Wine.      87
or black precipitate will fall down, which
does hot disappear by an addition  of  mu-
riatic acid ; and this precipitate, dried and
fused before  the  blowpipe on a piece  of
charcoal, yields a  globule of metallic lead.
This  test does not precipitate iron; the
muriatic acid  retains iron in solution when
combined with sulphuretted hydrogen ; and
any acid in  the wine has no effect in preci-
pitating any of the  sulphur of the test liquor.
Or a still more efficacious method is, to pass
a current of  sulphuretted  hydrogen gas
through the wine,  in the  manner described,
p. 70, having previously acidulated the wine
with muriatic acid.
  The wine test sometimes employed is pre-
pared in the following manner:-—Mix equal
parts  of finely powdered sulphur  and  of
slacked quick-lime, and expose it to a red heat
for twenty minutes.  To thirty-six grains of
this sulphuret  of lime, add twenty-six grains
of super-tartrate of potassa; put the mixture
into an ounce bottle, and fill up the bottle
with water that has been previously boiled,
and suffered to cool.   The liquor, after hav-
ing been repeatedly shaken,  and allowed  to
become clear, by the subsidence of the un-
dissolved matter, may then  be poured  into
another phial, into which about twenty drops
of muriatic  acid have been previously  put. 
88       Adulteration of Wine.
It is then readv for use.  This test, when
mingled with wine containing lead or cop-
per, turns the wine of a dark-brown or black
colour.   But the mere application  of  sul-
phuretted hydrogen gas to wine, acidulated
by muriatic acid, is a far more preferable
mode of detecting lead in wine.
  M. Vogel* has lately recommended  ace-
tate of lead as a test for detecting extraneous
colours in red wine.  He remarks, that none
of the substances that can be employed for
colouring wine, such as the berries of the
Vaccinium Mirtillus (bilberries), elderber-
ries, and Campeach  wood, produce with
genuine red wine, a greenish grey precipi-
tate, which is the colour that is procured by
this test by means of genuine red wines.
  Wine coloured with the juice of the bil-
berries, or elderberries, or Campeach wood,
produces, with acetate of lead, a  deep  blue
precipitate ;  and Brazil-wood, red saun-
ders, and the red beet, produce a colour
which is precipitated red by acetate of lead.
Wine coloured by beet root is also rendered
colourless by lime water;  but the weakest
acid brings back the colour.  As the colour-
  * Journ.  Pharm. iv. 56. (Feb. 1818.) and
Thomson's  Annals, Sept. 1818, p. 232. 
Analysis of Wine.        89
ing matter of red wines resides in the skin
of the grape, M. Vogel prepared a quantity
of skins, and reduced them to powder.  In
this state he found that they communicated
to alcohol a  deep  red colour:  a  paper
stained  with this colour was rendered red
by acids and green by alkalies.
  M. Vogel made a quantity of red wine
from black grapes, for the purpose of his ex-
periments ; and this  produced the genuine
greyish green  precipitate with acetate of
lead.   He also  found  the same coloured
precipitate in  two specimens of red wine,
the  genuineness of which could  not be sus-
pected ; the one from Chateau-Marguaux,
and the other  from the neighbourhood of
Coblentz.
SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES, A.ND COMPONENT
            PARTS OF WINE.

  Every body knows that no product of
the arts varies  sol much as wine ; that dif-
ferent countries, and sometimes the different
provinces of the same country, produce dif-
ferent wines.  These differences, no doubt,
must be attributed chiefly to the climate
in which the vineyard is situated—to its cul-
ture—the quantity of sugar contained in the
                   H2 
90        Analysis of Wine.
grape juice—the manufacture of the wine ;
or the mode of suffering its fermentation
to be accomplished.   If the grapes be ga-
thered unripe, the wine abounds with acid ;
but if the fruit be gathered  ripe, the  wine
will be rich.   When the proportion of sugar
in the grape is sufficient, and the fermenta-
tion  complete, the wine is perfect and ge-
nerous.  If the quantity of sugar be too
large, part of it remains undecomposed, as
the fermentation is languid, and the wine is
sweet and luscious ;  if, on the contrary, it
contains, even when full ripe, only a small
portion of sugar, the wine is thin and weak;
and if it be bottled before the fermentation
be completed, part of the sugar remains un-
decomposed, the fermentation will go on
slowly in  the bottle, and, on  drawing the
cork, the  wine sparkles in  the  glass ;  as,
for example, Champagne.  Such wines are
not sufficiently mature.   When the must is
separated  from the husk of the  red  grape
before it is fermented, the wine has little or
no colour:  these are  called white wines.
If, on the contrary,  the husks are allowed
to remain in the must while the  fermenta-
tion is going on, the alcohol dissolves the
colouring matter of the husks, and the wine
is coloured :  such  are  called red wines.
Hence white wines are often prepared from 
Analysis of Wine.
91
red grapes, the liquor being drawn off be-
fore it has acquired the red colour ; for the
skin of the  grape only gives the colour.
Besides in these principal circumstances,
wines vary much in flavour.
  All wines contain one common and iden-
tical principle, from  which  their similar
effects are produced ; namely, brandy or
alcohol.  It is  especially  by the  different
proportions  of brandy contained  in wines,
that they differ most from  one  another.
When wine is distilled, the alcohol readily
separates.  The spirit thus obtained is well
known under the name of brandy.
  All wines contain also a free acid ; hence
they  turn blue  tincture of cabbage, red.
The acid found in the greatest abundance
in grape wines,  is tartaric acid.  Every
wine contains likewise a portion of super-
tartrate of potash,  and extractive matter,
derived from the juice of the grape. These
substances deposit  slowly in  the  vessel in
which they are kept.  To  this is owing the
improvement  of wine from  age.  Those
wines which effervesce or froth, when pour-
ed into  a glass, contain also carbonic acid,
to which  their briskness  is  owing.   The
peculiar flavour and odour of different kinds
of wines probably depend upon the presence
of a volatile oil, so small in quantity that it
cannot be separated. 
92        Analysis of Wine.
EASY METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE QU AN-
  TITY OF BRANDY CONTAINED IN VARIOUS
  SORTS OF WINE.

  The strength of all wines depends upon
the quantity  of  alcohol  or  brandy which
they contain.  Mr. Brande, and Gay-Lussac,
have proved, by very decisive experiments,
that all wines contain brandy or  alcohol
ready formed.  The following is the pro-
cess discovered by Mr. Brande, for ascer-
taining the quantity of spirit,  or  brandy,
contained in different sorts of wine.
             EXPERIMENT.

  Add  to eight parts, by measure, of the
wine to  be examined, one part of a concen-
trated solution  of sub-acetate 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 nitre,
and collect  the  filtered fluid.   It contains
the brandy or spirit, and water of the wine,
together with a portion of the sub-acetate of 
Analysis of Wine.        QS
 lead.  Add, in small quantities at a time, to
 this fluid, warm, dry, and pure sub-carbo-
 nate of potash (not salt of tartar,  or sub-
 carbonate of potash of commerce), which
 has previously been freed  from water by
 heat, till the last portion added remains un-
 dissolved.   The brandy or spirit contained
 in the fluid will become separated ; for the
 sub-carbonate of potash abstracts from itthe
 whole of the water with which it was com-
 bined ; the brandy or spirit of wine forming
 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 diame-
 ter, and graduated into 100 equal parts, the
per centage of spirit, in a given quantity of
 wine, may be  read off  by mere inspection.
 In this manner  the strength of any wine
 may be examined. 
Quantity of Brandy
Tabular View,  exhibiting  the Per Centage
  of Brandy or Jitcohol* contained in various
  kinds  of Wines, and other fermented Li-
  quors.]
 Lissa
 Ditto
   Average
 Raisin Wine
 Ditto
 Diito
   Average
 Marqella
 Ditto
   Average
 Madeira
 Ditto
 Ditto (Sercial)
 Ditto
   Average
Port
Ditto
Ditto
Proportion of Spirit
         per cent.
      by measure.
26.47
24,35
25,41
26.40
25,77
23.30
25,12
26,03
25.05
25,09
24.42
23.93
21,40
19.24
22,27
25,83
24,29
23,71
Proportion of Spirit
         per cent.
      by measure.
           23,39
Port
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto
  Average
Sherry  -
D.tto
Ditto
Ditto
  A verage
Teneriffe
Colares
Lachryma Christi
22,30
21,40
19,96
22,96
19,81
19,83
18,79
18,25
19,17
19,7?
19,75
19,70
Constantia(White) 19,75
Ditto (Red)   -    18.92
Lisbon  -    .    18,94
Malag.  (1666)    18,94
Bucellas     -    18,49
  *  Of a Specific Gravity, 825.
  t  Philosophical Trans.  1811, p. 345;  1813,
p. 87;  Journal of Science and the Arts, No.
vm.  p.  290.                               ' 
Contained in  Wine.         95
Red Madeira	22,30
Ditto	18,40
Average	20,35
Cape Muschat	18,25
Cape Madeira	22,94
Ditto	20,50
Ditto	18,11
Average	20.51
Grape wine	18 11
Calcavella	19,20
Ditto	18,10
Average	18,65
Vidonia	19,25
Alba Flora	17,26
Malaga	17,26
Her m i t age( White	) 17,43
Ronssillon	19,00
Ditto	17,20
Average	18,13
Claret -	17,11
Ditto	16,32
Ditto	14.08
Ditto	12,91
Average	15,10
Malmsey Madeira	16.40
Lunel	15,52
Sheraaz	15,52
Syracuse	15,28
Sauterne	14,22
Burgundy	16,60
Ditto	15,22
Ditto	14,53
Ditto	11,95
Average	14,57
Hock	14,37
Ditto	13,00
Hock (old in cask)  8,68
  Average    -     12.08
Nice    -    .     14^2
Bnrsac  -    .     13 86
Tent    -    .     13,30
Champagne (Still)  13 80
Ditto (Sparkling)  12 80
Dito (R.d)  .     12,56
Di to (ditto) -     11,30
  Average    -     12,61
Red  Hermitage    12,32
Vin  de Grave      13 94
Ditto   -'    -     12,80
  Average    -     13,37
Frontignac    -     12,79
Cote Rotie    -     12,32
Gooseberry Wine  11,84
Currant Wine     20,55
Orange Wine aver.  11,26
Tokay  -    -     9,88
Elder Wine  -     9,87
Cyder highest aver. 9,87
Ditto lowest ditto  5,21
Perry average     7,26
Mead    -     -    7,32
Ale (Burton)  -    8,88
Ditto (Edinburgh)  6,20
Ditto (Dorchester) 5.50
  Average    -     6,87
Brown Stout -    6,80
London Porter aver. 4,20
Do. Small Beer, do. 1,28
Brandy  -    -     53,39
Rum    -    -     53,68
Gin     -    -     51,60
Scotch Whiskey    54,32
Irish ditto    -     53,90 
96       Adulteration of  Wine.
  CONSTITUTION OF HOME-MADE WINES,

  Besides grapes, the most valuable of the
articles of which wine is made, there are a
considerable number of fruits from which
a vinous liquor is obtained.   Of such, we
have  in this country the  gooseberry,  the
currant, the  elderberry, the  cherry,  &c.
which ferment well, and affords what  are
called home-made wines.
  They differ chiefly from foreign wines in
containing a much larger quantity of acid.
Dr.  Macculloch*  has  remarked that  the
acid in home-made wines is principally the
malic acid ; while in grape wines it is  the
tartaric acid.
  The great deficiency in these  wines, in-
dependent  of the flavour,  which chiefly
originates, not from the juice, but from the
seeds and husks of the fruits, is the excess
of acid, which is but imperfectly concealed
by the addition of sugar.  This is owing,
  * Macculloch on Wine.   This is by far the
best Tre  ise published in this country on the
Manufacture of Home-made Wines. 
Adulteration of Wine.       97
 chiefly, as Dr. Macculloch remarks, to the
 tartaric acid existing in the grape juice  in
 the state of super-tartrate of potash, which
 is in part decomposed during the fermen-
 tation, and the rest becomes gradually pre-
 cipitated ; whilst  the malic acid exists  in
 the currant and gooseberry juice in the form
 of malate of potash; which salt does not
 appear to suffer a decomposition during the
 fermentation of the wine ; and, by its great-
 er solubility, is retained in the wine. Hence
 Dr. Macculloch recommends  the addition
 of super-tartrate of potash, in the manufac-
 ture of British wines.  'I hey also contain a
 much larger proportion  of mucilage than
 wines made from grapes. The juice of the
 gooseberry contains  some portion  of tar-
 taric acid ; hence it is better suited for the
 production of what is called English Cham-
pagne, than any other fruit of this country.
I 
98
Adulteration of Bread.
  This is one of the sophistications of the
articles of food most commonly practised
in this metropolis, where  the goodness of
bread is estimated entirely by its whiteness.
It is therefore usual to add a certain quan-
tity of alum  to the dough ; this improves
the look of the bread very much, and ren-
ders it whiter and firmer. Good, white, and
porous bread, may certainly be manufac-
tured from good wheaten  flour alone ;  but
to produce the degree of whiteness rendered
indipensable  by the caprice  of  the  con-
sumers in London,  it is necessary  (unless
the very  best  flour is employed,) that the
dough should be  bleached; and no  sub-
stance has hitherto been  found to  answer
this purpose better than alum.
  Without this salt it is impossible to make
bread, from the kind  of flour usually em-
ployed by the London bakers,  so white, as
that which is commonly sold in the  metro-
polis. 
Adulteration of Bread.     99
  If the alum be omitted, the bread has a
slight yellowish grey hue—as may be seen
in the instance of what is called home-made
bread, of private families.  Such bread re-
mains longer moist than bread made with
alum ; yet it is not so light, and full of eyes,
or porous, and it has also a different taste.
  The quantity of alum requisite to produce
the required whiteness and  porosity de-
pends entirely upon the  genuineness of the
flour, and  the  quality of the grain  from
which the flour is obtained.  The mealman
makes different sorts of flour from the same
kind of grain. The best flour is mostly used
by the hiscuit bakers and pastry cooks, and
the inferior sorts in  the making of bread.
The bakers* flour is very often made of
the worst kinds of damaged foreign wheat,
and other cereal grains  mixed with  them
in grinding the wheat into flour.  In this
capital, no  fewer than six distinct kinds of
wheaten  flour are  brought  into market.
They are called fine  flour, seconds, mid-
dlings, fine middlings,  coarse middlings,
and twenty-penny flour.   Common garden
beans, and pease, are also frequently ground
up among the London bread flour.
  I have been assured  by several  bakers,
on  whose  testimony  I  can  rely, that the
small profit attached to the bakers' trade, 
100   Adulteration of Bread.
and the bad quality of the flour, induces
the generality of the London bakers to use
alum in the making of their bread.
  The smallest quantity of alum  that can
be employed with effect to produce a white,
light, and porous bread, from an inferior
kind of flour, I have my own baker's au-
thority to state, is from three to four ounces
to a sack  of flour, weighing 240 pounds.
The alum is either mixed well in the form
of powder, with a quantity of flour pre-
viously made into a liquid paste with water,
and then incorporated with the dough ; or
the alum is dissolved in the water employ-
ed for mixing up the whole quantity of the
flour for making the dough.
  Let us  suppose that the baker intends1
to convert five  bushels,  or a sack of flour,
into loaves with the least adulteration prac-
tised. He pours the flour into the kneading
trough, and  sifts  it through a fine wire
sieve, which makes it lie very light, and
serves to separate any impurities with which
the flour may be mixed.   Two ounces of
alum  are then dissolved in about a quart of
boiling water,  and  the solution poured into
the seasoning-tub.   Four or five pounds
of salt are likewise put  into the tub, and a
pailful of hot-water. When this mixture has
cooled down to the temperature of about 
Adulteration of Bread.    101
84", three or four pints of yeast  are added;
the whole is mixed, strained through the
seasoning sieve, emptied into a hole in the
flour, and mixed up with the requisite por-
tion  of  it  to the  consistence  of a thick
batter.   Some dry flour  is then sprinkled
over the top, and it is covered up with
cloths.
  In  this situation  it is left about three
hours.   It   gradually swells  and  breaks
through  the dry flour scattered  on its sur-
face.  An additional quantity of warm wa-
ter, in which  one ounce of alum is dissolv-
ed, is now added,  and the  dough is made
up into a paste as before ; the whole is then
covered  up.  In this situation it is left for
a few hours.
  The whole is then intimately kneaded
with more water for upwards of an hour.
The dough is cut into pieces with a knife,
and  penned  to  one side of the trough ;
some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it
is left in this state for about four hours.  It
is then  kneaded again  for half-an-hour.
The dough  is  now cut into  pieces and
weighed, in order to furnish the requisite
quantity for each loaf. The loaves  are left
in the oven  about  two hours  and a half.
When taken out, they are carefully covered
                    12 
102    Adulteration of Bread.

up, to prevent as much as possible the loss
of weight.*
  The following account of making a sack,
of five bushels of flour into bread, is taken
  * The sack of marketable flour is by law
obliged  to weigh 240 pounds, which  is the
produce of five hushels of wheat, and is upon
an average supposed to make eighty quartern
loaves of bread;  and  consequently sixteen  of
such loaves  are  made from  each  bushel  of
good wheat.   It is admitted, however, that
two or three loaves more than the above quan-
tity can  be made from the Si.ck of flour, when
it is the genuine produce of good wheat ; that
is, in the proportion of about sixteen and a half
loaves from  each bushel of sound grain, and,
it may be  presumed, sixteen from  a  bushel
of medium corn.  The expense,  in London,
of making the sack of flour into  bread, and
disposing  of it, is about nine shillings.
  A bushel of wheat, upon an average, weighs
sixty-one  pounds; when  ground,  the meal
weighs  604  lbs.; which, on  being dressed,
produces 46| lbs. of flour, of the sort ealled
seconds  ; which alone is used for the making
of bread in London and throughout the greater
part of  this  country ;  and of pollard and bran
12| lbs., which quantity,  when bolted,  produ-
ces 3 lbs. of fine flour, this, when sifted, pro-
duces in good second flour \\ lb. 
Adulteration of Bread.    103
from Dr. P. Markham's Considerations on
the Ingredients used in the Adulteration of
Bread Flour, and Bread, p. 21 :
    5 bushels of flour,
    8 ounces of alum,*
    4 lbs. of salt,
    5 a gallon of yeast, mixed with about
    3  gallons of water.
                                     lbs.
The whole quantity of bread-flour ob-"J
  tained  from the bushel of  wheat, W   48
  weighs      ....    J
                             lbs.
      Fine pollard    .     .    4^
      Co rse pollard  .     .    4
      Bran      .    .     .    2|
                             ----      11
         The whole together  .     .    59
To which add  t!ie  loss of weighting     2
  manufacturing a bushel of wheat   5

         Produces the original weight   61

  * Whilst correcting this sheet for the press,
the printer  transmits to me the  following
lines :
  " On Saturday last, George Wood, a baker,
was convicted before  T. Evance, Esq. Union 
104b   Adulteration of Bread.
  The theory of the bleaching property of
alum, as manifested in the panification of
an inferior kind of flour, is  by no means
well understood ; and  indeed it is  really
surprising that the effect should  be pro-
duced by so small a quantity of that sub-
stance, two or three ounces of alum being
sufficient for a sack of  flour,
  From experiments in which I have been
employed, with the assistance  of skilful
bakers, I am authorised to state, that with-
out the addition of alum, it does not appear
possible to make white,  light,  and porous
bread, such as is used in this  metropolis,
unless the flour be of the very best quality.
  Another substance employed by fraudu-
lent bakers, is subcarbonate of ammonia.
With this salt, they realise  the important
consideration of producing light and porous
bread, from spoiled, or what is technically
called sour four.  This salt which becomes
wholly converted into a gaseous state dur-
ing the operation of baking,  causes the
dough  to swell up into air bubbles, which
Hall, of having in his possession a quantity of
alum for the adulteration of bread, and fined
in the penalty of Si. and costs, under 55 Geo.
III. c. 99."— The Times, Oct. 1819. 
Adulteration of Bread.    105
carry before them the stiff dough, and thus
it renders the dough porous ; the salt itself
is, at the same time, totally volatilised dur-
ing the operation of baking.   Thus not a
vestige of carbonate  of ammonia remains
in the bread. This salt is also largely em-
ployed by the  biscuit and  ginger-bread
bakers.
  Potatoes are likewise largely,  and  per-
haps constantly, used by fraudulent bakers,
as a cheap ingredient, to enhance their profit.
The potatoes  being boiled, are triturated,
passed through a sieve, and incorporated
with the  dough by kneading.   This adul-
teration  does   not  materially injure  the
bread.   The  bakers assert, that the bad
quality of the flour renders the addition of
potatoes  advantageous as well to the baker
as to the p&rchaser, and that without this
admixture in the manufacture of  bread,  it
would be impossible to carry on the trade
of a baker. But the grievance is, that the
same price is taken for a potatoe loaf, as for
a loaf of genuine  bread,  though it must
cost the baker less.
  I have witness, that five bushels of flour,
three ounces of alum, six  pounds of salt,
one  bushel of  potatoes boiled  into a stiff
paste, and three quarts of  yeast,  with  the
requisite quantity of water, produce a white,
light, and highly palatable bread. 
106   Adulteration of Bread.
  Such are the artifices practised in the pre-
paration of bread,* and it must be allowed,
on contrasting them with those sophistica-
tions practised by manufacturers  of other
articles of food, that they are comparatively
unimportant. However, some medical men
have no hesitation in attributing many dis-
eases  incidental to  children to the use of
eating adulterated bread ; others again will
not admit these allegations: they persuade
themselves that the small quantity of alum
added  to the bread (perhaps  upon an ave-
rage, from  eight to ten grains to a quartern
loaf,) is absolutely harmless.
  Mr. Edmund Davy, Professor of Che-
mistry, at the Cork Institution, has com-
municated the following important facts to
the public concerning the manufacture of
bread.
  " The carbonate of magnesia of the shops,
when well mixed with flour, in the propor-
tion of from twenty  to  forty  grains to a
pound  of flour, materially  improves it for
the purpose of making bread.
  " Loaves made with the addition of car-
  * There are instances of convictions on re-
cord, of bakers having used gypsum, chalk,
ar>d pipe clay, in the manufacture of bread. 
Adulteration of Bread.     107
bonate of magnesia, rise well in the oven ;
and after being baked, the bread  is light
and  spongy,  has a good taste, and keeps
well.  In cases when the new flour is of an
indifferent  quality, from twenty to thirty
grains of carbonate of magnesia to a pound
of the flour will considerably improve the
bread.  When the flour is of the worst
quality, forty grains to a pound  of flour
seem necessary to produce the same effect.
  " As the improvement in the bread from
new flour depends upon the  carbonate of
magnesia, it is necessary that  care should
be taken to mix it intimately with the flour,
previous to the making of the dough.
  " Mr. Davy  made  a  great number of
comparative  experiments with other sub-
stances,  mixed in different   proportions
with new bread flour.  The fixed alkalies,
both in their  pure and carbonated state,
when used in small  quantity, to a certain
extent were  found to improve the bread
made from new flour; but  no substance
was so efficacious in this respect as carbon-
ate of magnesia.
  " The greater number of his experiments
were performed on the worst new seconds
flour  Mr.  Davy could procure.  He also
made some  trials on seconds  and frsts of
different quality.  In some  cases  the re- 
108     Method of detecting

suits were more striking and satisfactory
than in others ;  but in every  instance the
improvement of the bread, by carbonate of
magnesia, was obvious.
  " Mr.  Davy  observes, that a  pound of
carbonate of magnesia would be sufficient
to mix  with two  hundred   and fifty-six
pounds of new flour, or at the rate of thirty
grains  to the  pound.   And  supposing a
pound of carbonate of magnesia to cost half-
a-crown, the additional expense  would be
only half a farthing in the pound of flour.
  " Mr. Davy conceives that not the slight-
est  danger can  be  apprehended from the
use of  such an  innocent substance, as the
carbonate of magnesia, in such small pro-
portion as is necessary  to  improve bread
from new flour."
METHOD OF DETECTING THE PRESENCE OE
            ALUM IN BREAD.

