chemist, that strychnine was being made for article even to this, and its taste is quite suffiEngland, where it was used in the manufac- cient to prove that only an infinitesimal porture of the bitter-beer of this country. This tion of it ever came from Oporto. statement was copied by the "Medical Times," London gin, under a hundred names, is noand from thence finding its way to Printing- toriously a compound. Most people flatter house Square, became generally diffused, to themselves that its peculiar flavor is due to the the horror and discomfiture of pale-ale drink- admixture of sugar and juniper berries alone. ers, and not without reason, when it is remem- It is, however, a much more elaborate concocbered that one-sixth of a grain of this poison tion than the public imagine. Those accushas been known to prove fatal, and a very tomed to the unsweetened West Country gin much smaller quantity, daily taken, to have think the London article only fit to drink when the effect of inducing tetanic spasms, and of raw, and in many cases they are right; for the otherwise seriously injuring the nervous sys-publican and inferior spirit-dealers, like milktem. We are happy to be able to state that men, are great customers of the pump. It apthe lovers of Bass and Allsopp may quaff their pears that some of the samples examined by tonic draught in future without any fear of the analyst contained only half as much alcosuch terrible results; the bitterness of pale-ale hol as was present in others; and as the gin has been found, on analysis, to be entirely due of commerce is never above proof, it follows to the extract of hops. Furthermore, this that these specimens were scarcely as good as beverage, when selected from the stores of the "stiff" gin-and-water. So much for the pure brewers or their agents, has universally proved spirit; now for the fancy work or "flavorings." to be perfectly pure. We say, from the The quantity of sugar in the samples examinstores of the Burton brewers, or their agents, ed ranged from oz. 4 drms. 23 grains, to 13 because there is no absolute certainty of pro- oz. 4 drms.; two of them contained oil of cincuring the article genuine from any other namon, or, more probably, of cassia; seven source. The label on the bottle is no sure contained Cayenne pepper, some of them in guarantee, for used bottles, with their labels very large quantities; and most of the samples intact, are, in many instances, re-filled by pub-contained combined sulphates; whilst there is licans with an inferior article, and sold, of good authority for stating that sulphate of zinc, course, at the price of the real. We have or white vitriol, is often used. The very good reason to believe that this trick is very "beaded bubbles winking at the brim," which often practised in a variety of instances, to the manifest injury of the public and brewers. are considered to be a proof of the strength of the article, are produced artificially. Mr. Mitchell, in his "Handbook of Commerce," states that this is done by adding a mixture compounded of alum, carbonate of potash, almond-oil, sulphuric acid, and spirits of wine. "The earth hath bubbles as the water hath, and these are of them." One would think that it would be to the interest of the trade to keep their illicit practices "dark" but the publican has his "Handbook" to teach him how to adulterate spirit as well as beer. For instance, in a little work on Brewing and Distilling, written by a Mr. Shannon, the following recipe is given : To reduce unsweetened Gin, A tun of fine gin Wine is far too wide a subject to be treated here. The great mass of ports at a cheap and moderate price are made up, it is well known, of several kinds, and doctored according to cost. There is one compound, however, which particularly claims our attention," publicans' port." We are all of us familiar with the announcement to be seen in the windows of such tradesmen: "Fine old crusty port, 2s. 9d. a bottle;" and the extraordinary thing is, that upon opening the sample we often find that it is crusted, and that the cork is deeply stained. How can they afford to sell an article bearing the appearance of such age and quality at so low a price? The answer is simple: wine, crust, and stained cork are fabricated. There is a manufactory in London, where, by a chemical process, they get up bees'-wing to perfection, and deposit it in the bottles so as exactly to imitate the natural crust; here corks are also stained to assume any age that is required. The wine itself contains a very little inferior port, the rest being composed of cheap red French wine, brandy, and logwood as a coloring matter, if required. The portwine sold over the bar at 3d. a glass-and we are assured that this article is making its way We wonder that Mr. Gough, the great temin preference to gin in the low neighborhoods, perance advocate, never armed himself with one gin-palace, to our knowledge, selling a one of these recipes, in order to convince peo butt a week over the counter-is an inferior ple of the noxious liquids they are invited to DLXXXI. LIVING AGE. VOL. X. 6 Water 252 gallons. 