  Pour upon two ounces of the suspected
bread, half a pint of boiling distilled water;
boil the mixture for a few minutes, and fil-
ter it  through unsized paper.  Evaporate
the fluid, to about one fourth of its original
bulk, and let  gradually fall into the clear
fluid a solution of muriate of barytes.  If a 
Alum in Bread        109
copious white precipitate ensues, which does
not disappear by the addition of pure nitric
acid, the presence of alum may be suspect-
ed.  Bread, made without alum, produces,
when assayed in this manner, merely a very
slight precipitate, which originates from a
minute portion of sulphate of magnesia con-
tained in  all  common salt  of commerce ;
and bread  made with salt freed from sul-
phate of magnesia,  produces an  infusion
with water,  which  does not become dis-
turbed by the barytic test.
  Other means of detecting all the consti-
tuent parts of alum, namely, the alumine,
sulphuric acid, and potash, so as to render
the presence  of the alum unequivocal, will
readily suggest itself to  those who are fa-
miliar  with analytical chemistry ; namely :
one of the  readiest means is, to decompose
the vegetable matter of  the  bread, by the
action  of chlorate  of potash, in  a platina
crucible, at a red  heat, and  then  to  assay
the residuary  mass—by  means of muriate
of barytes, for sulphuric acid ; by ammonia,
for  alumine ;  and by  muriate of platina,
for potash*.  The above  method of detect-
  * See a Practical Treatise on the Use and
Application of Chemical Tests, illustrated by
experiments, 3d edit, p  270,231, 177, & 196.
                   K 
110      Method of judging
ing the presence of alum, must therefore
be taken with some limitation.
  There is no  unequivocal test for detect-
ing in a ready manner the presence of alum
in bread, on account of the impurity of the
common salt used in the making of bread.
If we could, in  the ordinary way of bread
making, employ common salt, absolutely
free  from  foreign saline  substances, the
mode of detecting the presence of alum, or
at least one of its constituent parts, namely,
the  sulphuric acid, would be  very  easy.
Some  conjecture  may,  nevertheless, be
formed of the presence, or absence, of alum,
by assaying the infusion of bread in the
manner stated,  p. 109,  and comparing the
assay with the results afforded by an  infu-
sion of home-made or household bread,
known to be genuine, and actually assayed
in a similar manner.
EASY METHOD OF JUDGING OF THE GOOD-
  NESS OF BREAD CORN, AND BREAD-FLOUR.

  Millers judge of the goodness of bread
corn by  the  quantity of bran  which the
grain produces.
  Such grains as are full and plump, that
have a bright and shining appearance, with- 
           of Bread Stuffs.        Ill

out any shrivelling and  shrinking  in the
covering of the  skin, are the best;  for
wrinkled grains have a greater quantity of
skin, or  bran, than such as are sound  or
plump.
  Pastry-cooks and  bakers judge  of  the
goodness of flour in the manner in which it
comports itself in kneading. The  best kind
of wheaten flour assumes, at the  instant it
is formed into paste by the addition of wa-
ter, a very gluey, ductile, and elastic paste,
easy to  be kneaded, and which may  be
elongated, flattened, and drawn  in every
direction, without breaking.
   For the following fact we are  indebted
to Mr. Hatchet.
   " Grain which has  been heated or burnt
in  the  stack, may in the following man-
ner be rendered fit for  being made into
bread:
   " The wheat must be put into a vessel
capable of holding at least three  times the
quantity, and  the vessel filled with boiling
water; the grain should then be  occasion-
ally stirred, and the hollow decayed grains,
which float, may be removed.   When the
water has become cold, or in about half an
hour, it  is drawn off.  Then rince the corn
with  cold water, and, having completely
 drained it, spread it thinly on the floor of a 
US   Method of judging, 8£c.

kiln, and  thus  thoroughly dry it, stirring
and turning it frequently  during this part
of the process."*
* Phil. Trans, for 1817, part i. 
113
Adulteration of Beer.
  Malt Liojjors, and particularly porter,
the favourite beverage of the inhabitants
of London, and  of  other large towns, is
amongst those articles, in the manufacture
of which the greatest frauds are frequent-
ly committed.
  The  statute prohibits the brewer from
using any ingredients in his brewings,  ex-
cept malt and hops ; but it too often hap-
pens that those who suppose they are drink-
ing a nutritious  beverage, made of these
ingredients only, are entirely  deceived,
The beverage may, in fact, be neither more
nor less than a compound of the most de-
leterious substances ;  and  it  is also clear
that all ranks of  society are alike exposed
to the nefarious fraud.  The proofs of this
statement will be shewn hereafter.*
   The  authorf of a  Practical Treatise on
* See pages 119, &c.
t Child, on Brewing Porter, p. 7.
                K 2 
11*    Adulteration of Beer.
Brewing, which has run through eleven
editions, after having  stated  the various
ingredients for brewing porter, observes,
" that however much  they may  surprise,
" however pernicious or disagreeable they
" may appear, he has always  found them
" requisite in the brewing of porter, and he
" thinks they  must invariably be used by
" those  who wish  to  continue the taste,
" flavour, and appearance  of the beer.*
" And though several  Acts of Parliament
" have been passed to prevent porter brew-
" ers from using many of them,  yet the
" author can affirm, from  experience, he
" could never produce the  present flavour-
" ed porter without them.f   The intoxi-
" eating qualities of porter are  to be as-
" cribed to the various drugs intermixed
" with it. It is evident some porter is more
" heady than  other, and it arises from the
" greater or less quantity of stupifying in-
" gredients.   Malt, to  produce  intoxica-
" tion, must be used in such large quanti-
" ties as would very much diminish, if not
" totally exclude, the brewer's profit."
   The practice of adulterating beer appears
* Child, on Brewing Porter, p. 16.
t Ibid. p.  16. 
Adulteration of Beer.     115
to be of early date.   By an Act so  long
ago as Queen Anne, the brewers are  pro-
hibited from mixing cocculus indicus, or any
unwholesome ingredients,  in  their beer,
under severe penalties: but  few instances
of convictions under this act are to be met
with in the public records for nearly a cen-
tury.   To shew that they have augmented
in our own days, we shall exhibit an ab-
stract from documents laid lately before
Parliament.*
  These will not only amply prove, that un-
wholesome ingredients are used by fraudu-
lent brewers, and that very deleterious sub-
stances are also vended both to brewers and
publicans  for adulterating beer, but that
the ingredients mixed  up in the brewer's
enchanting cauldron are placed above  all
competition,  even with the potent charms
of Macbeth's witches :
  * « Minutes of the Committee of the House
of Commons, to whom the petition of several
inhabitants of London  and  its vicinity, com-
plaining of the high price and inferior quali-
ty of beer, was referred, to examine the mat-
ter thereof, and to report the same, with their
observations thereupon, to the House. Printed
by order of the House of Commons,  April,
1819." 
116     Adulteration of Beer.
       " Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark,
        4-   +    +    +    +
        +   +    +    +    +
       " For a charm of pow'rful trouble,
       " Like a hell-broth boil and bubble;
       " Double, double, toil and trouble,
       " Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

  The fraud of imparting to porter and ale
an  intoxicating quality by narcotic  sub-
stances, appears to  have flourished during
the period of the late French war; for, if we
examine the importation lists  of drugs, it
will be noticed that the quantities of cocculus
indicus imported in a given time prior to
that period, will  bear  no comparison with
the quantity imported in the same space of
time during the war, although an additional
duty was  laid upon this commodity.  Such
has been the amount brought into this coun-
try in  five years, that  it far exceeds the
quantity imported during twelve years an-
terior to the above epoch. The price of this
drug has risen  within these ten years from
two shillings to seven shillings the pound.
  It was  at  the  period to which we have
alluded, that the preparation of an extract
of cocculus indicus first appeared, as a new
saleable commodity, in the price-currents of 
Adulteration of Beer.      117
brewers'-druggists.  It was at the same
time, also, that a Mr. Jackson, of notorious
memory, fell upon the idea of brewing beer
from various drugs,  without any malt and
hops.  This chemist did not  turn  brewer
himself; but he struck out the more profit-
able trade of teaching his  mystery to the
brewers  for  a handsome fee.  From that
time forwards, written directions,  and re-
cipe-books for using the chemical prepara-
tions to be substituted for malt and hops,
were respectively  sold ;  and many adepts
soon afterwards  appeared every where, to
instruct brewers in the nefarious practice,
first pointed out by Mr. Jackson.   From
that time, also, the fraternity of brewers'-
chemists took its rise.  They made it their
chief business to send travellers all over the
country with lists  and samples exhibiting
the price and  quality of the  articles manu-
factured by them  for the use  of  brewers
only.  Their  trade  spread  far and wide,
but  it was amongst the country brewers
chiefly that they found the most customers;
and it is amongst them,  up  to the present
day, as I am assured by some of these ope-
rators, on whose veracity I  can rely, that
the greatest quantities of unlawful ingre-
dients are sold. 
118     Adulteration of Beer.
  The Act of Parliament* prohibits  che-
mists, grocers, and druggists, from supply-
ing illegal ingredients  to  brewers under a
heavy penalty, as is obvious from the fol-
lowing abstract of the Act.
  " No druggist, vender  of, or  dealer in
" drugs, or chemist, or other person,  shall
"sell or deliver to  any  licensed brewer,
" dealer in or retailer of beer, knowing him
« to be such, or shall sell  or deliver to any
" person on account of or in trust for any
" such brewer, dealer or retailer, any liquor
" called by the name of or  sold as colouring,
" from whatever material the same may be
" made, or any material or preparation other
" than unground brown malt for darkening
" the colour of worts or beer, or any liquor
" or preparation made  use of for darkening
" the colour of worts  or beer,  or any mo-
" lasses, honey, vitriol, quassia, cocculus In-
" dian, grains  of paradise,  Guinea pepper
" or opium, or any extract or preparation of
" molasses, or any article  or  preparation
" to be used in worts or  beer for or as a
" substitute for malt or hops ; and  if any
" druggist shall offend in any of these par-
" ticulars, such liquor preparation, molas-
* 56 Geo. III. c. 2. 
Adulteration of Beer.     119
" ses,  &c. shall be  forfeited, and  may be
" seized by any officer of excise,  and the
" person so offending shall for each offence
" forfeit 500/.
  The following is a list of druggists and
grocers, prosecuted by the Court of Excise,
and convicted  of supplying unlawful ingre-
dients to brewers.

List of Druggists and Grocers, prosecuted
  and convicted from  1812 to 1819, for
  supplying illegal Ingredients to Brewers
  for adulterating Beer.*

  John Dunn and another, druggists, for sel-
ling adulterating ingredients to brewers, ver-
dict 500/.
  George  Rugg and others, druggists, for
selling  adulterating  ingredients to brewers,
verdict 500/.
  John  Hodgkinson  and others, for selling
adulterating ingredients to brewers,  100/.  and
costs.
  William  Hiscocks and others, for selling
adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 200/. and
costs
  * Copied from the Minutes of the Committee of
the House of Commons, appointed for examining the
price and quality of Beer.—See pages 18, 29,30, 31,
36, 43. 
120     Adulteration of Beer.
  G. Hornby,  for selling  adulterating ingre-
dients to a brewer, 200/.
  W. Wilson, for selling adulterating ingre-
dients to a brewer, 200/.
  George Andrews,  grocer, for  selling adul-
terating  ingredients  to a brewer,  25/. and
costs.
  G*uy Knowles, for selling substitute for hops,
costs.
  Kernot and  Alsop, for selling cocculus in-
dia, &c. 25/.
  Joseph  Moss,  for selling  various  drugs,
300/.
  Ph.  Whitcombe,  John  Dun, and Arthur
Waller, druggists, for having  liquor for dark-
ening the colour of beer, hid and concealed.
  Isaac Hehberri,  for having liquor for dark-
ening tht colour of *>eer, hid and concealed.
  Ph.  Whitcombe, John  Dunn, and  Authur
Waller, druggists, for making liquor for dark-
ening the colour of beer.
  John  Lord,  grocer,  for selling molasses to
a brewer, 20/. and costs.
  John  Smith Carr, grocer, for selling molas-
ses  to a brewer, 20/.  and costs.
  Edward  Fox, grocer, for selling molasses
to a brewer, 25/. and costs.
  John Cooper, grocer, for selling  molasses
to a brewer, 40/. and costs.
  Joseph  Bickering, grocer,  for selling mo-
lasses to a brewer, 40/. and costs. 
         Adulteration of Beer.     l&l

  John Howard, grocer, for selling molasses
te a brewer, 25/. and costs.
  James  Reynolds, grocer, for selling molas-
ses to a brewer, costs.
  Thomas Hammond, grocer, for selling mo-
lasses to a brewer, 20/. and costs.
  J. Matkway,  grocer, for selling molasses to
a biewer, 20/.
  T Renton, grocer,  for selling  molasses to
a brewer, costs, and taking out a license.
  R. Adamson, grocer,  for selling molasses
to a brewer, costs, and taking out a license.
  W.  Weave , for  selling Spanish liquorice
to a brewer, 200/.
  J. Moss, for selling Spanish liquorice to a
brewer.
   Alex.  Braden, for selling liquorice, 20/.
  J. Draper,  for  selling  molasses to a brew-
er, 20/.

                 PORTER.

   The method of brewing  porter has  not
been the same at  all times as it is at pre-
sent.
   At first, the only  essential difference in
the  methods   of brewing this liquor and
that of other kinds of beer, was, that por-
ter  was brewed from  brown  malt  only;
and this gave to it both the colour and  fla-
vour required.  Of  late years it has been 
 122     Adulteration of Beer.

 brewed from mixtures of pale and brown
 malt.
   These, at some establishments, are mash-
 ed separately, and the worts from each are
 afterwards mixed together.  The propor-
 tion of pale and brown malt, used for brew-
 ing porter, varies in  different  breweries ;
 some employ nearly two parts of pale malt
 and  one part of brown  malt; but  each
 brewer appears to have his own proportion;
 which the  intelligent  manufacturer varies,
 according to the nature and qualities of the
 malt.  Three pounds of hops are,  upon an
 average, allowed to  every barrel,  (thirty-
 six gallons) of porter.
   When the price of malt, on account of the
 great increase in the price of barley during
 the  late war, was very  high,  the  London
 brewers discovered that  a larger quantity
 of wort of a given strength could be ob-
tained from  pale malt than from brown
malt.  They therefore increased the quan-
tity of the former, and diminished that of
the latter.  This produced beer of a paler
colour,  and of  a less bitter  flavour.   To
remedy these disadvantages, they invented
an artificial colouring substance, prepared
by boiling brown sugar till it  acquired a
very  dark  brown colour ; a  solution  of
which was  employed  to darken the colour 
Adulteration of Beer.     1S3
of the beer.  Some  brewers made use of
the infusion  of  malt instead of sugar co-
louring.  To impart to the beer a bitter
taste,  the  fraudulent  brewer  employed
quassia wood and wormwood as a substi-
tute  for hops.
  But as the  colouring of beer by means of
sugar became in many  instances a pretext
for using  illegal  ingredients, the Legisla-
ture, apprehensive from the mischief that
might, and actually  did,  result from  it,
passed an Act prohibiting the use of burnt
6Ugar, in July 1817 ; and nothing but malt
and  hops is now allowed to enter into the
composition of beer : even the use of isin-
glass for clarifying  beer,  is  contrary to
law.
  No  sooner had the beer-colouring Act
been repealed, than other persons obtained
a patent for effecting the purpose of impart-
ing an artificial colour to porter, by means
of brown malt, specifically prepared for that
purpose onlv.  The beer, coloured by the
new  method, is  more liable  to become
spoiled, than when coloured by the process
formerly practised.   The  colouring  malt
does not contain any considerable portion
of saccharine matter. The grain is by mere
torrefaction converted into a gum-like sub-
stance, wholly soluble in water, which ren- 
IS!      Adulteration of Beer.

ders the  beer more liable to pass  into the
acetous  fermentation  than  the  common
brown malt is capable of doing ;  because
the latter, if prepared from good  barley,
contains a portion of saccharine matter, of
which  the patent malt is destitute.
  But as brown malt  is generally prepared
from the worst kind  of barley, and as the
patent  malt can only be  made from good
grain,  it may become, on that account,  an
useful  article to the  brewer  (at  least, it
gives colour and body to the beer ;) but it
cannot materially economise the quantity of
malt necessary  to  produce good  porter.
Some brewers  of  eminence in  this town
have assured me, that the use of this mode
of colouring beer  is  wholly unnecessary j
and that porter of the requisite colour may
be brewed  better without   it; hence this
kind of malt is not used in their establish-
ments.   The quantity of gum-like matter
which it contains, gives too much  ferment
to the beer, and renders it  liable to spoil.
Repeated experiments, made on  a large
scale, have settled this fact. 
Adulteration of Beer.      125
STRENGTH AND SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES OF
     DIFFERENT KINDS OF PORTER.

  The  strength of all kinds  of beer, like
that  of  wine, depends on the  quantity of
spirit contained  in a given bulk of the li-
quor.
  The reader need scarcely be told, that of
no article there are more varieties than of
porter.  This, no doubt, arises from the dif-
ferent mode of manufacturing the  beer,
although  the   ingredients are  the same.
This difference is more striking in the por-
ter manufactured among country brewers,
than it is in the beer brewed by the eminent
London  porter  brewers.  The totality of
the London porter exhibts but  very slight
differences,  both with respect to strength
or quantity of  spirit, and solid extractive
matter,  contained in a given bulk of it.
The  spirit may be stated, upon an average,
to be 4,50 per cent, in porter retailed at the
publicans ; the solid matter, is from twenty-
one to  twenty-three  pounds  per  barrel of
thirty-six gallons.   The  country-brewed
porter is seldom well fermented, and sel- *
dom contains so large a quantity of spirit;
it usually abounds in mucilage ; hence it
becomes turbid when mixed  with alcohol.
L 2 
 1S6     Adulteration of Beer.

 Such beer  cannot keep, without becoming
 sour.
   It has been matter of frequent complaint,
 that all the porter now brewed, is not what
 porter was formerly. This idea may be true
 with some exceptions. My professional oc-
 cupations have, during these twenty-eight
 years, repeatedly obliged me to examine
 the strength of London  porter, brewed by
 different brewers ; and, from the minutes
 made on that subject, I am authorised to
 state, that the porter now brewed by the
 eminent London brewers, is unquestionably
 stronger than that which was  brewed at
 different periods  during  the late  French
 war.  Samples of brown stout with which
 I  have  been obligingly favoured, whilst
 writing this Treatise, by Messrs. Barclay,
 Perkins, and Co—Messrs. Truman, Han-
 bury, and Co—Messrs. Henry Meux and
 Co.—and other eminent  brewers of this
 capital—afforded, upon an  average,  7,25
 per cent, of alcohol, of  0,833 specific gra-
 vity ;  and porter, from the same  houses,
yielded  upon an  average 5,25 per cent, of
alcohol, of the same specific gravity ;* this
  * The average specific gravity of different
samples of brown siout, obtained direct from 
        Adulteration of Beer.     127

beer received from the brewers was taken
from the same store from which the pub-
licans are supplied.
  It is  nevertheless singular to observe,
that from  fifteen  samples of beer of the
same denominations, procured from differ-
ent retailers, the proportions of spirit fell
considerably short of the above quantities.
Samples of brown stout, procured from the
retailers,  afforded, upon an average, 6,50
per  cent,  of alcohol;  and  the  average
strength of the  porter was  4,50 per cent.
Whence can this  difference between the
beer furnished by the brewer, and that re-
tailed by the publican, arise ? We shall not
be at a  loss to answer this question, when
we find that so many retailers of porter
have been  prosecuted and   convicted for
mixing  table beer with their strong beer ;
this is prohibited  by law, as becomes ob-
vious  by   the  following words   of  the
Act.*
the  breweries of  Messrs.  Barclay,  Perkins,
and Co.  Messrs. Truman, Hani ury, and Co.
Messrs. Henry Meux and Co. and from -eve-
ra 1 other eminent London brewers, amounted
to 1,022;  and the  average specific gravity of
porter, from the same breweries, 1,018.
  * 2 Geo. III.  c. 14, § 2-. 
128    Adulteration of Beer.
  " If any common or other brewer, inn-
keeper, victualler, or retailer of beer or ale,
shall mix or suffer to be  mixed any strong
beer, ale, or worts, with table beer, worts, or
water, in any tub or measure, he shall for-
feit 50/." The difference between strong
and table beer, is thus settled by  Parlia-
ment.
  " All beer  or ale* above  the price of
eighteen shillings per barrel, exclusive of
ale duties now  payable  (viz. ten shillings
per barrel,) or that may  be hereafter paya-
ble  in respect  thereof,  shall be  deemed
strong beer or ale ;  and  all beer of the
price  of eighteen  shillings  the barrel or
under, exclusive of the  duty payable (viz.
two shillings per barrel) in respect thereof,
shall   be  deemed  table  beer  within  the
meaning of this and all other Acts now in
force, or that may hereafter be passed in
relation to beer or ale or any duties there-
on."
* 59 Geo. III. c. 53, § 25. 
Adulteration of Beer.     129
List of Publicans prosecuted and convicted
  from  1815   to  1818,  for  adulterating
  Beer  with illegal Ingredients, and for
  mixing  Table  Beer  with  their  Strong
  Beer.*

  William Atterbury, for using salt of steel,
salt, molasses, &c and for mixing  table beer
with strong beer, 40/.
  Richard  Dean, for using salt of steel, saltj
molasses, &c. and for mixing table beer with
strong beer, 50/.
  John J >y, for  using salt of steel,  salt, mo-
lasses, &c. and  for  mixing  table beer with
strong beer, 50/.
  James Atkinson, for using  salt of steel, salt,
molasses, &c. and for mixing table beer with
strong beer, 20/
  Samuel  Lang worth, for using salt of steel,
salt, molasses, &c. and for mixing  table beer
with strong beer, 50/.
  Hannah Spencer,  for using salt of steel,
salt, molasses, &c. and for mixing table beer
with strong beer,  150/.
  *  Copied from the Minutes of the Committee of
the  House of Commons,  appointed for examining
the price and quality of beer, p. 19, 29, 36, 37,43. 
130    Adulteration of Beer.
  -----Ho-g, for using salt of steel, salt, mo-
lasses,  &c.  and  for mixing table beer with
strong beer, 5/.
  Richard Cruddock, for using  salt of steel,
salt, molasses, &i:. and  for mixing table beer
with strong Deer, 100/.
  Lmes  Harris, for using salt of steel, salt,
mol sses, &c. and for receiving stale  beer, and
mixing it with strong beer, 42/. and  costs.
  Thomas Scoons, for using salt of steel, salt,
molasses, &c. ancJ for  mixing stale beer with
strong beer, vet diet 200/.
  Diones Geer and another, for using salt of
steel, salt, molasses. Sec. and for mixing strong
and table beer, verdict  400/.
  Charles Coleman, for using  salt of steel,
salt, molasses, Sec and  for mixing strong  and
table beer, 35/. and costs.
  William  Oit, for using salt of steel, salt,
molasses, See.  and for  mixing  strong and ta-
ble beer. 50/.
  John Gu!- liner, for using salt  of steel, sjlt,
molasses. See and for mixing strong and table
betr  too/.
  John Morris, for  using  salt  of steel, salt,
molasses, &c. and  for  mixing  strong and ta-
ble heer, 20/.
  John Haibur for  using  sAi  of steel, salt,
molasses, Sec. and for mixing strong and table
beer, 50/.
  John Corrie,  for  mixing strong beer with
table beer. 
         Adulteration of Beer.    131

  John Cape, for mixing strong beer with ta-
ble beer.
  Joseph Gudge, for mixing strong beer with
small beer.
ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES USED FOR ADULTE-
              RATING BEER.

  We have stated already (p. 113) that no-
thing is allowed by law to  enter  into the
composition of beer,  but malt and hops.
  The  substances   used   by  fraudulent
brewers for adulterating beer, are chiefly
the following :
  ^Quassia, which gives  to beer a bitter
taste, is substituted for hops ;  but hops pos-
sesses a more  agreeable aromatic flavour,
and there is also reason to believe that they
render beer less  liable to  spoil by keep-
ing ;  a property which does not belong  to
quassia.  It requires but little discrirhina-
tion  to distinguish very clearly the pecu-
liar  bitterness of  quassia  in adulterated
porter.  Vast quantities of the shavings  of>
this  wood  are  sold in a  half-torrefied and
ground state  to disguise its obvious cha-
racter, and to  prevent its being recognised
among the  waste materials of the brewers. 
132     Adulteration of Beer.
Wormwood*  has  likewise  been used by
fraudulent brewers.
  The adulterating of hops is prohibited by
the Legislature.!
  " If any person shall put any drug or in-
gredient whatever into hops  to alter the
colour or scent thereof, every person so of-
fending, convicted by the  oath of one wit-
ness before one justice of  peace for the
county or  place where the offence was com-
mitted, shall forfeit 5/. for every hundred
weight."
  Beer rendered  bitter by  quassia never
keeps well, unless  it be kept in a place pos-
sessing a  temperature considerably lower
than the  temperature  of  the  surrounding
atmosphere ; and this  is not well practica-
ble in large establishments.
  The use of boiling the wort of beer with
hops, is partly to  communicate  a peculiar
aromatic, flavour  which the hop contains,
partly  to  cover  the  sweetness  of unde-
composed saccharine  matter, and also to
separate,  by virtue of the gallic acid and

 __________________________________I____

  * See Minutes  of the Committee  of the
House of Commons for reporting on the Price
and Quality of Beer, 1819, p. 29.
  t 7 Geo. II. c. 19, § 2. 
Adulteration of Beer.      133
tannin it contains, a portion of a peculiar ve-
getable mucilage somewhat resembling glu-
ten, which is still diffused through the beer.
The compound thus produced, separates in
small flakes like those of curdled soap; and
by these means the beer is  rendered less
liable  to  spoil.  For  nothing  contributes
more to the conversion of beer, or any other
vinous  fluid, into  vinegar, than mucilage.
Hence, also, all  full-bodied and clammy
ales, abounding in mucilage,  and  which
are generally ill fermented, do not keep as
perfect ale ought to do.  Quassia is, there-
fore, unfit as a substitute for hops ; and even
English hops are  preferable to those im-
ported from the Continent;  for nitrate of
silver and acetate of lead produce a  more
abundant  precipitate  from an infusion of
English hops, than can be obtained from a
like infusion by the same  agents from fo-
reign hops.
  One of the qualities of  good porter, is,
that it should bear a fine frothy head, as it
is technically termed: because  professed
judges of this beverage, would not pro-
nounce the liquor excellent, although it
possessed all other good qualities of porter,
without this requisite.
  To impart to porter this property of froth-
ing when  poured from one vessel into an-
                   al 
131)     Adulteration of Beer.
other, or to produce what is also termed a
cauliflower  head, the mixture  called beer-
heading, composed  of common green vi-
triol (sulphate of iron,)  alum, and salt, is
added.   This addition to the beer is gene-
rally made by the publicans.*   It is unne-
cessary to  genuine  beer, which of itself
possesses the property of bearing a  strong
white froth, without these additions; and it
is only in consequence of table beer being
mixed with strong beer, that  the frothing
property of the porter is lost. From experi-
ments I have tried on this subject,  I have
reason to believe that the sulphate of iron,
added for that purpose, does not possess the
power ascribed to it.   But  the publicans
frequently, when they fine a butt of beer, by
means of isinglass, adulterate the porter at
the  same  time with  table beer, together
with a quantity of molasses and  a small
portion of extract of gentian root, to keep
up the peculiar flavour of the porter;  and
it is to the molasses chiefly, which gives a
  * See List of Publicans prosecuted and con-
victed for mixing table beer with strong beer,
&c. p. 129.
  " Alum gives likewise  a smack of age to
beer,  and is penetrating to the palate."—S,
Child on Brewing. 
Adulteration of Beer.     135
spissitude to the  beer, that the frothing
property must be ascribed; for, without it,
the sulphate of iron does  not produce the
property of frothing in diluted beer.
  Capsicum and .grains  of paradise, two
highly acrid substances,  are employed to
give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer.
Of late, a concentrated tincture of these ar-
ticles, to be used for a similar purpose, and
possessing  a powerful effect, has appeared
in the price-currents of brewers' druggists.
Ginger root, coriander seed, and orange
peels, are employed as flavouring substances
chiefly by the ale brewers.
  From these statements, and the seizures
that have been made of illegal  ingredients
at various breweries, it is obvious that the
adulterations of beer are not imaginary.  It
will be noticed,  however, that some of the
sophistications are comparatively harmless,
whilst others are effected  by  substances
deleterious to health.
   The following list exhibits some of the
unlawful substances seized  at different
breweries and at chemical laboratories. 
136     Adulteration of Beer.
List of Illegal Ingredients, seized from 1812
  to 1818, at various Breweries and Brew-
  ers* Druggists.*

1812, July. Josiah Nibbs, at Tooting, Surrey.
    Multum                   84 lbs.
    Cocculus indicus      -    12
    Colouring                   4 galls.
    Honey     -     -     about 180 lbs.
    Hartshorn  Shavings    -    14
    Spanish Juice              46
    Oiange Powder  -    -    17
    Ginger      -    -    -    56
              Penalty 300/.

1813, June 13.  Sarah Willis, at West Ham,
                 Essex.
    Cocculus indicus       -     1 lb.
    Spanish Juice     -     -    12
    Hartshorn Shavings     -     6
    Orange Powder        -      1
              Penalty 200/.
  * Copied from the Minutes of the Commit-
tee of the House of Commons, appointed for
examining the price and quality of beer, p. 38. 
Adulteration of Beer.      137
August 3. Cratcherode Whiffing, Limehouse.
    Grains of Paradise    -     44 lbs.
    Quassia    -    ...     lo
    Liquorice                  64
    Ginger    ...     80
    Caraway Seeds             40
    Orange Powder       -     14
    Copperas                   4
              Penalty 200/.

Nov. 25.   Elizabeth Hasler, at Stratford.
    Cocculus indicus      -     12 lbs.
    Multum                   26
    Grains of Paradise    -     12
    Spanish Juice              30
    Orange Powder       -      3
              Penalty 200/.

Dec. 14.   John Abbott, at Canterbury, Kent.
    Copperas, Sec.    -    -     14 lbs.
    Orange powder       -      2
      Penalty  500/., and Crown's costs.
    Proof of using drugs at various times.

1815, Feb.  15.   Mantell and  Cook, Castle-
        street, Bloomsbury-square.
  Proof of mixing strong with table beer, and
using colouring and other things.
           Compromised for 300/.
M 2 
138     Adulteration of Beer.
1817.  From Peter Stevenson, an old Servant
  to Dunn and Waller, St. John-street, brew-
  ers' druggists.
    Cocculus Indicus Extract    6 lbs.
    Multum        -     -    560
    Capsicum       -          88
    Copperas       -    -    310   n
    Quassia    -     -     -     150
    Colouring and Drugs       84
    Mixed Drugs    -     -    240
    Spanish Liquorice     -    420
    Hartshorn Shavings        77
    Liquorice Powder     -     175
    Orange powder      -    126
    Caraway Seeds       -     100
    Ginger    .     -     -     110
    Ginger Root     -     -     176
      Condemned, not being claimed.

July 30.  Luke Lyons, Shadwell.
    Capsicum         -    -     1 lb.
    Liquorice Root Powder      2
    Coriander Seed        -     2
    Copperas                   1
    Orange Powder             8
    Spanish Liquorice      -     \
    Beer Colouring    -    -    24 galls.
      Not tried.  (7th  May, 1818.) 
Adulteration of Beer*     139
Aug. 6.  John Gray, at West Ham.
    Multum     ...    4 ibs.
    Spanish Liquorice     -    21
    Liquorice Root Powder    113
    Ginger     -    -     -   116
    Honey     -    -     -    11
  Penalty, 300/., and costs ;  including mixing
strong beer with table, and  paying table-beer
duty for strong beer, &c.

  Numerous other seizures of illegal sub-
stances,  made at breweries, might be ad-
vanced, were it necessary to enlarge  this
subject to a greater extent.
  Mr. James West, from the excise office,
being asked in the Committee of the House
of Commons, appointed, 1819, to  examine
and report on the petition  of several inha-
bitants of London, complaining of the high
price and inferior quality of beer, produced
the following seized articles :—" One blad-
der of honey, one bladder of extract of coc-
culus   indicus,  ground  guinea  pepper or
capsicum, vitriol or copperas, orange pow-
der,  quassia, ground beer-heading,  hard
multum, another kind of multum or  beer
preparation, liquorice powder, and ground
grains  of paradise."
  Witness being asked  " Where did  you
seize these things ?"  Answer,  "  Some of
them were seized from brewers, and some 
 140     Adulteration of Beer.

 of  them from  brewers'  druggists, within
 these two years past.  (May 8, 1818.)
  Another  fraud frequently  committed,
 both by brewers and publicans, (as is evi-
 dent  from  the  Excise Report,)  is the
 practice of  adulterating  strong beer with
 small beer—This fraud is prohibited  by
 law ;  since both the  revenue and the  pub-
 lic  suffer by it.*  « The  duty upon strong
 beer is ten shillings a barrel; and upon ta-
 ble  beer it  is two shillings.   The revenue
 suffers, because a larger quantity of beer is
 sold as strong beer ;  that is, at a price ex-
 ceeding the price of table beer, without the
 strong beer duty being paid.   In the  next
 place, the brewer suffers, because the re-
 tailer gets table or mild beer, and retails it
 as strong beer."  The following  are the
 words of the Act, prohibiting the brewers
 mixing table beer with strong beer.
  " If any  common brewer shall mix  or
suffer to be mixed any strong  beer,  or
strong worts with table beer or table worts,
or with  water  in any guile  or fermenting
tun  after the declaration of the quantity of
such guile shall have been made ; or if  he
  * See Mr. Carr's evidence in the Minutes
bj the House of Commons, p. 32. 
Adulteration of Beer.     141
shall at any time mix or suffer to be mixed
strong beer or strong worts with table beer
worts or with water, in any vat, cask, tub,
measures or utensil, not being  an entered
guile or fermenting tun, he  shall forfeit
200 pounds."*
  With respect to the persons who commit
this offence, Mr. Carr,f the Solicitor of the
Excise, observes, that " they are generally
brewers who carry on the double trade of
brewing both strong and  table beer.  It is
almost  impossible to  prevent them  from
mixing one with the other;  and frauds of
very great extent have been  detected, and
the parties punished for that offence.  One
brewer at Plymouth evaded duties to the
amount of 32,000 pounds ; and other brew-
ers, who brew party guiles of  beer, carry-
ing on  the two trades  of ale and table beer
brewers, where the trade is a  victualling
brewer, which  is different from the  com-
mon brewer, he  being a  person who sells
only wholesale;  the  victualling  brewer
being a brewer and  also a seller by retail."
  * 42 George III, c. 38, § 12.
  t See Minutes of the House of Commons,
p. 32. 
14&     Adulteration of Beer.
   "In the  neighbourhood  of  London,'*
 Mr. Carr continues,  " more particularly,
 I speak from having had great experience,
 from the informations and evidence which
 I have received, that the retailers carry on
 a most extensive fraud  upon the public, in
 purchasing stale table beer, or the bottoms
 of casks.  There are a class of men who go
 about and sell such beer at table-beer"price
 to public  victuallers,  who mix  it in their
 cellars.   If they receive beer from their
brewers which is mild, they  purchase stale
beer ; and if they receive stale beer, they
purchase common  table beer for that pur-
pose ; and many of the prosecutions  are
against retailers for that offence." The  fol-
lowing  may serve  in proof of  this state-
ment. 
Adulteration of Beer.      143
List of Brewers prosecuted and convicted
  from  1813 to  1819,  for  adulterating
  Strong Beer  with  Table Beer.*

  Thomas Manton and another, brewers, for
mixing strong and table beer, verdict 300/.
  Mark Morrell  and another,  brewers, for
mixing strong and table beer, 20/. and costs.
  Robert Jones and another, brewers, for mix-
ing strong and table beer, verdict 125/.
  Robert  Stroad,  brewer, for mixing strong
and table beer, 200/. and costs.
  William Cobbett,  brewer, mixing  strong
and table beer, 100/. and costs.
  Thomas Richard Withers, brewer, for mix-
ing strong and table beer, 75/. and costs.
  John Cowel, brewer, for mixing table beer
with strong, 50/. and costs.
  John  Mitchell,  brewer,  for  mixing table
beer with strong, absconded.
  George  Lloyd  and  another, brewers, for
mixing  table beer with strong, 23/. and costs.
  James Edmunds and another,  brewers, for
mixing  table beer with strong, for a long pe-
riod, verdict 600/.
  John Hoffman, brewer,  for mixing  strong
  • Copied from the Minutes of the Committee of
the House of Commons, appointed for examining the
price and quality of Boer, 1819, p. 29, 36, 43- 
144     Adulteration of Beer.

and table beer, and using molasses,  ISO/, and
costs.
  Samuel Langworth,  brewer, for  mixing
strong with stale table beer, 10/. and costs.
  Hannah Spencer, brewer, for mixing strong
with stale table beer, verdict 150/.
  Joseph Smith and others, brewers, for mix-
ing strong and table beer.
  Philip George,  brewer,  for mixing strong
and table beer, verdict 200/.
  Joshua Row, brewer, for mixing strong and
table beer, verdict 400/.
  John Drew, jun. and another, for mixing
strong beer with table, 50/. and costs.
  John Cape, brewer,  for mixing strong and
table beer, 250/. and costs.
  John Williams and  another, brewers, for
mixing strong and table beer, verdict 200/.


  OLD, OR ENTIRE; AND NEW, OR MILD
                  BEER.

  It is necessary to state, that every pub-
lican has two sorts of beer sent to  him from
the brewer;  the one is called mild, which
is beer sent out fresh as it is brewed ; the
other is called old; that is. such as is brew-
ed on purpose for keeping, and which has
been kept in store a twelve-month or eigh-
teen months.   The origin of the  beer call- 
        Adulteration of Beer.     145

ed entire, is  thus related by the editor of
the Picture of London : " Before the  year
1730, the malt liquors in general ustd in
London were ale, beer, and two-penny ; and
it was customary to call for  a pint, or tan-
kard, of  half-and-half, i. e. half of ale and
half of beer,  half of  ale and half of  two-
penny.   In course of time it also became
the practice to call for a pint or tankard  of
three-threads, meaning a third of ale, beer,
and two-penny ; and  thus the publican had
the trouble to go  to three casks, and turn
three cocks, for a pint of liquor.   To avoid
this inconvenience and waste, a brewer  of
the name of  Harwood  conceived the idea
of making a liquor, which should partake
of the same united flavours of ale, beer, and
two-penny ; he did so, and succeeded, call-
ing it entire,  or entire butt, meaning that it
was drawn entirely from one cask or butt;
and as it was a very hearty and nourishing
liquor, and supposed to be very suitable for
porters  and  other working people, it ob-
tained the name of porter.''''  The system is
now altered,  and porter is  very generally
compounded of two  kinds, or rather the
same liquor in two different  states, the due
admixture of which  is palatable, though
neither is good alone.  One is mi/*/porter,
and the other stale porter; the former is that
                  N 
146     Adulteration of Beer.
which has a slightly bitter flavour; the latter
has been kept longer.  This mixture the
publican adapts to the palates of his several
customers,  and  effects  the  mixture  very
readily, by means of a machine, containing
small pumps worked by handles.  In these
are four pumps,  but only three spouts, be-
cause two of the pumps throw out at the
same spout: one  of these two pumps draws
the mild, and the other the stale porter,
from the casks down in the cellar ; and the
publican, by dexterously changing his  hold
works either pump, and draws both kinds
of beer at the same spout.  An indifferent
observer supposes, that since it all  comes
from one spout, it is entire butt beer, as the
publican professes over his door, and which
has been decided by vulgar prejudice to be
only good porter, though the difference is
not easily distinguished.   I  have been in-
formed  by several eminent  brewers,  that
of late, a far greater quantity is consumed
of mild than of stale beer.
  The entire beer of the modern brewer,
according to the  statement of C. Barclay,*
Esq. tl consists of some  beer brewed ex-
pressly for the purpose of keeping : it  like-
* See the Parliamentary Minutes, p. 94. 
Adulteration of Beer.     i4ff
wise contains a portion of returns from pub-
licans ; a portion of beer from the bottoms
of vats ; the beer that is drawn off from the
pipes, which convey the beer from one vat
to another,  and from one part of the pre-
mises to another.  This  beer is collected
and put into vats.   Mr. Barclay also states
that  it contains a certain portion of brown
stout,  which  is twenty shillings a  barrel
dearer than common beer;  and some bot-
tling beer, which  is ten shillings a  barrel
dearer ;*  and that  all these beers, united,
are put into vats, and that it depends upon
various circumstances, how long they may
remain in those vats before they become per-
fectly bright.  When bright, this  beer  is
sent out to the publicans, for their entire
beer, and there is sometimes a small quan-
tity  of mild beer  mixed with it."
   The  present entire beer, therefore, is a
very heterogeneous mixture, composed  of
all the waste and  spoiled beer of the pub-
licans—the bottoms of  butts—the leavings
of the pots—the drippings of the machines
  * Mr. Barclay has not specified the relative
proportions of brown stout and of bottling beer
which are introduced at such an augmentation
of expense. 
148    Adulteration of Beer.
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.
  The old or  entire beer we have  exam-
ined,  as  obtained   from  Messrs.  Bar-
clay's, and other eminent  London brew-
ers, is unquestionably a good compound;
but it does no longer appear to be  neces-
sary,  among fraudulent brewers, to brew
beer  on purpose  for keeping, or to keep
it  twelve  or eighteen  months.   A more
easy,  expeditious,  and  economical  me-
thod  has been discovered to convert any
sort of beer into entire beer, merely by the
admixture  of a portion  of sulphuric acid.
An imitation of the age of eighteen months
is  thus produced  in an instant.  This pro-
cess is technically called to bring beer for-
ward, or to make it hard.
   The practice is a bad one.  The  genu-
ine,  old,  or entire beer,  of the  honest
brewer, is quite a different compound ;  it
has  a rich, generous,  full-bodied  taste,
without being acid, and a vinous odour :
but it may, perhaps, not be generally known
that this kind of beer always  affords a less
proportion of alcohol than is produced from
mild  beer.   The practice of bringing beer 
         Adulteration of Beer.     14^

forward, it is to be understood, is resorted
to only by fraudulent brewers,*
   If, on the contrary, the brewer has too
large a stock of old beer on his hands, re*
course  is  had  to an  opposite practice  of
converting stale, half-spoiled, or sour beer,
into mild  beer,  by the simple admixture
of an alkali,  or an alkaline earth.   Oyster-
shell powder and subcarbonate of potash,
or soda, are  usually employed for that pur-
pose.   These substances neutralise the ex-
cess of acid, and render sour  beer some-
what palatable.   By this process  the beer
becomes very liable to spoil.
   It is the worst expedient that the brewer
can practise  : the beer thus rendered mild,
soon loses its vinous taste ; it becomes va-
pid ; and speedily assumes a muddy grey
colour,  and  an  exceedingly disagreeable
taste.
   These sophistications maybe considered,
at first, as minor crimes  practised by fraud-
ulent  brewers, when compared  with  the
methods employed by them for rendering
beer noxious to health by substances abso-
lutely injurious.
  * Mr Child,  in his Treatise on Brewing,
p. 23, directs, to make new beer older, use oil
t>f vitriol,
J                 N2 
150     Adulteration of Beer,
   To increase the  intoxicating  quality of
beer, the  deleterious vegetable  substance,
called cocculus indicus, and the extract of
this poisonous  berry,  technically called
black extract,  or, by some, hard  multum,
are employed. Opium, tobacco, nux vomi-
ca, and extract of poppies,  have  also  been
used.
   This  fraud  constitutes  by far the  most
censurable offence committed by unprinci-
pled brewers;  and  it is a lamentable re-
flection to behold so great a number of
brewers prosecuted and convicted of this
crime ; nor is  it less deplorable to find the
names of druggists, eminent in trade,  im-
plicated in the fraud, by selling the unlaw-
ful ingredients to brewers for fraudulent
purposes. 
Adulteration of Beer.     lot
 List of  Brewers prosecuted and convicted
  from  1813  to  1819, for receiving and
   using illegal Ingredients in their Brew-
   ings.*


   Richard Gardner, brewer, for using adulter-
 ating ingredients,  100/., judgment by default.
   Stephen Webi> and another, brewers, foi us-
 ing adulterating ingredients, and mixing strong
 and table beer, verdict 500/.
   Henry Wyatt,  brewer, for using adultera-
 ting ingredients, verdict 400/.
  John Harbart, retailer, for receiving adulte-
 rating ingredients, verdict  150/.
  Philip Blake »nd others, brewers, for using
 adulterating ingredients,  and mixing  strong
and table beer, verdict 250/.
  James Sneed, for receiving adulterating in-
gredients, 25/. and costs.
  John Rewell and another, brewers, ditto, ver-
dict 100/.
  John  Swain  and another,  ditto, for using
adulterating  ingredients, verdict 200/.
  * Copied from the Minutes of the Commit-
tee of the House of Commons appointed  for
examining  the  price  and quality of beer, p.
39, 36. 
15S     Adulteration of Beer.
  John Ing, brewer, ditto, stayed on defendant's
death.
  John Hall, ditto, for receiving  adulterating
ingitdients, 5/. and costs.
  John Webb, retailer, for using  adulterating
ingredients.
  Ralph F(g  and another, brewers, for receiv-
ing 'Mtl using adulterating ingredients
  John Gr..y, brewer, for using adulterating in-
gredients, 300/. and costs.
  Richard  Bowman, for  using liquid  in blad-
der, supposed to bt extract of cocculus, 100/.
  Richard  Bowman, brewer,  for ditto, 100/.
and costs.
  Septimus Stephens; brewer, for ditto, ver-
dict 50/.
  Jame-  Rogers and another, brewer, for ditto,
220/. and costs.
  George Moore, brewer, for using colouring,
300/. and costs.
  John Morris, for using adulterating ingre-
dients.
  Webb  and  Ball, for using ginger, Guinea
pepper, and brown powder, (name unknown),
1st. 100/. 2nd 500/.
  Henry  CLrke, for  using  molasses, 150/.
  Kewell and Burrows, for using  cocculus in-
dia, multum, &c. 100/.
  AlLtson  and Abraham, for using  cocculus
india, multum, and porter flavour, 630/.
  Swain and  Sewell, lor using cocculus india,
Guinea-opium, &c. 200/. 
Adulteration of Beer.      153
  John  Ing,  for using  cocculus  india, hard
colouring, and honey, dead.
  William Dean, for using molasses, 50/.
  John  Cowell,  for  using Spanish-liquorice,
an'! mixing table i.eer  with strong beer, 50/.
  John  Mitchell, for using cocculus india, vi-
triol, ^nd Guinea pepper, left the country.
  Llovd and  Man, for using extract of coccu-
lus, 25/.
  John  Gray, for using  ginger,  hartshorn
shavings, and molasses, 300/.
  John  Hoffman, for using molasses, Spanish
juice, and mixing table with strong beer, 130/.
  Rogers and B'»on, for using extract of coc-
culus. multum, porter flavour, ac. 220/.
  ---- Lietfeley, far using wormwood, corian-
der setd.  and Spanish juice, 200/.
  William L.me, brewei, for using wormwood
instejd  of hops,  5/. and coats.