36 288 Which added together makes This done, let one pound of alum be just covered hazel-nut, finely powdered, half a pint of dis-dren the box of sweetmeats bedded in colored tilled vinegar, and a bit of alum-powder, with paper, and enclosed in an elegant casket, may a little baysalt; put all in a bottle and shake be corroding unawares the very springs of it, and let it stand till clear. Put a small tea- their existence. As a general rule it is found spoonful into codlings, or whatever you wish to that the red fruits, such as currants, raspber ries, and cherries, are uncontaminated with this green!" Again, the "English Housekeeper," a book deleterious metal, but owe their deep hue to which ran through eighteen editions, directs— some red coloring matter, such as a decoction of "to make pickles green boil them with half-logwood, or infusion of beetroot, in the same pence, or allow them to stand for twenty-four way that common white cabbage is converted hours in copper or brass pans!" Has the into red, by the nefarious pickle merchant. notable housewife ever wondered to herself. The green fruits are not all deleterious in the how it is that all the pickles of the shops are same degree; there seems to be an ascending of so much more inviting color than her own? scale of virulence, much after the following -we will satisfy her curiosity in a word-she manner:-Limes, gooseberries, rhubarb, greenhas forgotten the "bit of verdigris the bigness gages, olives-the last-mentioned fruit, espeof a hazel-nut," for it is now proved beyond cially those of French preparation, generally doubt, that to this complexion do they come by containing verdigris or the acetate of copper the use of copper, introduced for the sole pur-in highly dangerous quantities. The "Lancet" pose of making them of a lively green. The publishes a letter from Mr. Bernays, F.C.S., analyses of twenty samples of pickles bought of the most respectable tradesmen proved, firstly, that the vinegar in the bottles owed most of its strength to the introduction of sulphuric acid; secondly, that out of sixteen different pickles analyzed for the purpose, copper was detected in various amounts. Thus, two of the sam-gooseberries from one of the most respectable grocers in the town, and had its contents transples contained a small quantity; eight rather ferred to a pie. It struck me that the goosemuch, one a considerable quantity, three a berries looked fearfully green when cooked; and very considerable quantity; in one, copper in eating one with a steel fork its intense bitwas present in a highly deleterious amount, terness sent me in search of the sugar. After and in two in poisonous amounts. The largest quantity of this metal was found in the bottles consisting entirely of green vegetables, such as gherkins and beans." 66 dated from the Chemical Library, Derby, in which he shows the necessity of watchfulness in the purchase of these articles of food: Of this, he says, I will give you a late instance. I had bought a bottle of preserved having sweetened and mashed the gooseberries, with the same steel fork, I was about to convey some to my mouth, when I observed the prongs to be completely coated with a thin film of bright metallic copper. My testimony can be borne out by the evidence of others, two of whom dined at my table. It was fortunate that these three gentlemen used steel forks, which instantly disclosed the mischief; if they had chanced to use silver, all three might have fallen victims to these poisonous conserves. But we are not yet at the worst. When Catherine de Medicis wished to get rid of obnoxious persons in an "artistic" manner, she was in the habit of presenting them with delicately made sweetmeats, or trinkets, in which death lurked in the most engaging manner; she carried We trust after this the good housewife will feel jealous no longer, but rest satisfied that the home-made article, if less inviting and vivid in color, is at least more wholesome. A simple test to discover the presence of copper in such articles is to place a bright knittingneedle in the vinegar, and let it remain there for a few hours, when the deleterious metal will speedily form a coating over it, dense or thin, according to the amount which exists. Wherever large quantities are found, it is wilfully inserted for the purpose of producing the bright-green color, but a small quantity may find its way into the pickles in the process of boiling in copper pans. Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell, the great pickle and preserve Pure death in an earring, a casket, manufacturers in Soho, immediately they became aware, from the analyses of the "Lan- A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket. cet," that such was the case, in a very praiseworthy manner substituted silver and glass, at Her poisoned feasts are matters of history, a great expense, for all their former vessels. at which people shudder as they read; but we The danger arising from the introduction of question if the diabolical revenge and coldthis virulent poison into our food would not be blooded wickedness of an Italian woman ever 80 great if it were confined to pickles, of which invented much more deadly trifles than our the quantity taken is small at each meal, but low, cheap confectioners do on the largest We select from some of these articles it is used to paint all kinds of preserves, and scale. fruits for winter pies and tarts are bloomed of bonbonerie the following feast, which we with death. The papa who presents his chil-set before doting mothers, in order that they may see what deadly dainties are prepared for throughout with a RED OXIDE OF LEAD, and the the especial delectation of their children: A FISH, : Purchased in Shepherd's Market, May Fair. The tip of the nose and the gills of the fish are colored with the usual pink, while the back and sides are highly painted with that virulent poison arsenite of copper. A PIGEON, Purchased in Drury Lane. The pigments employed for coloring this pigeon are light-yellow for the beak, red for the eyes, and orange-yellow for the base or stand. The yellow color consists of the light kind of chromate of lead, for the eyes bisulphate of mercury, and for the stand the deeper varieties of chromate of lead or orange chrome. tops with BRUNSWICK GREEN. This is one of the worst of all the samples of colored sugar confectionery submitted to analysis, as it contains no less than four deadly poisons! The painted feast contains then, among its highly injurious ingredients, ferrocyanide of iron or Prussian-blue, Antwerp-blue, gamboge, and ultramarine, and among its deadly poisons the three chrome yellows, red lead, white lead, vermilion, the three Brunswick greens, and Scheele's green or arsenite of copper. The wonder is that, considering we set such poison-traps for children, ten times more enticing and quite as deadly as those used to bane rats, that the greater number of youngsters who partake of them are not at once despatched, and so undoubtedly they would Purchased in James Street, Covent Garden. be if nurses were not cautious about these coThe apples in this sample are colored yellow, lored parts, which have always enjoyed a bad and on one side deep-red; the yellow color ex-name under the general denomination of tending to a considerable depth in the substance" trash and messes.' As it is, we are informed of the sugar. The red consists of the usual non- by Dr. Letheby that "no less than seventy metallic pigment, and the yellow is due to the cases of poisoning have been traced to this presence of CHROMATE OF LEAD in really poi-source" within three years! sonous amount ! APPLES, А Соск, Purchased in Drury Lane. The beak of the bird is colored bright-yellow, the comb brilliant-red, the wings and tail are variegated, black, two different reds, and yellow; while the stand, as in most of these sugar ornaments, is painted green. The yellow of the beak consists of CHROMATE OF LEAD; the comb and part of the red color on the back and wings is VERMILION; while the second red color on the wings and tail is the usual pink non-metallic coloring matter, and the stripes of yellow consist of gamboge; lastly, the green of the stand is MIDDLE BRUNSWICK GREEN, and, therefore, contains CHROMATE OF LEAD. In the coloring of this article, then, no less than three active poisons are employed, as well as that drastic purgative gamboge! ORANGES, Purchased in Pilgrim Street, Doctors Commons. This is a very unnatural imitation of an orange, it being colored with a coarse and very uneven coating of RED LEAD. MIXED SUGAR Ornaments, Purchased in Middle Row, Holborn. The confectionery in this parcel is made up into a variety of forms and devices, as hats, jugs, baskets, and dishes of fruit and vegetables. One of the hats is colored yellow with CHROMATE OF LEAD, and has a green hatband round it colored with ARSENITE OF COPPER: a second hat is white, with a blue hatband, the pigment being PRUSSIAN-BLUE. The baskets are colored yellow with CHROMATE OF LEAD. Into the coloring of the pears and peaches the usual non-metallic pigment, together with CHROMATE OF LEAD and MIDDLE BRUNSWICK GREEN, enter largely; while the carrots represented in a dish are colored In France, Belgium, and Switzerland the coloring of confectionery with poisonous pigments is prohibited, and the vendors are held responsible for all accidents which may occur to persons from eating their sugar confectionery. It is absolutely essential that some such prohibition should be made in England. Arsenic, according to law, must be sold colored with soot, in order that its hue may substances: how absurd it is that we should prevent its being used by mistake for other allow other poisons, quite as virulent, to be mixed with the food of children and adults, merely for the sake of the color! All kinds of sugar-plums, comfits, and "kisses," in addition to being often adulterated with large quantities of plaster of Paris, are always open to the sus picion of being poisoned. Necessity cannot be urged for the continuance of this wicked practice, as there are plenty of vegetable pig ments which, if not quite so vivid as the acrid mineral ones, are sufficiently so to please the eye. Of late years a peculiar lozenge has been introduced, in which the flavor of certain fruits is singularly imitated. Thus we have essence of jargonel drops, essence of pine-apple drops, and many others of a most delicate taste. They really are so delicious that we scarcely like to create a prejudice against them; but the truth is great, and must prevail: all these delicate essences are made from a preparation of æther and rancid cheese and butter. The manufacturer, perhaps unaware of the Cumulative action of many of his chemicals, thinks that the small quantity can do no harm. We have seen, in the matter of preserved fruits and sugar confectionery, how fallacious | with the poisonous drugs aconite and bellais that idea. But the practice of adulteration donna; rhubarb with turmeric and gamboge; often leads to lamentable results of the same cantharides with black pepper; and cod-liver nature, which are quite unintentional