  That a minute portion of an unwholesome
ingredient, daily taken in beer, cannot f.".l to
be  productive  of mischief, admits  of  no
doubt;  and there is reasons to believe that
a small quantity of a narcotic substance (and
cocculus indicus  is a powerful  narcotic*),
   *  The deleterious effect of Cocculus Indi-
cus (the fruit of the memispermum cocculus)
is  owing to a peculiar bitter principle con- 
154     Adulteration of Beer.
daily taken into the stomach, together with
an intoxicating  liquor, is highly more effi-
cacious 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 shew its
baneful effects at last.   Independent of this,
if  is  a  well-establised fact,  that  porter
drinkers are  very  liable  to apolexy  and
palsy, without  taking  this narcotic poison.
  If we judge from the preceding lists of
prosecutions and convictions furnished by
the Solicitor ofthe Excise*, it will be evident
that many wholesale brewers, as well as re-
tail dealers, stand very conspicuous among
those offenders.  But  the reader will like-
wise notice,  that there are no convictions,
in any instance, against any of the eleven
tained in it; which, when swallowed in mi-
nute quantities, intoxicates and acts as poison.
It may be obtained from cocculus indicus ber-
ries  in a  detached  state:—chemists call  it
picrotoxin,from vu^os, bitter; and to^ikov, poi-
son.
  * See Minutes of the House of  Commons,
p. 28, 36. 
Adulteration of Beer.     155
great London porter brewers* for any il-
legal practice.  The great London brew-
ers, it appears, believe that the publicans
alone adulterate the beer.   That  many of
the latter have been convicted of this fraud,
the Report of the Board of Excise amply
shews.—See p. 129.
  The following statement relating to this
subject, we transcribe from a  Parliament-
ary document :f
  Mr.   Perkins being  asked,  whether he1
believed that any  of the inferior brewers
adtilteratedbeer, answered, " I am satisfied
there are some, instances of that."
  Question.—" Do you believe publicans
do ?"   Answer.—" I  believe they do."
^.—" To a great extent ?"  A.—" Yes."
@.—« Do  you believe they adulterate  the
beer you sell them ?"  A.—" I am satisfied
  * Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Co.—Tru-
man,  Hanbury and Co —Reid' and Co.—.
Whitbread and Co.—Combe,  Deh.field, and
Co.—Henry Meux, and Co.—Calvert and Co.
—Goodwin and Co.—Elliot and Co.—Taylor
and Co.—Cox, and Camble and Co.
  See the Minutes, before  quoted, p. 32.
  t Ibid. p. 58, 
156     Adulteration of Beer.

there are some instances of that."—Mr. J.
Martineau* being asked  the following
   Question.^—" In your judgment is any
of the beer of the metropolis, as retailed to
the publican, mixed with ahv deleterious
ingredients ?"
   Answer.—" In  retailing beer, in  some
instances, it has been."
   ^iiestion.—" By whom, in your opinion,
has that been done ?"
   Answer.—" In that case  by the publi-
cans who vend it."
   On this point, it is but fair, to  the minor
brewers, to record also the answers of some
officers  of  the  revenue,  when  they were
asked whether they considered it more dif-
ficult to detect nefarious  practices in large
breweries than in small ones.
   Mr. J. Rogers being thus questioned  in
the Committee ofthe House of Commons,:}:
" Supposing the large brewers to use dele-
terious or any illegal ingredients to such an
amount as could be of any  importance to
their concern,  do  you think it would,  or
  * A partner  in  the  brewery of Messrs.
Whitbread and Co.
  t Minutes of the House of Commons, p. 104.
   | Minutes, before quoted, p. 22. 
       Adulteration of Beer.      15^

Would not, be  more easy to detect it  in
those large breweries, than in small ones ?"
his  answer was, " more  difficult to detect
it in the large  ones :"  and witness being
asked to state  the reason why, answered,
" Their premises are so much larger, and
there is so much more strength, that a cart
load or two is got rid of in a minute  or
two."  Witness " had known,  in five mi-
nutes, twenty barrels of molasses got rid of
as soon as the door was shut."
  Another witness, W. Wells, an excise offi-
cer,* in describing the contrivances used to
prevent detection, stated, that at a brewer's,
at Westham, the adulterating  substances
" were not kept on the premises, but in the
brewer's house ; not the  principal, but the
working brewers ; it not being considered,
when there, as liable to seizure : the brewer
had a very large jacket made  expressly for
that purpose, with very large pockets ; and,
on brewing mornings, he would take his
pockets full of the different ingredients.
Witness supposed that such a man's jacket,
similar to what he had described,  would
convey quite  sufficient for any  brewery in
England, as to cocculus indicus.91
* Minutes of the House of Commons, p. 40.
                o 
 158     Adulteration of Beer.

   That  it may be more  difficult  for  the
 officers of  the excise to detect  fraudulent
 practices in  large breweries than in small
 ones, may  be true to a certain extent:  but
 what eminent London porter brewer would
 stake his reputation on  the chance of so
 paltry a  gain, in which he would inevitably
 be  at the  mercy of his  own man?  The
 eleven great porter brewers of this metro-
 polis  are persons of so high respectability,
 that there  is no  ground for  the  slightest
 suspicion that they would attempt any ille-
 gal practices, which they were aware could
 not possibly escape detection  in their  ex-
 tensive establishments.   And let it be  re-
 membered, that none of  them  have been
 detected for  any unlawful  practices,* with
 regard to the processes of their manufacture,
 or the adulteration of their beer.


METHOD  OF  DETECTING  THE ADULTE-
           RATION  OF BEER.

  The detection of the adulteration of beer
with  deleterious vegetable substances  is
beyond the reach of chemical analysis. The
* Minutes of the House of Commons, p. 32. 
Adulteration of Beer.     159
presence of sulphate of iron (p.  134) may
be detected by evaporating the beer to per-
fect dryness,  and burning away the vege-
table  matter  obtained,  by the  action of
chlorate of pot-ash in a  red-hot crucible.
The sulphate of iron will  be left behind
among the residue  in  the crucible, which
when dissolved in water,  may be assayed,
for the constituent parts of the salt, namely,
iron and sulphuric acid : for the former, by
tincture of galls, ammonia, and prussiate of
potash ; and for the latter, by muriate of
barytes.*
  Beer, which has been rendered fraudu-
lently hard (see  p. 148) by the admixture
of sulphuric acid, affords a white precipitate
(sulphate of barytes), by dropping into it a
solution of acetate or muriate of barytes ;
and this precipitate, when collected  by fil-
tering the  mass, and after having been
dried, and heated red-hot for a few minutes
in a platina crucible, does not disappear by
the addition of nitric, or muriatic acid. Ge-
nuine old beer may produce a precipitate ;
but the precipitate which  it  affords, after
  * See a Treatise on the Use and Applica-
tion of Chemical Tests, 3d edition ; Tests for
Sulphuric Acid, &c. 
160    Adulteration of Beer.
having been made red-hot in a platina cru-
cible, instantly becomes re-dissolved with
effervescence by pouring on  it some pure
nitric or muriatic acid ; in that case the pre-
cipitate is malate  (not sulphate) of barytes,
and is owing to  a portion  of malic acid
having been formed in the beer.
  But with regard to the  vegetable mate-
rials deleterious to health, it is extremely
difficult, in any instance, to detect them by
chemical agencies; and in most cases it is
quite  impossible, as in that of cocculus  in-
dicus in beer.
METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE QUANTITY
  OF SPIRIT CONTAINED IN PORTER, ALE,
  OR OTHER KINDS OF MALT LIQUORS.

  Take any quantity of the beer, put it in-
to a glass retort, furnished with a receiver,
and distil, with a gentle heat, as long as any
spirit passes over into the receiver; which
may be known by heating from time to time
a small  quantity of the obtained  fluid  in a
tea-spoon over a candle, and bringing  into
contact with the vapour of it the flame of a
piece  of  paper.   If the vapour of the  dis-
tilled  fluid catches fire, the distillation must
be continued until the vapour ceases to be 
Adulteration of Beer.     161
set on fire by the contact of a flaming body.
To the distilled liquid thus obtained, which
is the  spirit  of the  beer, combined with
water, add, in small quantities at  a time,
pure subcarbonate of  potash (previously
freed from water by  having  been exposed
to a red heat,) till the last portion  of this
salt added, remains undissolved in the fluid.
The spirit will thus become separated from
the  water, because the subcarbonate of pot-
ash abstracts from it the whole of the water
which it contained ;  and this combination
sinks to  the  bottom, and the spirit alone
floats on the  top.   If this  experiment  be
made in a glass tube, about  half or three-
quarters of  an inch  in diameter, and gra-
duated into  50 or 100 equal parts, the rela-
tive per centage of spirit in a given quan-
tity of beer  may be seen by mere  inspec-
tion.
02 
163     Adulteration of Beer.
Quantity of Alcohol contained in Porter,
  Ale, and other kinds of Malt Liquors.^

One hundred parts, by Measure,      Parts of Alcohol,
      contained.                 by Measure.
  Ale, home-brewed     .     .     8,30
  Ale, Burton, three samples      6,25
  Ale, Burton*   .     .    .     8,88
  Ale, Edinburgh*      .    .     6,20
  Ale, Dorchester*      .    .     5,50
  Ale, common London-brewed,") _ _
      six samples      .    .    j '
  Ale, Scotch, three samples      5,75
  Porter, London, eight samples   4,00
  Ditto, Dittof    .    .    .    4,20
  Ditto, Dittof    .     .    .    4,45
  Ditto, Ditto, bottled  .    .     4,75
  Brown Stout, four samples .     5
  Ditto, Dittof    .     .    .     6,80
  Small Beer, six samples    .     0,75
  Ditto, Dittof    .  '   .    .     i?28
  5 Repository of Arts, No. 2, p. 74.—1316.
  * Copied from Professor Brande's Paper in
the Philosophical Transactions,  1811, p. 345.
  t Result of our own Experiments, see  n.
127.                                   l
  f Professor Brande's Experiments. 
163
Counterfeit Tea-Leaves.
  The late detections that have been made
respecting the illicit establishments for the
manufacture of imitation tea leaves, arrest-
ed, not long ago, the attention of the pub-
lic ; and the parties by whom these manu-
factories were conducted, together with the
numerous venders of the factitious tea, did
not escape the hand of justice. In proof of
this statement, it is only necessary to con-
sult the  London newspapers (the Times
and the Courier) from March to July 1818;
which show to what extent this  nefarious
traffic has been carried on ; and they report
also the prosecutions and convictions of nu-
merous individuals who  have been guilty
of the fraud.  The following are some of
those prosecutions and convictions.
  Hatton  Garden.—On   Saturday au
information came to be heard  at this office,
before Thomas Leach, Esq. the sitting ma-
gistrate, against a man of the  name of Ed-
mund Rhodes, charged with having, on the 
164       Counterfeit Tea.
12th of August last,  dyed, fabricated, and
manufactured, divers large quantities, viz.
one hundred weight of sloe  leaves, one
hundred  weight of ash leaves, one hundred
weight of elder leaves, and one  hundred
weight of the leaves of a certain other tree,
in imitation of tea, contrary to the statute
ofthe 17th of Geo. III.* whereby the said
Edmund Rhodes had, for every pound of
such leaves so manufactured, forfeited the
sum of 5l. making the total ofthe penalties
amount to 2,000/. The second count  in the
information charged the said Rhodes with
having in his possession the above quanti-
ty of sloe, ash, elder,  and other leaves,
under the like penalty of 2,000/. The third
count charged  him  with having, on the
said 12th of August last, in his possession,
divers  quantities, exceeding  six  pounds
weight of each respective kind of leaves;
viz. fifty pounds weight of green sloe leaves,
fifty pounds weight of green leaves of ash,
fifty pounds weight of green leaves of elder,
and fifty  pounds weight of the green leaves
of a certain other tree ;  not having proved
that such leaves  were gathered with the
  * Also, 2 Geo. I, c. 30, § 5; and 4 Geo. II,
c. 14, § 11. 
           Counterfeit Tea.       165/

consent ofthe owners ofthe trees and shrubs
from which they were taken, and that such
leaves were gathered for some other use,
and not for the purpose of  manufacturing
the same in imitation of tea ; whereby he had
forfeited for each pound  weight, the sum
of 5/. amounting in the whole to  1,000/.  ;
and, in default of payment, in each  case,
subjected  himself to be committed to the
house of correction for  not  more  than
twelve months, nor less than six months.
  Mr. Denton, who appeared for the de-
fendant, who was absent, said that he was
a very poor man, with a family of five chil-
dren,  and was only the servant of the real
manufacturer, and an  ignorant man from
the country, put into the premises to  carry
on the business, without knowing what the
leaves were intended for.  By direction of
Mr. Mayo, who conducted the prosecution,
several barrels and bags,  filled with the
imitation tea,  were then brought  into the
office, and  a  sample  from each handed
round.  To the eye  they  seemed a good
imitation of tea.
   The defendant was convicted in the pe-
nalty  of 500/. on the second count.
   The Attorney-General against Palmer.
■—This was an action by the  Attorney-
General  against the  defendant,  Palmer, 
 166       Counterfeit Tea.

 charging him with having in his possession
 a quantity of sloe-leaves and  while-thorn
 leaves, fabricated into  an imitation of tea.
   Mr. Dauncey stated the case to the jury,
 and observed that the defendant, Mr. Pal-
 mer, was a grocer.   It would appear that
 a regular manufactory was  established  in
 Goldstone-street.  The parties by whom
 the manufactory was conducted, was a per-
 son of the name of Proctor, and   another
 person named J. Malins.  They  engaged
 others to furnish them with leaves, which,
 after  undergoing a certain process, were
 sold to and drank by the public as tea. The
 leaves, in  order to be converted  into  an'
 article resembling black tea, were first boil-
 ed, then baked  upon an  iron  plate ; and,
 when dry, rubbed with the hand,  in  order
 to produce  that curl which  the genuine tea
had.  This was the most wholesome part
 ofthe operation ; for the colour, which was
yet to be given  to it, was produced by log-
wood.  The green tea was manufactured
 in a manner more destructive  to  the con-
stitution of those by whom it was drank.
 The leaves, being pressed and dried, were
laid upon sheets of copper, where  they re-
 ceived their colour from  an article known
 by the name  of Dutch pink.  The article
 used in  producing the appearance of the 
Counterfeit Tea.      167
fine green bloom, observable on the China
tea, was, however, decidedly a dead poi-
son ! He alluded to verdigris,  which was
added to the Dutch pink in order to com-
plete the operation.   This  was the case
which he had to bring before the jury ; and
hence it would appear, that, at the moment
they were supposing  they were drinking a
pleasant and nutritious beverage, they were,
in fact, in all probability, drinking the pro-
duce of the  hedges round the metropolis,
prepared for the  purposes of deception in
the most noxious manner.  He trusted he
should be enabled to trace to the possession
of the  defendant eighty pounds  weight of
the commodity he had been describing.
   Thomas Jones deposed,  that  he  knew
Proctor, and was employed by him at the
latter end of April, 1817, to  gather black
and white thorn leaves. Sloe  leaves were
the black thorn.  Witness also knew John
Malins,the son of William Malins, a coffee-
roaster ; he did not  at first know the pur-
pose for  which the leaves were  gathered,
but afterwards learnt they  were to make
imitation tea.  Witness did not gather more
than one hundred and a half weight of these
leaves ; but he employed another person, of
the name of John Bagster, to gather them.
 He  had  two-pence  per  found for  them. 
168        Counterfeit Tea.
 They were  first boiled,  and  the water
 squeezed from them in a press. They were
 afterwards placed over a slow  fire upon
 sheets of copper to dry ; while on the cop-
 per they were rubbed with the hand to curl
 them.  At the time of boiling there was a
 little  verdigris put into the water (this ap-
 plied to green tea only.)   After the leaves
 were  dried, they were sifted, to separate
 the thorns  and stalks.   After  they were
 sifted, more  verdigris and  some  Dutch-
 pink were  added.    The verdigris gave
 the leaves that green bloom observable on
 genuine tea.
   The black tea went through a similar
 course as the green, except the application
 of Dutch pink: a little verdigris was put
 in the boiling, and to this was added a small
 quantity of logwood to dye it, and thus the
 manufacture was complete. The drying ope-
 ration took place on sheets of iron. Witness
 knew the defendant, Edward Palmer;  he
 took some of the mixture he had been de-
 scribing, to his shop. The first time he took
 some  was in May, 1817.   In the course of
 that month, or the beginning of June,  he
 took four or five seven-pound parcels; when
he took it there,  it was taken  up  to the
 top of the house.. Witness afterwards car-
 ried some to Russell-street, which was taken 
Counterfeit Tea.       169
to the top of the house, about one hundred
weight and three quarters ; from this quan-
tity he carried fifty-three pounds weight to
the  house of the defendant's porter, by the
desire of Mr. Malins ; it was in paper par-
cels of seven pounds each.
  John Bagster proved that he had been
employed by Malins and Proctor, to gather
sloe and white-thorn leaves:  they were
taken  to Jones's house, and from thence to
Malin's coffee-roasting premises ; witness
received  two-pence per pound for them ;
he saw the manufacturing going  on,  but
did not know much  about it:  witness saw
the  leaves on sheets  of copper, in  Gold-
stone-street.
  This was the case for the Crown.—Ver-
dict for the Crown, 840/.
  The  Attorney-General against  John
Prentice.—This was an information similar
to the last, in which the defendant submit-
ted to a verdict for the Crown.
  The Attorney-General against  Lawson
Holmes.—In  this case the defendant sub-
mitted to a verdict for the Crown.
  The  Attorney-General against  John
Orkney.—Thomas Jones proved  that the
defendant was a grocer, and in the month
of  May  last  he carried to his shop seven
pounds  of imitation  tea, by the  order of
                   P 
170        Counterfeit Tea.

John Malins, for which  he received the
money, viz.  15*. 9d. or 2*. 3d. per pound.
  The jury found a verdict for the Crown
—Penalties 70/.
  The  Attorney-General  against  James
Gray.—The defendant submitted to a ver-
dict for the Crown.—Penalties 120/.
  The  Attorney-General against  H. Gil-
bert, and Powel.—These defendants sub-
mitted  to a verdict.—Penalties 140/.
  The  Attorney-General against  William
Clarke.—This defendant also submitted to
a verdict for the Crown.
  The  Attorney-General  against  George
David Bellis.—This defendant submitted
to a verdict for the Crown.
   The  Attorney-General  against   John
Horner.—The defendant in  this case was
a grocer;  it was proved  by Jones  that he
received twenty pounds of imitation tea.—
Verdict for  the Crown.—Penalties 210/.
   The Attorney General against  William
Dowling.—This was   a grocer.    Jones
proved that he  delivered seven pounds of
imitation tea at Mr. Dowling's house, and
received the money for  it, namely 15*. 9d.
—Penalties 70/. 
171
METHOD OF DETECTING  THE  ADULTERA-
             TIONS OF TEA.

  The adulteration of tea may be evinced
by comparing the botanical characters of
the leaves of the  two respective trees, and
by submitting them to the action of a few
chemical tests.
  The  shape of the tea-leaf is  slender
and narrow,  as shewn in this sketch, the
edges are deeply serrated, and  the end or
extremity is acutely pointed.  The texture
of the leaf is  very delicate, its surface
smooth and glossy, and its colour is a lively
pale green. 
172    Method of Detecting
  The sloe-leaf (and also the white-thorn
leaf,) as shewn in this sketch,  is  more
rounded, and the  leaf is obtusely pointed.
The serratures or jags on the. edges are not
so deep, the surface of the leaf is more un-
even, the texture not so delicate, and the
colour is a dark olive green.
  These characters of course can be ob-
served only after the dried leaves have
been suffered to macerate in water for about
twenty-four hours.
  The leaves of some sorts of tea may differ
in size, but the shape is the same in all  of
them; because all the different kinds of tea
imported from China, are  the produce  of
one species of plant, and the difference be-
tween the green  and souchong, or  black
tea,   depends  chiefly  upon  the climate,
soil, culture, age, and mode of drying the
leaves.
 
      the Adulterations of Tea.   173

  Spurious black tea,* slightly moistened,
when rubbed on a sheet of white paper, im-
mediately produces  a blueish-black  stain ;
and speedily affords, when thrown into cold
water, a blueish-black tincture, which in-
stantly becomes  reddened  by letting fall
into it, a drop or two of sulphuric acid.
  Two   ounces of  the  suspected  leaves
should be infused  in half-a-pint  of cold,
soft water, and suffered  to stand for about
an hour.  Genuine tea produces an amber-
coloured infusion, which does not become
reddened by  sulphuric acid.
  All  the samples  of spurious green tea
(nineteen in  number) which  I have exa-
mined,  were  coloured with carbonate  of
copper (a poisonous substance,) and not by
means of verdigris,  or copperas.f   The
  * The examination of twenty-seven samples
of imitation tt.< of different qualities, from the
most costly, to the most  common, which it
fell to my lot 'o undertake, induces me to
point out the   ;>rks of sophistications  here
detailed, as the most simple and expeditious.
  t Mr  Twining, an eminent tea-merchant,
as»etts,  that  "the leaves  of spurious tea are
boiled in a copper, with copperas and sleep's
dun?.—See Encyclop. Britan.  vol. xviii. p.
                   n 
174     Method of Detecting
latter substances  would instantly turn the
tea black; because both these metallic salts
being soluble in water, are acted on by the
astringent matter of the leaves, whether
genuine or spurious, and convert the infu-
sion into ink.
  Tea, rendered poisonous by carbonate of
copper,  speedily imparts to liquid ammo-
nia a fine sapphire blue  tinge.   It is only
necessary to shake up in a stopped vial, for
a few minutes, a tea-spoonful of the sus-
pected leaves, with about two table-spoons-
ful of liquid ammonia,  diluted with half
its bulk of water.  The  supernatant liquid
will exhibit a fine blue colour, if  the mi-
nutest quantity of copper be present.
   Green tea,  coloured with carbonate of
copper, when thrown into  water  impreg-
nated with sulphuretted hydrogen  gas, im-
mediately acquires a black colour. Genuine
green tea suffers no change from the action
of these tests.
   The presence of copper may be further
rendered obvious, by mixing one part of the
suspected  tea-leaves, reduced to powder,
331. 1797.  See also the History of the  Tea
Plant, p. 48.;  and p. 167 of this Treatise. 
the Adulterations of Tea.   175
with two or three parts of nitrate of potash,
(or with two parts of chlorate of  potash,)
and projecting this mixture by  small por-
tions at a time, into a platina, or porcelain-
ware crucible, kept red-hot in a coal fire ;
the whole vegetable matter ofthe tea leaves
will thus become destroyed, and the oxide
of copper left behind, in combination with
the potash, of the nitrate of potash  (or salt-
petre,)  or  with the muriate of potash,  if
chlorate of potash has been employed.
   If water, acidulated with nitric  acid, be
then poured into the crucible to  dissolve
the mass, the presence of the copper may
be rendered manifest by adding to the so-
lution,  liquid ammonia, in such  quantity
that the pungent odour of it predominates. 
176
Counterfeit Coffee.
  The fraud of counterfeiting ground cof-
fee  by means of pigeon's beans and pease,
is another subject which, not long  ago, ar-
rested the attention of the public : and from
the  numerous convictions of grocers prose-
cuted for the offence, it is evident that this
practice has been carried on for a long time,
and to a considerable  extent.
  The following statement  exhibits  some
of the prosecutions, instituted by the Soli-
citor  of the Excise,  against  persons con-
victed of the fraud of manufacturing spu-
rious, and adulterating genuine coff-.e.
  Alexander Brady, a grocer, {Seep. 182)
prosecuted and convicted of selling sham-
coffee, said,  " I have sold  it for twenty
years."  Some of  the persons prosecuted
by the Solicitor of the Excise for this fraud,
we  might,  at  first sight, be  inclined to be-
lieve, were inconscious that the adulterating
of genuine coffee with spurious substances
was illegal;  but this ignorance affords no
excuse, as the Act ofthe 43 Geo. III. cap. 
          Counterfeit Coffee,      177

129, explicitly states:  " If after the first day
of September, 1803,  any burnt, scorched,
or roasted pease, beans, or other grain, or
vegetable substance or substances prepared
or manufactured for the purpose of being
in imitation of or in any respect to resem-
ble coffee or cocoa, or to serve as a substi-
tute  for coffee or cocoa, or alleged  or pre-
tended by the  possessor or vender thereof
so to be, shall  be made, or kept for sale, or
shall be offered or exposed to sale, or shall
be found in the  custody or possession of
any  dealer or dealers in or seller or sellers
of coffee, or if any burnt, scorched, or roast-
ed pease, beans, or other grain, or vegeta-
ble substance or substances not being coffee,
shall be  called by the preparer,  manufac-
turer, possessor, or vender thereof, by the
name of English  or British  coffee, or any
Other name of coffee, or  by the  name of
American cocoa, or English  or British co-
coa,  or any other name of cocoa, the same
respectively shall be forfeited, together with
the packages containing the same, and shall
and  may be seized by any officer or officers
of Excise ;  and the person or persons pre-
paring, manufacturing, or selling the same,
or having the same in his, her, or their cus-
tody or possession, or the dealer or dealers
in or seller or sellers of coffee or cocoa, in 
178       Counterfeit Coffee.
whose  custody the same shall  be found,
shall forfeit and lose the sum of one hundred
pounds."
   The Attorney-General against  William
Malins.—This was an information filed by
the Attorney-Generalagainst the defendant,
charging him, he being a dealer in coffee,
with having in his possession a large quan-
tity of imitation coffee, made from scorched
pease and beans, resembling coffee, and in-
tended to be sold as such, contrary to the
statute of the 43d of the King, whereby he
became liable to  pay a fine of 100/.
  J. Lawes deposed that he had lived ser-
vant with the defendant;  he  constantly
roasted pease and beans, and ground them
into powder. When so ground, the powder
very much resembled coffee.   Sometimes
the sweepings of the coffee were thrown in
among the pease and beans.  Witness car-
ried out this powder to several grocers in
different parts of the town.
   Thomas Jones lived with the defendant.
His occupation was roasting and grinding
pease  and  beans.   They looked,  when
ground, the same as coffee.  Witness had
seen Mr. John Malins sweep up the refuse
coffee, and mix it with the pease and beans.
He had taken out this mixture to  grocers.
   J. Richardson, an excise-officer, deposed, 
         Counterfeit Coffee.      179

that, in December 1817, he went to  the
premises of the defendant, and there seized
four sacks,  five tubs, and nine pounds in
paper, of a powder made to resemble coffee.
The quantity ground was 1,567 pounds ; it
had  all the appearance of coffee j and a
little coffee being  mixed with it, any com-
mon person  might be deceived.   He  also
seized two sacks,  containing 279 pounds
of whole pease and beans roasted.   Among
the latter were some grains of coffee.  The
witness here produced samples of the arti-
cles seized.
  John Lawes deposed,  that the articles
exhibited were such as he was in the habit
of manufacturing while in Mr. Malins' em-
ployment.
  The jury found a verdict for the Crown.
—Penalty 100/.
   The King against Chaloner.—Mr. Cha-
loner, a dealer in tea and coffee, was charged
on the oaths  of Charles  Henry Lord and
John Pearson, both Excise officers,  with
having in his possession, on the 17th of
March, nine pounds of spurious coffee, con-
sisting of burnt pease, beans, and gravel or
sand, and a portion of coffee, and with  sell-
ing some of the same ; also  with having in
his possession seventeen pounds  of vege-
table powder, and an article imitating cof- 
 180      Counterfeit Coffee.

 fee, which contained not a particle of ge«*
 nuine coffee.
   The defendant was convicted in the pe-
 nalty of 90/.
   The King against Peether.—This was an
 information against Mr. Thomas  Peether,
 tea and coffee dealer, charging him with
 haying in his possession a quantity of imi-
 tation coffee (or vegetable powder) on the
 25th of April last.
   The case being proved by the evidence
 of  several  witnesses, the defendant was
 cocvicted in the penalty of 50/.
   The King against Topping__This was an
 information against Mr. John Lewis Top-
 ping, a dealer in tea and  coffee, charging
 him with having thirty-seven pounds of ve-
 getable powder in his possession.  The ar-
 ticle seized was produced to  the commis-
 sioners ofthe Excise.
  The  defendant  was convicted  in the
penalty  of 50/.
   The King against Samuel Hallett.—The
defendant, Hallett, a grocer and dealer in
tea and coffee, was charged  with having
seven pounds of imitation  coffee in his
possession.
   Charles Henry Lord,  an  officer of the
 Excise, being sworn,  stated, that he and
 Spencer, an officer, went, on the 28th of 
         Counterfeit Coffee.      181

February last, to the shop of the defendant,
and asked for an ounce of coffee,  at three
halfpence per ounce. He received the same,
and having paid for it, left the shop.   He
examined the article, and found it was part
coffee,  and part imitation  coffee,  or what
the defendant  called  vegetable  powder,
which  is nothing more nor less than burnt
pease and beans ground in  a mill.
  Spencer, the officer of the Excise, corro-
borated the above evidence, and stated, that
the sham-coffee seized at the  defendant's
house was shown to Mr. Joseph Hubbard,
grocer, and tea and coffee  dealer, in High-
street,  in the Borough of Southwark.
  Mr. Hubbard being sworn, stated, that
he had examined the sham-coffee seized by
the officers in the defendant's  shop.  The
one ounce purchased by Lord, he knew to
be nothing else than black pigeon's beans ;
there was no coffee amongst it.
  The defendant was convicted in the pe-
nalty of 50/.
   The King against Fox.—*Mr.  Edward
Fox, grocer, and dealer in tea and coffee,
was charged with  having  a large  quantity
of sham-coffee  in his possession, and with
selling the same for genuine coffee.
   Henry Spencer, *n officer of the Excise,
stated, that on the 21st of  February he and
                    Q 
18S      Counterfeit Coffee.
Lord, another officer, went to  the defen-
dant's shop and purchased an ounce of cof-
fee,  for  which he  paid  three  halfpence.
They examined it, and he was  satisfied it
was  not  genuine coffee;  they  purchased
another ounce (which he produced  to the
commissioners of the Excise, who examin-
ed it); they were convinced it consisted
partly of coffee and beans and pease.
  The  defendant, in his defence said, that
the poor people  wanted a  low-price  arti-
cle ;  and by mixing the vegetable powder
and coffee together, he was able to  sell it
at three halfpence an ounce ; he  had sold it
for years ; he did it as a matter of accom-
modation to the  poor, who could not give
a higher price j  he did not sell it for ge-
nuine coffee.
  Commissioner.—" Then you  have been
defrauding the public for many years, and
injuring  the revenue by your illicit  prac-
tices : the poor have an equal right  to be
supplied  with  as genuine an article  as the
rich."
  He was convicted in the penalty of 50/.
  The King against Brady.—The defend-
ant,  Mr. Alexander  Brady, grocer, and
dealer in tea and coffee, was charged with
having, on the 28th of February last,  in his
possession  eighteen pounds of  sham-cof-
fee, and selling the same for genuine coffee. 
          Counterfeit Coffee.      183

  Lord and Pearson, Excise officers, stated,
that  they  purchased an ounce of coffee of
the defendant, on the 28th of February, and
upon examining it they discovered that it
was  made up of pease and  beans, ground
with a small quantity  of coffee.  They also
found eighteen pounds of vegetable powder
mixed with coffee, in a  state prepared for
\sale, wrapped in papers.
  One of the commissioners tasted some
of the eighteen  pounds of sham-coffee pro-
duced by  the officers,  and declared that it
was  a  most infamous stuff,  and unfit for
human food.
  Defendant.—." Why, I have sold it for
twenty years."
   Commissioner.—" Then you  have been
for twenty years acting  most dishonestly,
defrauding the  revenue ; and the health of
the poor must have suffered very much by
taking such an  unwholesome article. Your
having dealt in this article  so  long aggra-
vates your case; you have for twenty years
been selling burnt beans and pease for ge-
nuine coffee.—You are convicted in the pe-
nalty of 50/."
   The King against Bowser.—The excise
officers stated, that on  the 28th of February
they went to his shop:  he  was a grocer,
and  dealer in tea and  coffee ; they seized
seven pounds and a half of vegetable pow- 
 18$      Counterfeit Coffee.

 der, which contained very little coffee, if
 any ; and also a quarter of a pound of cof-
 fee mixed with vegetable powder.
   The  defendant  pleaded guilty to the
 charge, and prayed the court to  mitigate
 the penalty.   He was convicted in the pe-
 nalty of 50/.
   The King against Thomas Owen.-^-The
 defendant, an extensive dealer in tea and
 coffee, appeared to an information charging
 him with having in his possession, and sell-
 ing, a quantity of deleterious ingredients,
 and mixing them with coffee.
   Charles Henry Lord deposed, that on
 the 26th of February, he found, at the shop
 of the defendant,  nineteen pounds of a
 composition consisting of beans and pease
 ground, and  prepared so as to imitate cof-
 fee.  He  also discovered two pounds and
 a half of a mixture of coffee and vegetable
powder.   On the same day he  proceeded
to another shop of the defendant, and he
 there found five pounds more of the same
 stuff.
   Samples of the composition, in its mixed
 and unmixed state, were produced.
   Mr. Lawes addressed the commissioners
 on behalf of the defendant, in mitigation of
 punishment;  for he did not mean to deny
 the offence.   His client was a very young 
Counterfeit Coffee.      185
man,  and had  been most unfortunate in
business.  He was not aware until lately of
the existence of any law by which it could
be punished.
  The Commissioners observed, that they
had a double duty to perform, namely, to
protect  the  revenue from  fraud,  and to
prevent the public from being imposed up-
on  and injured by ingredients served to
them instead of the food they intended to
purchase.  The fraud  upon the revenue
was, in the estimation ofthe court, the least
part of the offence.   Under all the circum-
stances, however, the  court was inclined
to be lenient to the defendant.
   He was convicted in the penalty of 50*.
for each quantity of sham-coffee.
   Mr.  Greely  and  Mr. William  Dando
were find 20/. each ;  and Mr. Hirling and
Mr. Terry were fined 90/. each for selling
spurious coffee.
   The adulteration of ground coffee, with
pease and beans, is beyond  the reach of
chemical analysis ; but it may, perhaps, not
be amiss on this occasion to give  to our
readers a piece of advice given by a retired
grocer to a  friend, at no distant period :—
" Never, my good fellow," he said, " pur-
chase from  a grocer any thing which pas-
ses through his mill.  You know not what
                    Q2 
186      Counterfeit Coffee.

you get instead of  the article you  expect
to receive—coffee,  pepper,  and all-spice,
are all mixed with  substances which de-
tract from their own natural qualities."—
Persons keeping mills of their  own can at
all times prevent these impositions. 
187
Adulteration of Brandy, Rum, and
                 Gin.
   By the Excise laws  at present  existing
in this  country, the  various  degrees' of
strength of brandy, rum, arrack, gin, whis-
.key, and other  spiritous  liquors, chiefly
composed of little else than spirit of wine,
are determined by the quantity of alcohol
of a given specific gravity contained in the
spiritous liquors of a supposed unknown
strength. The great public importance of
this subject in this country, where  the con-
sumption of spiritous liquors adds a vast
sum to the  public revenue, has been the
means of instituting many  very  interesting
series of experiments on this subject.  The
instrument  used for that purpose  by the
Customs and officers of Excise, is called
Sikes's hydrometer,* which has now su-
  * George  III. c. xxviii. May 1818.—« An
Act for establishing the use of Sikes's hydro-
meter in  ascertaining the  strength of spirit,
instead of Clark's hydrometer." 
188        Adulteration of
 perseded the instrument called Clark's hy-
 drometer, heretofore in use.
   The  specific gravity or strength of the
 legal standard spirit of the Excise, is tech-
 nically called proof'or proof spirit.   " This
 liquor (not being spirit sweetened, or hav-
 ing any ingredient dissolved in it, to defeat
 the strength thereof,) at the temperature of
 57° Faht. weighs exactly ||th parts of an
 equal measure  of  distilled water;"  and
 with this spirit the strength of  all  other
 spiritous  liquors are compared according
 to law.
   The  strength  of spirit stronger than
proof 'or over proof, as it is termed  by the
 revenue officers, is indicated by the bulk of
 water necessary to reduce  a given  volume
 of it, to the legal standard spirit, denomi-
 nated proof*— namely ; if one gallon of wa-
 ter be required to bring twenty gallons of
 brandy, rum, or any other spirit, to proof,
 that spirit is said so be 1  to 20 over proof.
 If one gallon of water  be required to bring
 15, 10,  5, or 2 gallons ofthe liquor to proof
 it is said to be  1 to 15, 1 to 10, 1 to 5, and
 1 to 2, over proof .
   The strength of brandy, rum, arrack, gin,
 or other spiritous  liquors,  weaker than
proof, or  under proof, is estimated  by the 
             Spiritous Liquors.       189

  quantity of water which would be necessary
  to abstract or bring  the spirit up to proof.
    Thus, if from twenty gallons of brandy
  one  gallon of water must be abstracted to
  bring it to  proof, it is said to be  1  in 20
  under proof.   If from 15,  10, 5, or 2 gal-
  lons of the liquor, 1 gallon of water must
  be abstracted  to bring it to proof, it is said
  to be 1  in 15, 1 in 10, 1 in 5, and 1  in 2 un-
  der proof.
     It is  necessary to understand this absurd
  language, which is in use amongst the offi-
  cers of Excise  and dealers in spirit,  in
(, order to know what is meant in commerce
  by the strength of spiritous liquors of dif-
  ferent denominations.  And hence, for the
  ' business of the exciseman, a table has been
  constructed,  expressing the  strength  or
f  cpecific gravity of mixtures of different pro-
  portions of spirit and water, at different de-
  grees  of  temperature ; and according to
  this table the duty on spirit is now levied.
     Brandy and rum  is seizable, if  sold by,
  or found in the possession of,  the dealer,
  unless  it  possesses  a certain strength.*
   The following are the words of the Act:
  * Sixteen  and a  half per cent, proof, ac-
cording to Sikes's hydrometer. 
190        Adulteration of
  " No distiller, rectifier,* compounder or
dealer, shall serve or send out any foreign
spirits, of a lower strength than that of l
in 6 under hydrometer proof,f nor have in
his possession anv foreign spirits mixed to-
gether, except shrub,  cherry  or  raspberry
brandy, of lower strength than as aforesaid,
upon pain of such  spirits being forfeited ;
and such spirits, with the casks and ves-
sels containing the  same, may be seized by
any officer of Excise."
  We have, therefore, a ready check against
the frauds of the dishonest dealers, in  spi-
ritous liquors.  If the spirit merchant en-
gages  to  deliver  a  liquor  of  a certain
strength, the hydrometer is by far the most
easy and expeditious  check that can be
adopted to guard against frauds of receiving
a weaker liquor for a stronger one ; and to
those individuals who are  in the  habit of
purchasing large quantities of brandy, rum,
or other spiritous liquors, the hydrometer
renders the  greatest service.  For it is by
no means an uncommon occurrence to meet
with brandy, rum, and other spiritous li-
quors,  of a specific gravity very much be-
low the pretended strength which the liquor
ought to possess.
* 30 Geo. III. c. 37, § 31.
t According to Clarke's hydrometer. 
Spiritous Liquors.      191
  The  following  advice  given  to  his
readers,* by the author of a Treatise  on
Brewing and Distilling, may serve to put
the unwary on their guard against some
of the  frauds  practised  by mercenary
dealers.
  " It is a custom among retailing distillers,
which I have not taken notice of  in this di-
rectory, to put one-third or one-fourth part
of proof molasses brandy, proportionably,to
what rum  they dispose  of; which cannot
be distinguished, but by an extraordinary
palate, and does not at all lessen the body or
proof of the goods ; but makes them about
two shillings a gallon cheaper ; and must be
well mixed and incorporated together in
your  retailing cask ; but you should keep
some of the best rum, not adulterated, to
please some  customers, whose  judgment
and palate must be humoured."
   " When you  are  to draw a  sample of
goods to shew a person that has judgment
in the proof, do not draw your goods into
a phial to be tasted, or make experiment of
the strength thereof that way, because the
  * Observations  on Malted  and  Unmalted
Corn, connected with Brewing and  Distilling,
p.  167; and Shannon on Brewing and Dis-
tilling,  p. 232, 233. 
19&       Adulteration of
proof will not hold except the goods be ex-
ceedingly strong ;  but draw the pattern of
goods either into a glass from the cock, to
run very small, or rather draw off a small
quantity into a little  pewter pot and pour
it into your glass, extending your  pot as
high above the glasses as you can without
wasting it, which makes the goods carry a
better head abundantly, than if  the same
goods were to be put and tried in a phial."
   " You must be so  prudent as to make a
distinction of the persons you have to  deal
with ; what goods you sell to gentlemen for
their own use, who require a great deal of
attendance, and as  much for time of pay-
ment, you must take a considerably greater
price than of others ; what goods you sell
to persons where you believe  there  is  a
manifest, or at least  some hazard of your
money, you may safely sell for more than
common profit; what goods you sell to the
poor,  especially medicinally, (as many of
your goods are sanative,)  be as compas-
sionate as the cases require."
   " All brandies, whether French, Spanish,
or English, being proof goods, will admit
of one point of liquor* to each gallon, to
* Water*, 
Spiritous Liquors.       193
be made up and incorporated therewith in
your  cask,  for retail, or selling smaller
quantities ; and all persons that insist upon
having  proof  goods,  which not one in
twenty understands, you must supply out
of what goods  are not so reduced, though
at a higher  price."
  Such is the advice given by Mr.  Shan-
non.
  The mode of judging by the  taste of
spiritous  liquors  is deceitful.   A  false
strength  is given to a weak  liquor,  by in-
fusing in it  acrid vegetable substances, or
by adding to it a tincture of grains of pa-
radise and Guinea pepper. These  substan-
ces impart to weak brandy or rum, an ex-
tremely hot and pungent taste.
  Brandy and  rum is also frequently so-
phisticated with British molasses, or sugar-
spirit, coloured with burnt sugar.
  The flavour which characterises French
brandy, and which is owing to a small por-
tion of a  peculiar essential  oil contained
in it, is imitated by distilling British mo-
lasses-spirit  over  wine  lees ;*  but  the
  * This operation forms part of the business
ofthe so-called brewers' druggists.  It forms
the article in their Price Currents,  called
Spirit Flavour.
                    ■R 
 194        Adulteration of

 spirit,  prior  to being distilled over  wine
 lees, is previously deprived, in part, of its
 peculiar disagreeable flavour, by  rectifica-
 tion over fresh burnt charcoal and  quick-
 lime.    Other  brandy-merchants  employ
 a spirit obtained from raisin wine, which is
 suffered to pass into an incipient ascescency.
 The spirit thus procured partakes strongly
 of the  flavour which is characteristic to
 foreign brandy.
  Oak  saw-dust,  and a spiritous tincture
 of raisin stones, are likewise used to impart
 to new brandy and rum a ripe taste, resem-
 bling brandy  or  rum long kept in oaken
 casks, and  a somewhat oily consistence,
 so as to form a durable  froth at its surface,
 when strongly agitated in a vial. The colour-
 ing substances are burnt sugar, or molasses ;
 the latter gives to  imitative brandy a lusci-
ous taste, and fulness in the mouth. These
properties are said to render it particularly
fit for the retail London customers.
  The following is the method  of  com-
   Wine lees  are  imported in this country
for that purpose : they pay the same duty bS
foreign wines. 
          Spiritous Liquors.       195

pounding or making up, as it is technically
called, brandy* for retail:
                                   Gallons
  "To ten puncheons of brandy     1081
  Add flavoured raisin spirit    -     118
  Tincture of grains of paradise        4
  Cherry laurel water     -           2
  Spirit  of almond cakes       -      2

                                   1207
  " Add also 10 handfuls of oak saw-dust;
and give it complexion with burnt sugar."


METHOD OF  DETECTING THE  ADULTER A-
   TIONS OF BRANDY,  RUM,  AND  MALT
   SPIRIT.

  The false  strength of brandy or rum is
rendered obvious by diluting the suspected
liquor with  water; the acrimony of the
capsicum, and grains of paradise, or  pep-
per, may then be readily discovered  by the
taste.
   The adulteration of brandy with British
molasses, or sugar-spirit, becomes evident
  * Observations on  M >lted and Unma;ted
Co-n. connected with Brewing and Distilling,
p.  167. 
196        Adulteration of
by rubbing a  portion  of the  suspected
brandy between the palms  of the  hands ;
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 por-
tion in a spoon over a candle, till the vapour
ceases to catch  fire on the  approach  of a
lighted  taper.   The residue  thus  obtain-
ed, of genuine French brandy, possesses a
vinous odour,  still resembling the original
flavour of the brandy,  whilst  the residue,
produced  from sophisticated  brandy,  has
a peculiarly disagreeable smell, resembling
gin, or  the breath of habitual drunkards.
   Arrack is coarsely imitated by adding to
rum a small quantity of pyroligneous acid
and  some flowers (acid) of benzoe.   The
compound thus produced,  however, must
be pronounced a bad one.  The author of
a very popular Cookery Book,* directs two
scruples of benzoic acid to be dissolved in
one quart of rum, to make  u mock arrack."
* Apicius Redivivus, 2d edition, p. 480. 
Spiritous Liquors.        197
             MALT SPIRIT.