on the and castor oils with common and inferior oils; part of their perpetrators, and which occur in whilst opium, one of the sheet-anchors of the the most roundabout manner. An instance physician, is adulterated to the greatest exof this is related by Accum, which goes di- tent in a dozen different ways. rectly to the point. A gentleman, perceiving Medical comforts are equally uncertain. that an attack of colic always supervened Thus potato-flour forms full half of the soupon taking toasted Gloucestershire cheese at called arrowroots of commerce; sago-meal an inn at which he was in the habit of stop- is another very common ingredient in this ping, and having also noticed that a kitten nourishing substance. Out of fifty samples which had partaken of its rind was rendered of so-styled arrowroot, Dr. Hassall found violently sick, had the food analyzed, when it twenty-two adulterated, many of them conwas found that lead was present in it in poi-sisting entirely of potato-flour and sago-meal. sonous quantities. Following up his inquiries, One half of the common oatmeals to be met he ascertained that the maker of the cheese, with are adulterated with barley-meal, a much not finding his annatto sufficiently deep in co- less nutritious substance-an important fact, lor, had resorted to the expedient of coloring which boards of guardians should be acthe commodity with vermilion. This mixture, quainted with. Honey is sophisticated with although pernicious and discreditable, was not flour-starch and sugar-starch. And lastly, we absolutely poisonous, and certainly could not wish to say something important to mothers: account for the disastrous effects of the food on Put no faith in the hundred and one prepathe human system. Trying back still further, rations of farinaceous food for infants which however it was at last found that the druggist are paraded under so many attractive titles. who sold the vermilion had mixed with it a por- They are all composed of wheat-flour, potatotion of red lead, imagining that the pigment was flour, sago, etc.,-very familiar ingredients, only required for house-paint. "Thus," as which would not take with anxious parents Accum remarks," the druggist sold his ver- unless christened with extraordinary names, milion, in a regular way of trade, adulterated for which their compounders demand an exwith red lead, to increase his profit, without traordinary charge. To invalids we would any suspicion of the use to which it would be also say, place no reliance on the Revalentas applied; and the purchaser who adulterated and Ervalentas advertised through the country the annatto, presuming that the vermilion was as cures for all imaginary diseases. genuine, had no hesitation in heightening the consist almost entirely of lentil-powder, barleycolor of his annatto with so harmless an adjunct. flour, etc., which are charged cent. per cent. Thus, through the diversified and circulatory above their real value. operations of commerce, a portion of deadly Of all the articles we have touched upon, poison may find admission into the necessaries not one is so important as water. It mixes of life in a way that can attach no criminality more or less with all our solid food, and forms to the parties through whose hands it has suc- nine-tenths of all our drinks. Man himself, cessively passed." The curious aspect of this as a sanitary writer has observed, is in great circuitous kind of poisoning is that it occurs part made up of this element, and if you were through the belief of each adulterating rogue to put him under a press you would squeeze in the honesty of his neighbor. out of him 8 1-2 pailfulls. That it should be If we could possibly eliminate, from the furnished pure to the consumer is of the first mass of human disease, that occasioned by importance in a sanitary and economic point the constant use of deleterious food, we should of view. We are afraid, however, that but find that it amounted to a very considerable per- feeble attempts have been made to secure_this centage on the whole, and that one of the best advantage to the metropolis. At present Lonfriends of the doctor would prove to be the adul-don, with its two and a half millions of poputerator. But even our refuge fails us in our lation, is mainly supplied by nine water comhour of need; the tools of the medical man, panies, six of which derive their supply from like those of the sappers and miners before Se- the Thames, one from the New River, one bastopol, often turn out to be worthless. from the Ravensbourne, and a third from Drugs and medical comforts are perhaps adul- ponds and wells. Besides this supply, which terated as extensively as any other article. ramifies like network over the whole metropTo mention only a few familiar and house-olis, we find dotted about both public and prihold medicines for instance: Epsom salts are vate wells of various qualities. We do not adulterated with sulphate of soda; carbonate intend to follow Dr. Hassall into his microscopof soda with sulphate of soda-a very inju- ic representations of the organic matter, vegrious substitute. Mercury is sometimes fal- etable and animal, by which the customers of sified with lead, tin, and bismuth; gentian one company can compare the water served to They them with that dealt out to others, and thus at year, arose from the fact that the people in a glance assure themselves that they have not the