  Malt spirit, or gin, the favourite liquor
of the lower order of people, which is cha-
racterised by the peculiar flavour of juni-
per berries, over which  the  raw spirit is
distilled, is usually obtained from  a mix-
ture of  malt and barley : sometimes  both
molasses and corn are  employed, particu-
larly if there be  a  scarcity of grain.  But
the  flavour of whiskey, which is made from
barley and  oats,  is owing to the  malted
grain being dried with peat, the smoke of
which gives it the characteristic taste.
  The malt distiller is not allowed to fur-
nish, under a heavy penalty, any crude or
raw spirit to  the rectifier or  manufacturer
of gin, of a greater strength than seven per
cent, over  proof.   The  rectifier who re-
ceives the spirit from the malt  distiller is
not allowed, under a certain  penalty, to
sweeten the liquor with sugar or other sub-
stances ; nor is he permitted to send out the
spirit  to his customers  but of a  certain
strength, as is obvious from  the following
words of the  Act:
  " No  rectifier  or compounder shall sell
or send out any British brandy, British rec-
                   R2 
198         Adulteration of
tified spirits, British compounds, or other
British spirits, of greater strength than that
of one in five under hydrometer proof*:
and  if he shall sell and send out any such
spirits of a greater strength than that of one
in five under hydrometer proof, such spirits,
with  the  casks or vessels containing  the
same, shall be forfeited, and  may be seized
by any officer of Excise ; and he shall also
forfeit treble the value of such spirit,  or
50/. at the election of the  King's attorney-
general, or the person who shall sue for the
same ; the single value  of such spirits to be
estimated at the highest London price.f"
  If we examine gin, as retailed, we shall
soon  be  convinced  that  it is a  custom,
pretty prevalent amongst dealers, to weaken
this  liquor  considerably with water, and
to sweeten it with sugar.  This  fraud may
readily be detected by evaporating a quan-
tity of the liquor in  a table-spoon  over a
candle, to dryness ; the sugar will thus be
rendered obvious, in the form of a gum-like
substance, when the spirit is volatilised.
  One  hundred  and  twenty  gallons  of
genuine gin, as obtained  from the  whole-
* Clark's hydrometer.
t 30 Geo. III. c. 37, § 6. 
Spiritous Liquors.        199
sale manufactories,  are  usually  made up
by fraudulent retailers, into a saleable com-
modity, with fourteen gallons of water and
twenty-six pounds of sugar.  Now this di-
lution of the liquor produces a turbidness ;
because the oil of juniper and other flavour-
ing substances which the spirit holds in so-
lution, become  precipitated by virtue  of
the water, and thus cause the liquor to as-
sume an opaline  colour : and the spirit thus
weakened, cannot readily be rendered clear
again by  subsidence.  Several expedients
are had recourse  to, to clarify the liquor
in an expeditious manner ; some of which
are harmless ; others are criminal, because
they render the liquor poisonous.
  One of the  methods, which is innocent,
consists in adding to the weakened  liquor,
first, a portion of alum dissolved in water,
and then a solution of sub-carbonate  of pot-
ash.  The whole is  stirred together, and
left undisturbed  for  twenty-four  hours.
The precipitated  alumine  thus produced
from the  alum, by virtue of the sub-carbo-
nate of potash, acts as a strainer upon the
milky liquor, and  carries down with it the
finely divided oily matter which produced
the  blue  colour  of  the diluted  liquor.
Roach, or Roman alum, is also employed,
without  any  other  addition, for clarify-
ing spiritous liquors,, 
200        Adulteration of
      " To reduce unsweetened Gin.*
" A tun of fine gin  -    -    252 gallons
«Water      -               36

" Which added together make 288 gallons
" The doctor is now put on,
  and it  is further  reduced
  with water   -     -    -    19
" Which gives  -  Total  -   307 gallons
                                  of gin.
  " This done, let 1 lb. of alum be just co-
vered with water, and dissolved by boiling;
rummage the whole well together, and pour
in the alum, and the whole will be fine in
a few hours."

" To  prepare and sweeten  British Gin.]
  " Get from your distiller an empty pun-
cheon or cask, which will contain about 133
gallpns.  Then take a cask of clear rectified
spirits, 120 gallons, of the usual strength as
rectifiers  sell  their goods at, put the 120
gallons of spirits into your empty cask.
* Shannon on Brewing and Distilling, p. 198.
t Ibid. p. 199. 
Spiritous Liquors.      201
  " Then take a quarter of an ounce of oil
of vitriol, half an ounce of oil of almonds, a
quarter of an ounce of oil of turpentine, one
ounce of oil of juniper berries, half a pint
of spirit of wine, and half a pound of lump
sugar.   Beat or rub the above in a mortar.
When  well rubbed  together, have ready
prepared  half a gallon of lime water, one
gallon of rose water; mix the whole in either
a pail, or cask, with  a stick, till every par-
ticle shall be dissolved; then add  to the
foregoing, twenty-five pounds of sugar dis-
solved  in about nine  gallons  of rain  or
Thames water, or water that has been  boil-
ed, mix  the whole well together, and stir
them carefully with a stick in the 133 gal-
lons  cask.
  " To force down the same, take and boil
eight ounces of alum in three quarts  of
water, for three quarters of an hour; take it
from the fire, and dissolve by degrees six
or seven ounces of salt of tartar.  When
the same  is milk-warm pour it into  your
gin, and stir it well together, as before, for
five minutes, the same as you would a butt
of beer newly fined.   Let your cask stand
as you mean to draw it.   At  every  time
you  purpose to sweeten again, that  cask
must be well washed out; and take great
care never to shake your cask all the while
it is drawing." 
202        Adulteration of

   Another method of fining spiritous li-
quors, consists in adding to it, first, a solu-
tion of sub-acet.'te of lead, and then a solu-
tion of alum.  This practice is highly dan-
gerous, because part of the sulphate of lead
produced, remains dissolved in the liquor,
which it thus renders poisonous.  Unfor-
tunately, this method of clarifying spirit-
ous liquors, I have good reason to believe,
is  more frequently practised than the pre-
ceding  method, because its action is more
rapid  ; and  it imparts to the liquor a  fine
complexion,or great refractive power; hence
some vestiges of lead may often be detected
in  malt spirit.
  The weakened spirit is then  sweetened
with sugar, and, to cover the raw taste of
the malt spirit, a false strength is given to
it with grains of paradise, Guinea pepper,
capsicum, and  other  acrid  and  aromatic
substances.
METHOD OF DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF
      LEAD IN SPIRITOUS LIQUORS.

  The presence of lead may be detected
in spiritous liquors, as stated pages 70 and
86.   The  cordial  called shrub frequently
exhibits vestiges of copper.  This contam- 
Spiritous Liquors.       808
ination, I have been informed, is acciden-
tal, and originates from the  metallic ves-
sels  employed in the manufacture of the
liquor.


METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE QUANTITY
  OF ALCOHOL IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF SPI-
  RITOUS LIQUORS.

  The quantity of real alcohol in any spi-
ritous liquors  may readily be ascertained
by simple distillation, which process sepa-
rates the  alcohol  from the water and fo-
reign matters contained in the liquor. Put
any quantity of brandy, rum,  or malt spirit
diluted with about one-fourth its  bulk  of
water, into  a retort  fitted  to a  capacious
receiver, and distil with a gentle heat. The
strongest spirit distils over first into the
receiver, and the strength of the obtained
products  decreases,  till at last it contains
so much water as no longer to be inflam-
mable by the approach of  a lighted taper,
when held in a spoon over a candle (see p.
160.) If the process be continued, the dis-
tilled product becomes milky, scarcely spi-
ritous to the smell,  and of an  acidulous
taste. The distilling operation may then be
discontinued.  If the first, fourth, or third 
S04        Adulteration of
part of the distilled product has been  set
apart,  it will be found a moderately strong
alcohol, and the remainder one more di-
luted.  If the whole distilled spirit be mixed
with perfectly dry subcarbonate of potash,
the alcohol will float at the top of the pot-
ash, as stated, p. 161 ; it will separate into
two distinct fluids.  If the decanted alcohol
be redistilled  carefully with a very gentle
heat, over  a small portion of dry quick
lime, or muriate of lime, it will be obtained
extremely pure, and of a specific gravity of
about  825, at 60° of temperature.   Its  fla-
vour will vary according  to the  kind  of
spiritous liquor from  which it is obtained. 
          Spiritous Liquors.       205

 Table exhibiting the  Per Centage of Alco-
   hol (of 825 specifc gravity J contained
   in  various kinds of Spiritous Liquors.*

                             Proportion of
                            Alcohol per Cent.
                              by Measure.
Brandy,  Cogniac,  average")        „
   proportion of 4 samples   J       »
Ditto, Bourdeaux, ditto ditto     [54,50
Ditto, Cette  ....    53,00
Ditto, Naples, average of 3 "J        -
  samples                  J       '
Ditto, Spanish average of  61     _  2g
  samples                  J       '
Rum    .                         53,68
Ditto, Leeward, average  of")     53 00
  9 samples                J       '
Scotch Whiskey, average of 1     _, -Q
  6 samples                J       *
Irish   Ditto, average of  41     _, 2-
  samples                  J       '
Arrack, Batavia   .     .    .    49,50
Dutch Geneva     .     .     .    52,25
Gin (Hodges's,f) 3 samples,"!
  procured from retail deal- V    48,25
  ers                       J
Ditto   (Ditto,)f  procured")     __ 3_
  from the manufacturer    J       '
* Repository of Arts, p. 350, Dec. 1819.
t Own Experiment.
                 s 
206
Poisonous Cheese.
  Several instances have come under my
notice in which Gloucester cheese has been
contaminated with red lead, and  has pro-
duced serious consequences on being taken
into the stomach. In one poisonous sample
which it fell to my lot  to investigate, the
evil had been caused by the sophistication
of the anotta,  employed  for  colouring
cheese.  This substance was found to con-
tain a portion of red lead ; a method of so-
phistication which has lately been confirm-
ed by the following fact, communicated to
the public by Mr. J. W. Wright,  of Cam-
bridge.*
  " As a striking example of the extent to
which adulterated  articles of  food may be
unconsciously diffused,  and of  the conse-
quent difficulty of detecting the real fabri-
cators of them, it may not be uninteresting
  * Repository of  Arts, vol. viii. No. 47, p
2§2. 
Poisonous Ch6e.se.      207
to relate to your readers the various steps
by which the fraud of a poisonous adulte-
ration of cheese was traced to its source.
  " Your readers  ought here  to  be told,
that several instances are on record,  that
Gloucester and other  cheeses  have been
found contaminated with red lead, and that
this  contamination has produced  serious
consequences. In the instance now alluded
to, and probably in all other cases, the de-
leterious mixture  had been caused igno-
rantly, by  the  adulteration of the anotta
employed for colouring the cheese.  This
substance,  in  the  instance I shall relate,
was found to contain a portion of red lead;
a species of adulteration which  subsequent
experiments have shewn to be by no means
uncommon.  Before I  proceed further to
trace this fraud to its source, I shall briefly
relate the circumstance which gave rise to
its detection.
  " A gentleman,  who had occasion to re-
side for some time in  a city in the  West of
England, was one night seized  with a dis-
tressing  but indescribable pain in the re-
gion of the abdomen  and of the stomach,
accompanied  with a  feeling  of  tension,
which occasioned  much restlessness, anxi-
ety, and repugnance  to food.  He began
to apprehend the access of an inflammatory 
308      Poisonous Cheese.
disorder; but  in  twenty-four  hours the
symptoms entirely subsided.  In four days
afterwards he experienced an attack pre-
cisely  similar ; and he  then  recollected,
that having, on  both  occasions,  arrived
from the country  late in the evening, he
had ordered a plate of  toasted Gloucester
cheese, of which he had partaken heartily;
a dish which,  when at  home,  regularly
served him for supper.  He attributed his
illness to the cheese.  The circumstance
was mentioned  to the mistress of the inn*
who expressed great surprise, as the cheese
in  question was  not  purchased  from a
country dealer,  but from  a highly respect-
able shop in London.  He, therefore, as-
cribed the before-mentioned effects to some
peculiarity in his constitution.  A few days
afterwards he partook of the same cheese;
and he had scarcely retired to rest, when a
most violent cholic seized him, which last-
ed the whole night and part ofthe ensuing
day.  The cook was now directed hence-
forth  not to serve up any toasted cheese,
and he never again experienced these dis-
tressing  symptoms.  Whilst  this matter
was  a  subject  of conversation in  the
house, a  servant-maid mentioned that a
kitten had been violently sick after having
eaten the rind cut off from the cheese pre- 
Poisonous  Cheese.      209
pared  for  the gentleman's  supper.   The
landlady, in consequence of this statement,
ordered  the  cheese  to be examined  by a
chemist  in the vicinity, who returned for
answer, that  the cheese was contaminated
with lead ! So unexpected an answer ar-
rested  general attention, and more particu-
larly as  the suspected cheese  had been
served up for several other customers.
  " Application was therefore made by the
London  dealer to the farmer who  manu-
factured  the  cheese : he declared that he
had bought the anotta of a mercantile tra-
veller,  who had supplied him and his neigh-
bours for years with that commodity, with-
out giving occasion to a single  complaint.
On subsequent inquiries, through a circui-
tous channel, unnecessary to be detailed
here at length, on the part of  the manufac-
turer of the cheese, it was  found, that as
the supplies  of anotta had been defective
and of inferior quality,  recourse had been
had to  the expedient of colouring the com-
modity with vermilion.  Even this admix-
ture could  not be considered deleterious.
But on further application being made to
the druggist who sold the article, the an-
swer was, that the vermilion had been mixed
with a  portion of red lead ; and the  de-
ception was held to be perfectly innocent,
                   S2 
210      Poisonous  Cheese.
as frequently practised on the supposition,
that the vermilion would be used only as a
pigment  for  house-painting.   Thus  the
druggist sold his  vermilion in the regular
way of trade, adulterated with red lead to
increase  his  profit, without any suspicion
of the use to which it would be applied;
and the purchaser who adulterated the an-
notta, presuming that the vermilion was
genuine,  had no hesitation in heightening
the colour of his  spurious anotta with  so
harmless an  adjunct.  Thus, through  the
circuitous and  diversified  operations  of
commerce, a portion of deadly poison may
find admission into the necessaries of life,
in a way which  can attach no  criminality to
the parties  through whose  hands  it  has
successively passed."
   This dangerous sophistication may  be
detected  by  macerating  a portion  of the
suspected cheese  in  water impregnated
with  sulphuretted   hydrogen, acidulated
with  muriatic acid ; which  will instantly
cause the cheese  to assume a  brown  or
black colour, if  the minutest portion of lead
be present. 
211
Counterfeit Pepper.
   Black  pepper is the fruit of a shrubby
creeping plant, which grows wild in  the
East Indies, and is cultivated, with  much
advantage, for the sake  of its berries, in
Java and  Malabar.   The berries are  ga-
thered before they are ripe, and are dried
in the sun.  They become black and cor-
rugated on the surface.
   This factitious pepper-corns have of late
been detected mixed with genuine pepper,
is a fact sufficiently known.* Such an adul-
teration may prove,  in  many instances  of
household economy, exceedingly vexatious
and  prejudicial to  those who ignorarrtly
make use of the spurious article.  I have
examined large packages of both black and
white pepper, by order of the Excise, and
have found them to  contain about 16 per
cent, of this artificial compound.  The spu-
  * Thomson's Annals of Chemistry,  1816 ;
also Repobitory of Arts, vol. i. 1816, p. 11. 
212     Counterfeit Pepper.
rious pepper is  made up of oil cakes (the
residue of lintseed, from  which the oil has
been pressed,) common clay, and a por-
tion of Cayenne pepper, formed in a mass,
and  granulated by  being first  pressed
through a sieve, and then rolled in a cask.
The  mode of detecting the fraud is easy.
It is only  necessary to  throw a sample of
the suspected pepper into a bowl of  water;
the artificial pepper-corns fall to powder,
whilst  the true pepper remains whole.
  Ground pepper is very often sophisticated
by adding to a portion of genuine pepper, a
quantity of pepper dust,  or the sweepings
from the pepper warehouses, mixed with a
little Cayenne pepper.   The sweepings are
known, and purchased in the market, under
the name of P. D. signifying pepper dust.
An inferior sort   of  this vile refuse, or
the sweepings of  P.  D. is distinguished
among venders by  the  abbreviation of D.
P.  D. denoting,  dust (dirt)  of  pepper
dust.
   The adulteration of pepper, and the mak-
ing and selling commodities in imitation of
pepper, are prohibited, under a severe pe-
nalty.  '1 he following are the words of the
Act :*
* George III. c. 53, § 21, 1819. 
          Counterfeit Pepper.     213

  ? A/id  whereas  commodities made  in
imitation of pepper have of late been sold
and found in the possession of various deal-
ers in pepper, and other persons in Great
Britain ; be it therefore enacted, that from
and after the said 5th day of July, 1819, if
any commodity or substance shall be pre-
pared by any person in imitation of pepper,
shall be mixed with pepper, or sold or de-
livered  as and for, or as a substitute for,
pepper,  or if any such commodity or sub^
stance,  alone or mixed,  shall  be kept for
sale, sold, or delivered, or shall be offered
or exposed to sale, or shall be in the custody
or possession of any dealer or seller of pep-
per, the same, together with all pepper with
which the same  shall be mixed, shall  be
forfeited,  with the packages containing the
same, and shall and may be seized by any
officer of excise ;  and the person preparing,
manufacturing, mixing as aforesaid, selling,
exposing to sale, or delivering the same, or
having the same in his, her, or their custody
or possession, shall forfeit  the sum of one
hundred pounds."

            WHITE PEPPER.

   The  common white pepper is factitious,
being prepared, from  the black  pepper in 
214     Counterfeit Pepper.
the following manner :—The pepper is first
steeped in sea water and urine, and then
exposed  to the heat of the sun for several
days, till the rind or outer bark loosens ; it
is then taken out of the steep, and, when
dry, it is rubbed with the hand till the rind
falls off.  The white fruit is then dried, and
the remains of the rind  blown away like
chaff.  A great deal of the peculiar flavour
and pungent hot taste of the pepper is taken
off by this process.  White pepper is  al-
ways  inferior in flavour and quality to  the
black pepper.
  However, there is a sort of native white
pepper, produced on a species of the pepper
plant, which is much better than the facti-
tious, and indeed little inferior to the com-
mon black pepper. 
215
Poisonous Cayenne Pepper.
  Cayenne pepper is  an indiscriminate
mixture of the powder of the dried pods of
many species of capsicum, but especially of
the capsicum  frutescens,  or bird pepper,
which is the hottest of all.
  This annual plant, a native of South Ame-
rica, is cultivated in large  quantities in our
West-India islands, and even frequently in
our gardens, for the  beauty of its pods,
which are long, pointed, and pendulous, at
first of a green colour, and, when ripe, of a
bright orange  red.  They are filled with a
dry loose pulp,  and contain many  small,
flat,  kidney-shaped seeds.  The  taste of
capsicum  is extremely pungent and acri-
monious, setting the mouth, as it were, on
fire.
  The principle on which  its pungency de-
pends, is soluble in  water  and in alcohol.
  It is sometimes adulterated with red lead,
to prevent it becoming bleached  on expo-
sure to  light.  This fraud may be readily
detected by shaking up part of it in a stop- 
216     Counterfeit Pepper.

ped vial containing water impregnated with
sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas,  which  will
cause it speedily to assume a dark muddy
black colour.   Or the vegetable matter of
the pepper may be destroyed, by throwing
a mixture of one part of the suspected pep-
per and three of nitrate of potash (or two
of chlorate of potash) into a  red-hot cruci-
ble,  in  small  quantities at  a  time.  The
mass left behind may then be  digested in
weak nitric acid, and the solution assayed
for lead by water impregnated with sul-
phuretted hydrogen. 
217
Poisonous Pickles.
  Vegetable substances, preserved in the
state called  pickles, by means of the anti-
septic  power  of  vinegar, whose sale fre-
quently depends greatly upon a fine lively
green  colour; and the  consumption  of
which, by sea-faring people  in particular,
is prodigious,  are sometimes intentionally
coloured by means of copper.  Gerkins,
French beans, samphires, the  green pods
of capsicum, and  many other pickled vege-
table  substances,  oftener  than  is  perhaps
expected, are  met with impregnated with
this metal.   Numerous fatal  consequences
are known to have ensued from  the use of
these stimulants of the palate, to which the
fresh  and pleasing hue has been imparted
according to the deadly for mulct laid down
in  some modern cookery books,  such  as
boiling the pickles with half-pence, or suf-
fering them  to stand for a considerable pe-
riod in brazen vessels.
T 
 218      Poisonous Pickles.

   Dr. Percival* has given  an account of
 " a young lady who amused herself, while
 her hair was  dressing, with  eating  sam-
 phire  pickles  impregnated with copper.
 She  soon complained of pain in the  sto-
 mach ;  and,  in five days, vomiting com-
 menced, which was incessant for two days.
 After  this,  her stomach became  prodi-
 giously distended;  and, in nine days after
 eating the pickles, death relieved  her from
 her suffering.',
  Among many recipes which modern au-
 thors  of cookery books  have given for
 imparting a green  colour to  pickles, the
 following are  particularly  deserving  of
 censure ; and it is to  be  hoped that they
 will be suppressed in future  editions of the
 works.
  «* To Pickle  Gerkins.]—" Boil  the vine-
 gar in  a bell-metal  or copper pot; pour it
 boiling hot on your cucumbers."
  " To  make greening.^.—kt Take a  bit of
verdigris, the bigness of a hazel-nut, fine-
ly powdered;  half-a-pint of distilled vine-
   * Medical Transactions, vol. iv. p. 80.
   f T;.e Ladies' Library, vol. ii. p. 203.
   \ Mo.ern Cookery, or the English House-
wife—2d edition, p. 94. 
Poisonous Pickles.      218
gar, and a bit of alum powder, with a little
bay salt.  Put all in a bottle, shake it, and
let  it stand till clear.  Put a small tea-
spoonful into codlings, or  whatever you
wish to green."
  Mrs.  E. Raffald* directs,  "to  render
pickles green, boil them with halfpence, or
allow them to stand for twenty-four hours
in copper or brass pans."
  To detect  the  presence of copper, it is
only necessary to mince the pickles, and to
pour liquid ammonia, diluted with an equal
bulk of water, over them in  a stopped phi-
al:  if the pickles contain  the minutest
quantity  of copper, the ammonia assumes
a blue colour. *
* The English Housekeeper, p. 352, 354. 
220
Adulteration  of Vinegar.
   Vinegar,  as prepared in this country,
from  malt, should be of  a pale brown co-
lour,  perfectly transparent, of a  pleasant,
somewhat pungent, acid taste, and fragrant
odour, but without any acrimony. From the
mucilaginous impurities  which malt vine-
gar always contains,  it is apt, on exposure
to air, to become turbid and ropy,  and at
last vapid.   The inconvenience is best ob-
viated by keeping the vinegar in  bottles
completely filled and  well corked ; and it is
of advantage to boil  it in the bottles a few
minutes before they are corked.
   Vinegar is sometimes largely adulterated
with sulphuric acid, to give it more acidity.
The presence of this acid is detected, if, on
the addition of a solution of acetate of ba-
rytes, a white  precipitate is formed, which
is insoluble in nitric acid, after having been
made red-hot in the fire. (See p. 159.) With
the same  intention, of making the vinegar
appear stronger,  different acrid vegetable
substances are infused in it.   This fraud is 
      Adulteration of Vinegar.    221

difficult of detection ; but when tasted with
attention, the pungency of such vinegar will
be found to depend rather on acrimony than
acidity.
   Distilled vinegar, which is employed for
various purposes  of domestic economy,
is  frequently distilled,  not  in glass, as it
ought to be, but in common stills with  a
pewter pipe, whence it cannot fail to ac-
quire a metallic impregnation.
   One ounce, by measure, should dissolve
at  least thirteen grains of white marble.
   It should not form a  precipitate on the
addition  of a solution of acetate of barytes,
or of water saturated  with sulphuretted
hydrogen.  The former circumstance shews,
that it is adulterated with sulphuric acid;
and the latter indicates a metal.
   The metallic impregnation  is best ren-
dered obvious  by sulphuretted hydrogen,
in  the manner stated, page  69.  The dis-
tilled vinegar of commerce usually contains
tin, and not lead, as has been asserted.
T 2 
222
Adulteration  of Cream,
  Cream is  often  adulterated with rice
powder or arrow root.  The former is fre-
quently employed for that purpose by pas-
try cooks, in  fabricating creams  and cus-
tards, for tarts, and other kinds of pastry.
The  latter is often used in the London
dairies.  Arrow-root is preferable  to rice
powder;  for, when converted with milk
into a thick mucilage by a gentle ebullition,
it imparts to cream, previously diluted with
milk, a consistence and apparent richness,
by no means unpalatable, without materially
impairing the taste of the cream.
  The arrow-root powder is mixed up with
a small quantity of cold skimmed milk into
a perfect, smooth, uniform mixture ; more
milk is then  added, and  the whole  boiled
for a few minutes, to effect the solution of
the arrow-root: this compound, when per-
fectly cold, is mixed  up with the cream.
From  220 to 230 grains, (or three large
tea-spoonfuls) of arrow root are added to
one pint of milk ; and one part of this solu- 
       Adulteration of Cream.     223

tion is mixed with  three of cream.   It is
scarcely necessary to state that this sophis-
tication is  innocuous.
  The fraud  may be  detected by adding
to a tea spoonful of the sophisticated cream
a few drops of a solution of jodine in spirit
of wine, which instantly produces with it a
dark blue colour. Genuine cream acquires,
by the addition of  this test, a faint yellow
tinge. 
221
Poisonous  Confectionery.
  In the preparation of sugar plums, com-
fits, and other kinds of confectionery, espe-
cially those sweetmeats  of  inferior qua-
lity frequently exposed to sale in the open
streets, for the allurement of  children, the
grossest abuses are committed.  The white
comfits,  called sugar pease,  are  chiefly
composed of a mixture  of sugar, starch,
and Cornish clay (a species of very white
pipe-clay ;) and the red sugar drops are usu-
ally coloured with the inferior kind of ver-
milion.   The pigment is generally  adul-
terated  with red  lead.   Other kinds of
sweetmeats are sometimes rendered poison-
ous by being coloured with preparations of
copper.    The following  account of Mr.
Miles* may be advanced in  proof of this
statement .
  " Some time ago, while residing  in the
  * Philosoph. Mag.  No. 258, vol. 54. 1819.
j.317. 
        Poisonous  Confectionery.   225

 house of a confectioner,  I noticed the co-
 louring of  the green fancy sweetmeats be-
 ing done by dissolving sap-green in brandy.
 Now sap-green itself, as prepared from the
 juice of the buckthorn berries, is no doubt
 a harmless substance ; but the manufactu-
 rers of this colour have for many years past
 produced various tints,  some extremely
 bright, which there  can  be no doubt are
 effected by adding  preparations of copper.
   " The  sweetmeats which   accompany
 these lines you  will find exhibit  vestiges
 of being contaminated with copper.—The
 practice of colouring these articles of con-
 fectionery should, therefore, be banished :
; the proprietors of which are  not aware of
! the deleterious  quality of the substances
 employed by them."
;   The foreign  conserves, such  as  small
 green  limes, citrons, hop-tops, plums, an-
 gelica  roots, &c. imported into this country,
 and usually sold in  round chip boxes, are
 frequently impregnated with copper.
    The adulteration of confitures by means
 of  clay, may be detected  by  simply dis-
 solving the comfits in a large  quantity of
 boiling water. The clay, after suffering the
 mixture to stand undisturbed for a  few
 days,  will fall to the bottom of the vessel;
 and on decanting the clear fluid, and suffer- 
226  Poisonous Confectionery.
ing the sediment to become dry gradually,
it may be obtained in a separate state.  If
the adulteration has been effected by means
of  clay,  the  obtained  precipitate, on ex-
posure to a  red heat  in  the  bowl  of a
common  tobacco-pipe,  acquires  a brick
hardness.
  The presence of copper may be detected
by pouring over the comfits liquid ammo-
nia, which speedily acquires a blue colour,
if  this metal be present.  The presence of
lead is rendered obvious by water impreg-
nated with sulphuretted hydrogen, acidu-
lated with muriatic acid (see p. 69,) which
assumes  a  dark brown or black colour, if
lead be present. 
227
Poisonous  Catsup.
  •  This article is  very often  subjected to
  one  of the most  reprehensible modes of
  adulteration ever devised.  Quantities are
  daily to be met with, which, on a chemical
  examination, are found to abound with cop-
  per.   Indeed, this condiment is often no-
  thing else than the residue left behind after
,  the process employed for obtaining distill-
'  ed vinegar, subsequently diluted with ade-
■  coction of the outer green husk of the wal-
  nut,  and seasoned with all-spice, Cayenne
  pepper, pimento, onions, and common salt.
    The quantity of copper which we have,
  more than once,  detected  in this sauce,
  used for seasoning, and which, on account
  of its  cheapness,  is  much  resorted to by
!  people in the lower walks of life,  has ex-
\ 'ceeded the proportion of lead to be  met
  with in other articles employed in domes-
  tic economy.
    The following account of Mr. Lewis* on

      * Literary Chronicle, N). 24, p. 379, 
 228       Poisonous Catsup.

 this subject, will be sufficient to cause the
 public to be on their guard.
   " Being in the habit of frequently pur-
 chasing  large  quantities of  pickles  and
 other  culinary sauces, for the use of my
 establishment, and also for foreign trade, it
 fell lately to my lot to  purchase from a
 manufacturer of those commodities a quan-
 tity of walnut catsup, apparently of an ex-
 cellent quality ; but, to my great surprise,
 I  had reason to believe that the article
 might be contaminated with some delete-
 rious substance, from  circumstances which
 happened in my business  as a tavern keep-
 er, but which are unnecessary to be detail-
 ed here  ; and it was this that induced me
 to make  inquiry concerning the compound-
 ing of the suspected articles.
   u The catsup being prepared by boiling
 in  a copper, as is  usually practised, the
 outer green shell of walnuts,  after having
 been suffered to turn black on exposure to
 air, in combination with common salt, with
 a portion of pimento and pepper-dust, in
 common vinegar, strengthened with some
 vinegar extract, left behind  as  residue in
 the still of vinegar manufacturers ; I there-
 fore suspected that the catsup might be im-
pregnated with some copper.  To convince
myself of this  opinion.   I boiled down t© 
          Poisonous Catsup.      229

dryness a quart of it in a stone pipkin,
which yielded to me a dark brown mass.
I put this mass into a crucible, and kept it
in a coal fire, red-hot, till it became reduced
to a porous black charcoal; on urging the
heat with a pair of bellows, and stirring the
mass in the crucible with the stem of a to-
bacco-pipe, it became, after two hours' ex-
posure to an intense heat, converted into a
greyish-white  ash ; but  no metal could be
discriminated  amongst it.  I  now poured
upon it some aqua fortis, which  dissolved
nearly  the whole of it,  with  an efferves-
cence ; and  produced, after  having been
suffered to stand, to let the insoluble portion
subside,  a bright grass-green solution, of a
strong metallic taste ; after immersing into
this solution the blade of a knife, it became
instantly covered with a bright coat of cop-
per.
  " The  walnut catsup was therefore evi-
dently strongly impregnated with copper.
On informing the manufacturer of this fact,
he assured  me that the same method of
preparing the  liquor was  generally pursued,
and that he had manufactured the article
in a like manner for  upwards  of twenty
vears.
   " Such is the statement I wish to com-
municate ;  and if you will allow it a place 
230      Poisonous Catsup.

in your Literary Chronicle, it may perhaps
tend to put the unwary on  their guard
against the practice of preparing this sauce
by boiling it in a copper, which  certainly
may contaminate the liquor, and render it
poisonous." 
231
Poisonous Custard.
  The leaves of the cherry laurel, prunus
lauro-cerasus, a poisonous  plant, have a
nutty flavour, resembling that of the ker-
nels of peach-stones, or of bitter  almonds,
which to most palates  is grateful.  These
leaves have  for many years been  in  use
among cooks, to communicate  an almond
or kernel-like flavour to custards, puddings,
creams, blane-mange, and other delicacies
of the table.
   It has been asserted, that  the laurel poi-
son in custards and other articles of cook-
ry is, on account of its being used in very
small quantities,  quite harmless.   To re-
fute  this assertion, numerous instances
might be cited; and, among  them, a recent
one, in  which four children suffered most
severely from partaking of custard flavour-
ed with the leaves of this poisonous plant.
   u Several children at a boarding-school,
in the vicinity of  Richmond,  having par-
taken of some  custard flavoured  with the
leaves of the cherry laurel, as is frequently 
232
Poisonous  Custard.
practised by cooks, four of the poor inno-
cents  were taken severely ill in  conse-
quence.  Two of them, a girl six years of
age, and a  boy of five years old, fell into a
profound sleep, out of which they could
not be roused.
  "Notwithstanding the various medical
exertions used, the boy remained  in a stu-
por  ten  hours ;  and the  girl  nine  hours ;
the other two, one of which was  six years
old,  a girl,  and a girl of seven years, com-
plained of  severe pains in the epigastric
region.  They  ail recovered, after three
days' illness.  I am anxious  to communi-
cate  to you this  fact, being convinced that
your publication is read at all the scholas-
tic establishments in this part of the coun-
try.   I hope you will allow  these  lines a
corner in your Literary Chronicle,  where
they may contribute to put the unwary on
their guard, against the deleterious effects
of flavouring culinary  dishes with  that
baneful herb, the Cherry Laurel.
     u I  am, with respect, your's,  Sir,
                 " Thomas  Lidiard."*
* Literary Chronicle,  No. 22, p. 348__1819. 
          Poisonous Custard.      283

  What person of sense or prudence, then,
would trust to the discretion of an ignorant
cook, in mixing so dangerous an ingredient
in his puddings and creams ? Who but a
maniac would choose to season his victuals
with poison ?
  The  water distilled from cherry laurel
leaves is frequently mixed with brandy and
other spiritous liquors, to impart to them
the flavour of  the cordial  called noyeau,
(see also page 195.)
  This  fluid, though long in frequent use
as a flavouring substance, was  not  known
to be poisonous until the 3 ear 1728 ; when
the sudden death of two women, in Dublin,
aft.er drinking  some of the common dis-
tilled cherry laurel water, demonstrated its
deleterious nature.
tf 2 
234
Poisonous Anchovy Sauce.
  Several samples which  we have ex-
amined of this fish sauce have been found
contaminated with lead.
  The mode of preparation of this fish
sauce, consists in rubbing down the broken
anchovy in a mortar: and this  triturated
mass, being of a dark  brown colour, re-
ceives, without much risk  of detection,  a
certain quantity of Venetian red, added for
the purpose of colouring it,  which, if ge-
nuine, is an innocent colouring substance :
but instances have occurred of this pigment
having been adulterated  with orange  lead,
which is nothing else than  a  better kind of
minium, or red oxide of lead.   The fraud
may be detected, as stated p.  229.
  The conscientious oilmen, less  anxious
with respect to colour, substitute  for this
poison the more  harmless  pigment, called
Armenian bole.
  The following recipe for making this fish
sauce is copied from Gray's Supplement to
the Pharmacopoeias, p. 241. 
      Poisonous Anchovy Sauce.  235

   " Anchovies, 2 lbs. to 4 lbs. and a half;
pulp through a fine hair  sieve ; boil the
bones  with  common salt, 7 oz. in water
6 lbs. ; strain; add flour 7 oz. and the pulp
of the fish ;  boil; pass the whole through
the sieve; colour with Venetian red to your
fancy.  It should produce one gallon." 
236
Adulteration  of Lozenges.
   Lozenges,  particularly  those  into the
 composition of which substancss enter that
 are not soluble in water, as  ginger, cremor
 tartar,  magnesia, &c, are  often sophisti-
 cated.  The adulterating ingredient is usu-
 ally pirje^lay,  of which a  liberal portion
 is substituted  for sugar.   The following
 detection of this  fraud was lately made by
 Dr. T. Lloyd.*
   " Some  ginger lozenges having  lately
 fallen into  my hands, I was not a little sur-
 prised to observe, accidentally, that when
 thrown  into a  coal  fire, they  suffered but
 little change.   If one of the lozenges was
 laid on a shovel, previously  made  red-hot,
 it speedily  took fire ; but, instead of burn-
 ing with a  blaze and becoming converted
 into a charcoal, it took fire, and burnt with
a feeble flame for scarcely half a  minute,
and there remained behind  a stony  hard
substance, retaining the form of the lozenge.
This unexpected result led me to examine
• Literary Gazette, No. 146. 
     Adulteration of Lozenges.   237

these lozenges, which were bought at a re-
spectable chemist's shop in the city ; and I
soon became convinced, that, in the prepa-
ration of them, a considerable quantity  of
common pipe-clay had been substituted for
sugar.   On making a complaint about this
fraud at the shop where the article  was
sold, I was informed that there were two
kinds of ginger lozenges kept for sale, the
one at three-pence the ounce, and the other
at six-pence per ounce ; and that the article
furnished to me by mistake was the cheaper
commodity : the latter were  distinguished
by the epithet verum, they being composed
of sugar and ginger only ; but  the former
were manufactured partly of white Cornish
clay, with a portion of sugar only, with gin-
ger  and Guinea pepper.  I was likewise
informed,  that of Tolu  lozenges, pepper-
mint lozenges and ginger pearls, and seve-
ral other sorts of lozenges, two kinds were
kept;  that the reduced  articles, as  they
were called, were manufactured for  those
very clever persons in their own conceit,
who  are fond  of  haggling, and  insist  on
buying better bargains than  other people,
shutting their eyes to the defects of an ar-
ticle, so that they can enjoy the delight of
getting it  cheap ; and, secondly for those
persons, who being  but bad paymasters, 
238   Adulteration of Lozenges.
yet, as the  manufacturer, for his own cre-
dit's sake,  cannot  charge more than the
usual price  of the articles, he thinks himself
therefore authorised  to adulterate it in va-
lue, to make up for the risk he runs, and
the long credit he must give."
  The comfits  called  ginger pearls, are
frequently  adulterated with clay.   These
frauds may  be  detected in the  manner
stated, page 225. 
239
Poisonous Olive Oil.
  This commodity is  sometimes  contam-
inated with  lead, because the fruit which
yields the oil is  submitted to the action of
the press between leaden plates ; and it is,
moreover, a practice (particularly in Spain)
to suffer the oil to become clear in leaden
cisterns, before it is brought to market for
sale.   The  French and Italian olive oil is
usually free from this  impregnation.
  Olive oil  is sometimes mixed with oil of
poppy seeds :  but, by exposing the mixture
to the freezing temperature, the  olive  oil
freezes, while that of the poppy seeds re-
mains fluid ; and as oils which freeze with
most  difficulty are  most  apt to  become
rancid, olive oil is deteriorated by the mix-
ture of poppy oil.
  Good olive oil should have a pale yellow
colour, somewhat  inclining to  green;  a
bland  taste, withont  smell ;  and  should
congeal at 38° Fahrenheit. In this country,
it is frequently met with rancid. 
24)0     Poisonous Olive Oil.
   The  presence  of lead  is detected  by-
shaking, in a stopped vial, one part of the
suspected oil, with two or three parts of
water impregnated with sulphuretted hy-
drogen.  This agent will render the oil of a
dark brown or black colour, if any metal,
deleterious  to health,  be  present.  The
practice of keeping this oil  in  pewter or
leaden cisterns, as is often the case, is ob-
jectionable ; because the oil acts upon the
metal.  The dealers in this commodity as-
sert, that it prevents the oil from becoming
rancid :  and  hence some retailers often
suffer a pewter measure to remain immers-
ed in the oil. 
241
Adulteration of Mustard.
  Genuine mustard, either in powder, or
in the state of a paste ready for use, is per-
haps rarely to be  met with in the shops.
The article sold under the name of genuine
Durham mustard,  is usually a mixture of
mustard and common wheaten flour, with
a portion of Cayenne pepper, and a large
quantity of bay salt, made with water into
a paste, ready for use.  Some manufacturers
adulterate their mustard with radish-seed
and pease flour.
  It has often been stated, that a fine yel-
low colour is  given to mustard by means
of turmeric.   We doubt the truth of this
assertion.   The presence of the  minutest
quantity of turmeric may instantly be de-
tected,  by adding  to the mustard a few
drops of a solution of potash,  or any  other
alkali,   which changes  the  bright yellow
colour,  to a brown or deep orange tint.
  Two  ounces and a half of Cayenne pep-
per, lh  lbs. of bay salt, 8 lbs.  of mustard
flour, and \h lbs. of wheaten  flour,  made
                   X 
242   Adulteration of Mustard.
into a stiff paste, with the requisite quan-
tity of water, in which the bay-salt is pre-
viously dissolved, forms  the so-called ge-
nuine Durham mustard, sold in pots.  The
salt and Cayenne pepper contribute  mate-
rially to the keeping of ready-made mus-
tard.
  There is therefore nothing deleterious in
the usual practice of adulterating this com-
modity of the table.   The fraud only tends
to deteriorate the quality and flavour of the
genuine article itself. 
243
Adulteration of Lemon Acid.
  It is well  known to every one, that the
expressed juice of lemons is extremely apt
to spoil, on account of the sugar, mucilage,
and  extractive  matter which  it contains ;
and hence various means have been prac-
tised, with the intention of rendering it less
perishable, and less bulky.  The juice has
been evaporated to the consistence of rob ;
but this always gives an  unpleasant empy-
reumatic taste, and does  not separate the
foreign matters, so that it is still apt to spoil
when agitated on board of ship in tropical
climates.   It has been exposed to frost, and
part of the water removed under the form
of ice ; but  this is liable to all the former
objections ; and, besides, where lemons are
produced in sufficient quantity, there is not
a sufficient degree of cold.  The addition
of a  portion of spirit  to the inspissated
juice,  separates the mucilage, but not the
extractive matter and the sugar. By means,
however, of separating the foreign matters 
   244;   Adulteration of Lemon Acid.

   associated with it, in the juice, by chemical
   processes unnecessary to  be detailed here,
   citric acid is now manufactured, perfectly
   pure, and in a crystallised form, and is sold
   under the name of concrete lemon acid. In
   this state it is  extremely  convenient, both
   for domestic and medicinal purposes.  One
   drachm, when  dissolved  in one  ounce of
   water, is equal in strength to a like bulk of
   fresh lemon juice.  To communicate the
   lemon,flavour, it is only necessary to rub a
V  lump of sugar on the rind of  a lemon to
   become  impregnated with a portion of the
   essential oil of the  fruit, and  to  add the
   sugar to the lemonade, negus, punch, shrub,
   jellies or culinary sauces, prepared with the
   pure citric acid.
     Fraudulent  dealers often  substitute the
   cheaper tartareous acid, for citric acid. The
   negus and lemonade made by the pastry-
   cooks, and the liquor called punch, sold at
   taverns  in this metropolis, is usually made
   with tartareous acid.
     To discriminate citric acid from tartare-
   ous acid, it is only necessary to add a con-
   centrated solution of the suspected acid, to
   a concentrated solution of muriate of pot-
   ash, taking care that the solution of the acid
   is in excess.   If a precipitate ensues, the
   fraud is obvious, because citric  acid does 
    Adulteration of Lemon Acid.  245

not produce a precipitate with a solution of
muriate or potash.
  Or, by adding to a saturated solution of
tartrate of potash, a saturated solution of
the suspected acid, in excess,  which pro-
duces with it an almost insoluble precipi-
tate in minute  glanular crystals.   Pure
citric acid  produces no such effect when
added  in excess to tartrate of potash.
\ i 
246
Poisonous Mushrooms.
  Mushrooms have been long  used  in
sauces and other culinary preparations ; yet
there are numerous instances  on record  of
the deleterious effects of some species  of
these fungi, almost all of which are fraught
with  poison.*    Pliny already exclaims
against the  luxury of  his countrymen  in
this article,  and wonders what extraordi-
nary pleasure there can be in eating such
dangerous food.f
  But if the palate must be indulged with
these treacherous  luxuries, or, as Seneca
calls  them, "voluptuous poison,":): it  is
highly  necessary that the  mild  eatable
mushrooms, should be gathered by persons
skilful enough to distinguish the good from
  * Fungi plerique  veneno turgent.  Linn.
Amaen. Acad.
  t Qvae voluptas tanta ancipiiis cibi?—-Plin.
Nat. Hist- xxii. 23.
  t Sen. Ep. 95. 
Poisonous Mushrooms.    247
the  false, or  poisonous, which  is not al-
ways the case; nor are the characters which
distinguish them strongly marked.
   The following statement is published by
Mr. Glen, surgeon, of Knightsbridge :
   "A poor man, residing in Knightsbridge,
took a walk in Hyde Park, with the inten-
tion of gathering some  mushrooms.   He
collected a considerable number, and, after
stewing them, began to eat them.  He had
finished the whole, with the exception of
about  six or eight, when,  about eight or ten
minutes  from the  commencement of  his
meal,  he was suddenly seized with a dim-
ness, or mist before his eyes, a giddiness of
the head, with a general trembling and sud-
den loss  of power;—-so much so, that he
nearly fell off the chair;  to this succeeded
loss  of recollection:  he forgot where he
was, and all the circumstances of his case.
This deprivation soon went off, and he so
far rallied as to be able, though with diffi-
culty, to get up, with the intention of go-
ing to  Mr. Glen for assistance—a distance
of about five hundred  yards :  he had not
proceeded  more  than half  way, when his
memory again failed him ; he lost his road,
although previously well acquainted with
it. He was  met by a friend, who with dif-
ficulty learned his state, and conducted him 
248   Poisonous Mushrooms.
to Mr. Glen's house.  His  countenance
betrayed great  anxiety: he  reeled  about,
like a drunken man, and was greatly incli-
ned to sleep ; his pulse was low  and fee-
ble.   Mr. Glen  immediately  gave  him
an emetic draught.   The  poison had so
diminished the sensibility of the stomach,
that vomiting did not take place  for  near
twenty minutes, although another draught
had  been exhibited.   During  this inter-
val his drowsiness increased to such a de-
gree,  that he  was  only  kept awake by
obliging him to walk round the room with
assistance ; he also, at this time, complain-
ed of distressing pains in the calves of his
legs.—Full  vomiting was  at length pro-
duced.  After  the operation ofthe emetic,
he expressed himself generally better, but
still  continued drowsy.  In the  evening
Mr. Glen found him doing well."
   The  following case is  recorded in the
Medical Transactions, vol. ii.
   " A middle-aged man having  gathered
what he  called champignons, they  were
stewed, and eaten by himself and  his wife ;
their  child also, about four years old, ate
a  little of them, and the  sippets of bread
which were put into the  liquor.   Within
five minutes after eating them, the man be-
gan to stare in an unusual manner, and was 
       Poisonous Mushrooms.    249

unable to shut his  eyes.  All objects ap-
peared to him  coloured with a variety of
colours.   He felt a palpitation in what he
called his stomach ; and was so giddy, that
he could hardly stand.  He seemed to him-
self swelled all over his body.  He hardly
knew what he did or said ; and sometimes
was unable to speak at all.  These symp-
toms continued in a greater  or less degree
for twenty-four hours ; after which, he felt
little or no disorder.   Soon after he per-
ceived himself ill,  one  scruple  of white
vitriol was given him, and repeated two or
three times, with  which he vomited plenti-
fully.
  "The  woman,  aged  thirty-nine, felt all
the same symptoms, but in a  higher degree.
She  totally lost her voice and her senses,
and  was either stupid, or so furious  that
it was necessary she should  be held.  The
white vitriol was offered to her, of which
she  was  capable of taking but very little ;
however, after four or  five hours, she was
much recovered : but she continued many
days far  from being well, and from enjoy-
ing her former health  and strength.   She
frequently fainted for the first week after;
and  there was, during  a month longer, an
uneasy sense  of  heat  and weight in her
breast, stomach,  and  bowels, with  great 
200   Poisonous Mushrooms.

flatulence.  Her head was, at first waking,
much confused ; and she often experienced
palpitations, tremblings, and other hysteric
affections, to all which she had ever before
been a stranger.
  " The  child had some  convulsive agita-
tions  of  his arms, but was otherwise little
affected.  He was capable .of taking half a
scruple of ipecacuanha, with which he vo-
mited, and was soon perfectly recovered."
          MUSHROOM CATSUP.