neighborhood were in the habit of visiting more than their share of many-legged, count- a public pump which was proved to be foul less-jointed, hideous animalculæ, which look with drain-water, and the handle of which was formidable enough to frighten one from ever taken off to prevent further mischief. Some touching a drop of London water, but shall of these public pumps appear to yield excel content ourselves with giving the general char- lent water-cold, clear, and palatable; but acteristics of the whole of them. With one the presence of these qualities by no means exception they were all of a hardness ranging proves that they are pure. The bright sparkling from 11 to 18 degrees. This hardness depends icy water issuing from the famous Aldgate upon the earthy salts present, such as sul- pump, according to Mr. Simon, the city offiphates and bicarbonates of lime and magne- cer of health, owes its most prized qualities to sia. They were also to some extent saline, as the nitrates which have filtered into the well all the salt used in the metropolis ultimately from the decaying animal matter in an adjoinfinds its way into the Thames, or great sewer- ing churchyard. stream. Not long ago two, at least, of these The porter and stout of the metropolis have six Thames water companies procured their long been famous. The virtues of the latter apply within a short distance of the mouths drink are celebrated all over the world; and of great drains, and all of them resorted to the a Royal Duke, not many weeks ago, ascribed river at different points below Battersea, or the great mortality among the Guards in the that portion of it which receives the drainage East to the want of their favorite beverage. of the metropolis, and is consequently crowded No doubt, the pure liquor as it comes from the with animal and vegetable matter, both living great brewers, is wholesome and strengthand dead, and thick with the mud stirred up ening, but it no sooner gets into possession of by the passages two and fro of the penny the publicans than, in a great majority of casteamers. The violent outcry made, however, by the Board of Health, induced two of these companies to carry their feed-pipes as high as Thames Ditton and Kew Bridge. Next year all the companies taking their supplies from the Thames will be compelled to go at least as high as Kingston, and to submit them to a process of filtration; but even at this point the river is in some degree sewage-tainted, and the chemically-combined portion of baser matter cannot be removed by any filter. ses the article is made up. A stranger would naturally suppose that the foaming tankard of Meux's entire which he quaffs at the "Marquis of Granby" has an identical flavor with that at the "Blue Boar," where the same brewer's name shines resplendent on the housefront:-not a bit of it: one shall be smooth, pleasantly bitter, slightly acid, and beaded with a fine and persistent froth; the other, bitter with the bitterness of soot, salt, clammy, sweet, and frothing with a coarse and evanescent The impurities of the Thames are not all froth. The body of the liquor is undoubtedly we have to deal with-its hardness must cost the same, but the variations are all supplied the Londoners hundreds of thousands a-year by the publicans and sinners. We do not in the article of soap alone. The action upon make émeutes, as they are continually doing lead is also marked; hence we find poisonous in Bavaria, on account of our beer, but we carbonates of that metal held in solution.- have strong feelings on a matter of such Plumbers are well aware of this fact, and fre- national importance; and the wicked ways of quently meet with leaden cisterns deeply cor- brewers and publicans have been made, over roded. This corrosion may arise from either and over again, the subject of parliamentchemical or voltaic action. The junction of ary inquiry. The reports of various comlead and solder, or iron, immersed in water mittees prove that in times past porter and impregnated with salts or acid of any kind, stout were doctored in the most ingenious man will cause erosion of the metal. A familiar ner, and so universally and unreservedly, that instance of this is seen in the rapid manner a trade sprang up termed brewers' druggists, in which iron railings rust away just where whose whole business it was to supply to the they are socketed in the stonework with lead. manufacturers and retailers of the national The presence of a piece of mortar on the lead beverage ingredients for its adulteration; nay, of a cistern may even set up this action, and to such an extent did the taste for falsifying result in giving a whole family the colic. beer and porter extend, that one genius, hight The pumps of the metropolis are liable to Jackson, wrote a handbook to show the breweven more contamination than river-water in-ers how to make beer without any malt or hops asmuch as the soil surrounding them is satu- at all. Accum has preserved, in his now anrated with the sewage of innumerable cess-tique pages, some of the receipts in vogue in pools, and with that arising from the leakage his day. The boldness with which our fathers of imperfect drains. Medical men entertain- went to work is amusing; for instance, Mr. ed the opinion that the terrible outbreak of Child, in his "Practical Treatise on Brewcholera in Broad Street, Golden Square, lasting," after having made his non-professional |