  The edible mushroom is the basis of the
sauce called mushroom catsup ; a great pro-
portion of which is prepared by gardeners
who grow the fungi.  The mushrooms em-
ployed for preparing this  sauce are gene-
rally those which are in a putrefactive state,
and  not having found a ready sale  in the
market; for no vegetable substance is li-
able to so rapid a spontaneous decomposi-
tion as mushrooms.  In a few days after
the  fungus  has  been removed from the
dung-bed on which it grows, it becomes the
habitation of myriads of  insects; and,  if
even the saleable mushroom be attentively
examined, it will  frequently be found to
swarm with life. 
251
Poisonous  Soda  Water.
   The beverage called  soda water is fre-
quently contaminated both with copper and
lead ;  these metals being largely employed
in the  construction of  the  apparatus for
preparing the carbonated water,* and the
great  excess  of carbonic  acid which the
water  contains,  particularly enables it to
act strongly on  the metallic  substances of
the apparatus ; a truth, of which the reader
will find no difficulty  in convincing him-
self, by suffering a stream  of sulphuretted
hydrogen gas  to pass through the water.—
See p.  70.
  * Some manufacturers have heen bence in-
duced to construct  the apparatus  fur manu-
facturing soda water wholly either of earthen-
ware or of glass.   Mr. Johnston, of Greek
Street,  Soho, was the first who pointed out
to the  public the absolute necessity of this
precaution. 
252
Food poisoned by Copper  Vessels,
  Many kinds of viands are frequently im-
pregnated with  copper, in consequence of
the employment of cooking utensils made
of that metal.   By the use of such vessels
in dressing food, we are daily liable to be
poisoned ; as almost all acid vegetables, as
well as sebaceous or pinguid substances,.
employed in culinary preparations, act upon
copper, and dissolve a portion of it;  and
too many examples are met with of fatal
consequences having  ensued from eating
food which had been dressed in copper
vessels not well cleaned from the oxide of
copper which they had contracted by being
exposed to the action of air and  moisture.
  The inexcusable negligence of persons
who make use of copper vessels has been
productive of mortality, so  much more ter-
rible, as they  have  exerted their action
on  a great number  of persons  at once.
The annals of  medicine  furnish too many
examples in support  of this assertion, to 
Poisoned Food.        253
render it necessary to insist more  upon it
her-.
  Mr. Thiery, who wrote a thesis on the
noxious quality of copper,  observes, that
" our food receives its quantity of poison in
the kitchen by the use of copper pans and
dishes.  The brewer mingles poison in our
beer, by ooiling it in copper vessels.  The
sugar-baker  employs  copper  pans;  the
pastry-cook  bakes our   tarts  in  copper
moulds ; the confectioner uses copper ves-
sels : the oilman boils his pickles in copper
or brass vessels, and  verdigris is plenti-
fully formed by the action of the  vinegar
upon the metal.
  " Though, after all, a single dose be not
mortal, yet a quantity  of poison, however
small, when taken at every meal, must pro-
duce more fatal effects than are generally
apprehended ;  and different constitutions
are differently affected by minute  quanti-
ties of substances that act powerfully on
the system."
  The author  of a tract, entitled, " Serious
Reflections on the Dangers attending the
Use of Copper Vessels," asserts that a nu-
merous  and frightful train of diseases is
occasioned by the poisonous effects of per-
nicious matter received  into the stomach
insensibly with our victuals.
                   Y 
254         Food Poisoned
   Dr. Johnston* gives an account of the
 melancholy catastrophe of three men being
 poison, d,  after excruciating sufferings, in
 consequence  of eating food  cooked in an
 uncitan jopper  vessel, on  board the  Cy-
 clops frigate ;  and,  besides  these, thirty-
 three men  became ill from the same cause.
   The following  casef is related by Sir
 George Baker, M. D.
   " Some cyder, which had been made in a
 gentleman's family, being thought too sour,
 was boiled with honey in a brewing vessel,
 the rim of which was capped with lead.
 All who drank this liquor were seized with
 a bowel colic, more or less violently.  One
 of the servants died very soon in convul-
 sions ; several others were cruelly tortured
 a long time.  The master of the family, in
 particular,  notwithstanding  all the assist-
 ance which art could give  him, never re-
covered his health, but died miserably, af-
ter having  almost three  years  languished
under a most tedious and incurable mala-
dy."
  Too much  care and  attention cannot be
taken in preserving all culinary utensils of
* Johnston's Essay on Poison, p. 102.
f Medical Transactions, vol. i. p. 213^. 
by Copper Vessels.      255
copper, in a  state unexceptionably fit for
their  destined  purpose.   They should  be
frequently tinned,  and  kept ' thoroughly
clean, nor should any food ever be suffered
to remain in them for a longer time than is
absolutely  necessary to  their preparation
for the table.   But the sure preventive of
its pernicious effect, is, to  banish copper
Utensils from the kitchen altogether.
  The following wholesome advice on this
subject is given to cooks by the author of
an excellent cookery book.*
  u Stew-pans  and soup-kettles should  be
examined every time they are used; these,
and their covers,  must  be  kept  perfectly
clean and well tinned,  not only on the in-
side,  but about a couple of inches on the
outside ; so much mischief arises from their
getting out of repair; and, if not kept nicely
tinned, all your work will be in vain; the
broths and soups will look green and dirty,
and taste bitter and  poisonous, and will be
spoiled both for the eye and palate, and
your credit will be lost; and as the health,
and  even the life, of  the family depends
upon this, the  cook may be sure  her era-
* Apicius Redivivus, p. 91. 
256       Poisonous Food.

plover had rather pay the tin-man's bill
than th<- doctor's."
  T ->e senate of Sweden, in the year 1753,
prohibited copper vessels, and ordered that
n;>ne but such as were made of iron should
be used in their fleet and armies. 
257
Food Poisoned by Leaden Vessels.
  Various kinds of food used in domestic
economy, are liable to become impregnated
with lead.
  The glazing of the common  cream-co-
loured earthen ware, which is composed of
an oxide of lead, readily yields to the action
of vinegar and  saline  compounds;  and
therefore jars and pots of this kind of stone
ware, are wholly unfit to contain jellies of
fruits, marmalade, and similar  conserves.
Pickles should in no case be deposited in
cream-coloured glazed earthenware.
  The custom which still prevails in some
parts of this  country of keeping milk in
leaden vessels for the use of the dairy, is
very improper.
  " In Lancashire* the dairies are furnish-
ed  with  milk-pans  made  of   lead: and
when Mr.  Parks expostulated  with some
individuals on the danger of this practice,
* Park's Chemical Essays, vol. v. p. 193.
                 Y2 
258      Food Poisoned by
 he was told that leaden milk-pans throw up
 the cream much better than vessels of any
 other kind.
   " In some parts of the north of England
 it is customary for the inn-keepers to pre-
 pare mint-salad  by bruising and grinding
 the vegetable in a large wooden bowl with
 a ball of lead of twelve or fourteen pounds
 weight.  In this operation the mint is cut,
 and portions of the lead are ground off at
 every revolution of the  ponderous instru-
 ment.    In the same county,  it is a com-
 mon  practice  to  have  biewing-coppers
 constructed with the bottom of copper and
 the whole sides of lead."
  The baking of  fruit  tarts in  cream-co-
 loured earthenware, and the  salting  and
 preserving of meat in leaden pans, are no
 less objectionable. All kinds of food which
 contain free vegetable acids, or saline pre-
 parations, attack utensils covered  with  a
 glaze,  in the composition of which lead
 enters as a component part.   The leaden
beds of presses for squeezing the fruit in
cyder countries, have produced incalcula-
ble  mischief.  These consequences never
follow, when the lead is combined with tin ;
because this metal, being more eager for
oxidation, prevents  the solution of  the
lead. 
            Leaden Vessels.        2^9

  When we consider  the  various  unsus-
pected means by which the poisons  of lead
and copper gain admittance into the  human
body,  a very common but dangerous in-
stance presents itself: namely, the prac-
tice of painting toys, made for the  amuse-
ment of children, with poisonous substan-
ces, viz. red lead, verdigris, &c.  Children
are apt to put every thing,  especially what
gives  them  pleasure,  into their mouths;
the painting of toys with  colouring  sub-
stances  that are  poisonous, ought there-
fore to be abolished ; a practice  which lies
the more open to censure, as it is of no real
utility. 
 
INDEX.
Aiwltebatiox of anchovy sauce      -      page 234
----------------heer -                        113
---■------------brandy   -        -        -    187
----------------bread  -                        98
"        ---     ■ catsup    ...    227
'----------------cayenne pepper         -        215
■---------------- cheese   -                     206
----------------coffee        -        -        176
----------------confectionery      -        -    224
----------------cream        -        -        222
■                 custard    -       -        -    231
---------------- gm   -       -        -        187
■----------------lemon acid        -        -    243
—-------------- lozenges      -        -        236
---------------- malt spirits        -        -    197
■    ------------■ mustard        -      -        241
        1    ---- olive oil  -        -         -    239
---------------- pepper       -        .        211
----------------pickles   -                     217
----------------porter        -        -        113
----------------rum      -       -        -    187
----------------soda water    -        -        251
----------------tea, black -       -        -    173

----_________ vinegar   -                     173
------------------------distilled                221
                                                74
Age of beer, how fraudulently imitated     -        148
Alcohol, quantity contained in different kinds of wine   94
 i--------------------------malt liquors     126
----------------——------------spiritous liquors  205 
262
Index.
 Ale, Burton, quantity of spirit which it contains       162
 ---- Dorchester,           ditto      ditto         162
 ---- Kdii.bnrgh,            ditto      ditto         162
 ---- Home-brewed         ditto      ditto         162
 Alum, bleaching pit>perty  in the panification  of
     bread flour         -                           104
 -— method of detecting it in bread     -       -    108
 ---- for brightening muddy  wines  -        -        74
 --------clarifying spiritous liquors   -        -    200
 -------------adulterating beer   -         -        134
 Arrack, imitation of -         -         -         -    196
 ---- Kaiavia, quantity of alcohol  contained in it      205
 Arrow root, sophistication of      -         -         29

                           B
 Bakers,  their methods ofjudgingof the goodness of
     bread flour    -"        -        -         -    111
 Beer, adulteration of    -         -         -        113
 -----------------act prohibiting it    -        -    114
 -----------------  method of detecting it    -        158
 -----------------with narcotic substances      -    150
 -----------------with opium, tobacco, &c. -        150
 ---- colouring ot, act prohibiting it    -        -    123
 ---- heading, composition and use of        -        134
 ——— hard, what is  meant by  it        -        -    148
 ----------fraudulent method of producing it -        148
 ---- half-spoiled, fraudulent  practice of recovering it  149
 ---- illegal substances used for adulterating it   -    131
 ---- old,  what is meant by it       -         -        144
 ---- quantity of spirit contained in different kinds     160
 — strong, adulteration of with small beer  -        140
  1                        act prohibiting it    -    140
 ------------- how  defined by law -         -        128
 —— strength of different kinds        -        -    125
 Bilberries, employed for colouring port  wine  -         74
Bittern, for adulterating beer  -       -        -     18
 Black Extract, for adulterating beer -      -         150
 Bland, Mr. tragical catastrophe of    -        -     81
 Bouquet of high-flavoured wines,  how produced        75
Brandy, adulteration of       -        -         -    187
                        and method of detecting it   195
  ■  ■   complexion  of, what is meant by it   -         195 
Index.                 263
Brandy flavour of, how imitated        -        -     193
"■       imitative, manufacture of -        -         194
     — method ol compounding for retail trade   -     195
     — quantity contained in different sorts of wine      94
     ~          of alcohol contained in different
     kinds of   ....         20»
 "_       leR»l strength        -                       X9l)
        ~~-------— how discovered by the Excise    188
------false strength    ...         195
~-    —- flavour, imitative, how produced         -     ig.3
Brazil wood, application of for colouring wine          74
Bread, adulteration of with alum        -         .98
*~         -------■---------methods of detecting it  108
     ~-------------- with potatoes       -         10j
    ■ goodness of, how estimated in this metropolis     98
----how rendered white and firm      -         .99
---- corn, method of judging of its goodness -         110
---- flour, different sorts of from the same  kind of
     grain  -        -         .         .         -    99
----■ ---- adulteration of with bean flour   -          99
'----• ----■ process of making five bushels into bread   102
'---------made  from new corn, improvement of     107
---------■ method of judging of its goodness -         HO
Brewers, list of, pi-osecuted for using illegal substan-
     ces in their brewings    -                      151
■------ convicted of adulterating their strong beer
     with table beer      -                          l^o
-------- Druggists         -        .        -     119
"---------------prosecuted for supplying illegal in-
     gredients to brewers for adulterating beer         119
Breweries, illegal substances seized at various    -    136
Brown Stout, quantity of spirit contained in it         126

                           C
CalcavelU, quantity of brandy which it contains        95
Carbonate of ammonia, used by fraudulent bakers     105
Catsup, adulteration of               .        .    227
Claret, quantity of brandy which it contains  -          95
Clary, used for flavouring wine         -        -     75
Cheese, poisonous, and method of detecting it         206
Chemists, are not permitted to sell illegal ingredients
     to brewers for adulterating beer  '-        .    lis 
26_                 Index.
Chemists,  list of, convicted of this fraud      -         119
Cherry-laurel water, dangerous application of for fla-
     vouring creams, &c.     ...    231
----________ used in the manufacture of spu-
     rious wines         -                            73
-------------------in the manufacture of brandy  195
Citric Acid, adulteration of   -        -         -    244
------------ method of detecting          -         245
Cocculus indicus, nefarious application of in the  brew-
     ing of beer    -        -        -         -     18
———------ early law prohibiting its application   115
--------------brewers prosecuted for using it       152
----—-——■— seizures made of at different breweries 136
----——------narcotic property of, to what owing   153
-------------- extract of, application in brewing     136
Coffee, adulteration of   -        -         -         176
--------------law in force against it  -         -    177
------  grocers lately convicted of selling spurious     176
Confectionery, adulteration of    -         -         224
--------------methods of detecting it         -    225
Conserves, contamination of with copper     -         226
----,----  should never be deposited in vessels glazed
     with lead      -         -        -        -    257
Constantia, quantity of spirit which it contains -         94
Copperas, or salt of steel, publicans convicted of mix-
     ing it with their beer    -                      129
------------------seizures of,  at various breweries 136
Cream, adulteration of, and mode of detecting it       222
Custards, flavoured with cherry laurel leaves, danger-
     ous effects from it    -         -         -         231
Cyder, m-Iancholy catastrophe of persons drinking
     such as was contaminated w'ith lead          -    254

                          E
Elder-berries are used for colouring port wine    -     74
---- flowers are used for flavouring insipid  white wines 75
Entire beer, origin of its name     -        -         144
--------------composition of        -        -146
Extract of cocculos indicus is used by fraudulent brewers 136
                          F
False strength, how given to wine and spiritous li-
     quors  -         -        -        -        19,192 
Index.               ' 265
False strength, how given to vinegar   -        -    220
Flavour of French brandy, how imitated     -        194
Flour, new, of an indifferent quality,  how rendered
    fit for being made into good and wholesome bread 107
—— different sorts, from the same kind of grain -     99
—— sour, practice of converting it into bread        105
Food, rendered poisonous by copper vessels     -    252
———————.      — by leaden vessels  -        257
Frothy head of porter, how artificially produced -    133


                          G
Geneva, Dutch, quantity of alcohol which it contains  205
Gin, adulteration of -        -        -        -    187
---- quantity of alcohol contained in  different sorts   205
— dangerous method of clarifying        -        202
—— legal exactment of its saleable strength    -    197
—— proof, what is meant by this term *"    -        188
—— strength of, how ascertained by  the Excise -    188
    ■ sweetened, fraudulent practice of composing it
    for sale    ....        200
---- unsweetened,           ditto          ditto    200
—- false strength, how given        -        -    202

                          H
Hermitage, quantity of brandy which  it contains       95
Hyson tea, spurious.  See Tea leaves
Hops, adulteration of, prohibited  by law         -    132
---- its chemical action upon beer  -        -        133
Hydrometer, legal, now in use for ascertaining the
    strength of spiritous liquors       -        -    187

                           I
Imitation arrack         ...        196
--------tea.   See Tea leaves
--------coffee.  See Coffee

                           L
Leaden pumps and water reservoirs, dangerous ef-
    fects to be apprehended from them -             62
Lisbon, quantity of spirit which it contains    -        94
                          Z 
266                 Index.
 Lozenges, adulteration  of    -        .        -    236
 Lemon acid, adulteration of       -        .        243
 ■■          method of detecting it              -    244

                          M
 Madeira, quantity of brandy which it contains  -       94
 Malaga, quantity of brandy contained in it       -     94
 Malt, patent, for colouring porter  -        «        123
 ------;------> disadvantages of        -        -    124
 ---- liquors, dangerous adulteration of      -        115
 --————-——— strength of different kinds.  See Porter 126
 ---- spirits, adulterations of  -        -        -    197
 ----------— characteristic flavour, to what owing    197
 "~~~~~—■—— nefarious practices of compounding
     them for sale       -                           199
 ——--------false strength, how given         -    202
 ■—---------act restricting the strength of it        197
 Meat, salted, should not be preserved in leaden vessels 258
 Milk, improper practice of keeping it in leaden vessels 257
 Mint salad, pernicious custom of preparing it         258
 Mustard, adulteration of     -        -        -    241
 Multum, a substance employed for adulterating beer   17
 --------seizures of, at various breweries   -        136
 Mushroom, poisonous       ...    246
 ———— Catsup        ...        250

                          O
 Oak-wood saw-dust, is used in the manufacture of
     spurious port wine        -        -             75
                         1 in the manufacture of
     spurious brandy     -        -         .        194
 Orris-root, is used for flavouring insipid wines    -     75
 Olive oil, contamination  of, with lead, and method of
     detecting it         ...         239

                          P
Pickles,  contamination of with copper       -         219
—— improper vessels for keeping them       -    257
Pepper,  black, adulteration of     -         -         211
                     ■       law in force against it   213
 Poisonous Cheese      ...         206 
Index.                  267
Poisonous Cayenne pepper   ...    215
—----- — catsup        -        -        -          U
    11---- custard  -        -        -         .    231
—------— olive oil       -        -        -        2.59
        ■  mushroom        ...    2*6
-----•----pickles        ...        207
--------- soda water        -        -             251
Porter, origin of its name         -        -        121
——— adulteration of with wormwood          -    1.52
-------■---             act prohibiting it    -        113
——— average strength of, as furnished to the publican 126
—————————■——————. ditto, as sent out by the
'   retailers       -        -        -         -    127
——----illegal substances for adulterating it  -        131
——---- brewers, convicted of adulterating their por-
    ter with illegal ingredients         -         -    151
Porter, frothy head of, how produced        -        133
■       method  of ascertaining the strength of dif-
    ferent kinds    -         .         .         -    160
"   "    quantity of alcohol contained in London porter 162
Port wine, adulteration of         .        .          74
Publicans, prosecuted  for adulterating their strong
    beer with table beer     -        -         -    129

                           Q
Quassia, fraudulent substitution of, for hops       -    131
     •   disadvantages of its application      •        132
   " '■   seizures of, at various breweries          -    137

                           R
Raisin wine, quantity of brandy which it contains       94
Rum, adulteration of    -        -        -        187
—— false strength, how given to it    -         -    202
---- is seizable, if sold, unless of a certain strength    189
—— quantity of alcohol  contained in it      -        205

                           S
Soda Water, poisonous, and method of detecting it    251
Spiritous Liquors, adulteration of      -        -    187
-.——i----------dangerous practice of fining them
     with noxious ingredients      -         -        202
—>—-—- quantity of alcohol contained in different kinds 205 
268                 Index.
Sweetmeats, adulteration of  -        -        -    224
Sweet-brier, use of it for flavouring wines    -         75

                       .   T
Tarts of fruits, should not be baked in earthenware
    vessels glazed with lead       -        -        258
Tea leaves, adulteration of   -        -        -    171
------------------------method of detecting it      171
---------———————————— |aw in force against it     163
--------poisonous sophistication of             -    173
-------------------------method of detecting it     174
--------colouring of, with verdigris        -        168
--------black, spurious, process of manufacturing it 16S
--------green, imitation of -        -        -    168
Tea dealers, convicted for selling adulterated tea      169
Toys, improper practice of painting them with poison-
    ous colours         ...        259

                          V
Vidonia, quantity of brandy contained in it       -     95
Vin de Grave,    ditto      ditto -         .        95
Vinegar, adulteration of, and method of detecting it   220
                    ■ distilled, and method of ascer-
                        taining its strength         221

                          W
Water, characters of good          -        -        37
    •   chemical constitution of those used in domestic
          economy and the arts      -        -     33
——-— danger ofkeeping it in leaden reservoirs       60
———— hard, how softened and rendered fit for washing 39
-------New River, constitution of       -        38, 45
------substances usually contained in potable         48
————————————            n---------how de-
        tected          ...        50
------substances usually contained in spring          42
—— taste and salubrious quality, to what owing     38
—— Thames, constitution of          -        46, 48
Wine, adulteration of with alum        -         -    74
——— British port        ...        77
--------------champaigne     -        -         -    77
------bottles, improper practice of cleaning them    85
------bottle corks, practice of staining them red      79 
Index.                26%
ie doctors                                     80
---quantity of alcohol contained in various kinds 94,95
— dangerous practice of fining them         -   83
-                     to prevent them  turning
     sour  ...        -        84
—— art of flavouring them   -        -      -   75
— home-made, chemical constitution of  -        96
— improvement from age, to what owing     -   91
— Southampton port         .        .        78
— strength of, on what it depends  -         -   92
•— specific differences of different kinds, to  what
     owi.ig -        -        -       -        89
— white, manufacture of, from red grapes    -   90
— test     ....        86
iskey, Irish, flavour, to what owing      -        197
-----------strength of          -        -   205
 -----Scotch,      ditto      -        -        205
 cm wood, substitution of, for hops   -        -   132
THE END. 
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Med.. Hist.
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