I shall divide this interesting portion of my work into two sections; first, the Adulteration of Wines and Spirits, and the Tricks of Wine and Spirit Dealers; and, secondly, the Tests or Methods of ascertaining the Good and Bad Qualities of Wines and Spirits.

Section I.—The Adulteration of Wines and Spirits, and the Tricks of Wine and Spirit Dealers.

1. WINES.

The frauds and malpractices in use among the wine and spirit brewers and compounders of the metropolis, and the noxious and deleterious ingredients with which those unprincipled men “make up” the poisonous compounds, that they are daily vending to the public, under the names of wines and spirits, exceed the devices, and are, if possible, of a more deadly operation than the sophistications and vitiated manufactures palmed upon the public by the wicked and avaricious cozeners of all other adulterating trades.

The art or mystery of manufacturing spurious and counterfeit wines and liquors forms a regular trade of great extent in this metropolis, and is carried on with so much skill and ingenuity, and has attained so great perfection, as to render the irony of the witty author of the Tatler no longer figurative; namely, that “the transmutation of liquors under the streets of London was so perfect, that the operators by the power of magical drugs could convert a plantation of northern hedges into a vineyard; could raise the choicest products of the hills and valleys of France under the streets of London; could squeeze Bourdeaux out of the sloe, and Champagne from the apple.”

Nor has the reprobation of the contaminations of wines and spirits with substances deleterious to health been confined to former times; they have been stigmatised on account of their alarming and deadly increase in numerous recent publications. I quote the following artless lines, in which an honest country lad is represented as expressing his abhorrence of his relative, a London wine-merchant’s sophistications, not for the elegance of the poetry, but as conveying an important truth in a plain garb; perhaps its unaffected satire is not ill adapted to awaken attention:

But the particular histories of the corruptions of wines and spirits will be more acceptable to those who are desirous of preserving their health and enjoying their existence comfortably, than quotation; for, were wine and spirit bibbers aware of the abominable and fraudulent processes of adulteration in use among wine and spirit dealers and gin-shop keepers, they would not only heartily join in the exclamation of the “poet of Nature,” “Oh! that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!” but they would be convinced that it is not only high time that the fraud and villany of their selfish and secret poisoners should be unmasked, but also punished and suppressed. For this purpose I shall detail some of the noxious compositions of the wine and spirit dealers of newspaper notoriety, and of the placarding gin-shop keepers, whose gaudy premises, as well as those of other puffers at cheap prices, are designed to catch the eye and arrest the attention of the heedless and unwary. And thus I am inclined to believe that my readers will heartily agree with one who has materially and honourably contributed to expose the villany of adulterators of all kinds, that, in the deterioration and pernicious sophistication of the necessaries and comforts of existence, it may with truth be said, in a civil as well as in a religious sense, that “in the midst of life we are in death.”

Factitious wines are generally, in the slang phraseology of the adulteration trade, “doctored” or “cooked,” in order to give them particular flavours, and render them similar to the wines they are intended to represent. Thus bitter almonds (or the leaves of cherry laurel, which are cheaper) are added to give a nutty flavour; sweet briar, orris-root, clary, cherry-laurel-water, and elder-flowers to form the bouquet of high-flavoured wines; alum to render young and meagre red wines bright; cake of pressed elderberries and bilberries to render pale faint coloured port [or red sumach, &c. to tinge spoiled white wines red] of a deep rich purple colour;[A] oak saw-dust, [sloes,] and the husks of filberts, to give additional astringency to unripe red wines; and a tincture of the seeds of raisins to flavour factitious port wine; [with a variety of other ingredients, such as spice, &c. to render wine pungent]. (The Vintners and Licensed Victuallers’ Guide, p. 259.) And in the same work, p. 225, among other deleterious ingredients, “sugar of lead”[B] is directed to be used for fining or clearing cloudy white wines. That book and works of a similar kind are the accredited repositories of the arcana of sophistication for the publican and small wine and spirit dealer, and gin-shop keeper; but, as Mr. Accum (Culinary Poisons, p. 87) says, the more wholesale adulterators and “large capitalists,” whether wine and spirit brewer or ale and beer brewer, obtain, on payment of a considerable fee, a manuscript from the brewers’ and spirit-dealers’ druggist, containing the whole mystery of managing and drugging wines, spirits, beer, or ale; or they may be initiated in the respective crafts and mysteries, by oral instruction, and practical demonstration, on payment of a handsome douceur.

The above is the general method of doctoring or “cooking” wine and spirits. The following are the particular and more ingenious methods of sophistication in use among the advertising and placarding venders of “genuine old Port” and “amber-coloured” or “fine pale Amontillado Sherry.” Both sorts are generally compounded of a small quantity of the real article either in a good or a deteriorated state, according to the taste or conscience of the compounder, with the necessary proportions of Cape wine, cider, sal tartar, colouring matter, brandy or rum cowe, or other adulterating slops, which are calculated to form a tolerable basis, and to bear a resemblance in colour and flavour to the wine desired to be imitated. As the communication of the particular ingredients of which these factitious wines are composed cannot but be acceptable to my readers, I shall give a particular account of each of the processes.

Factitious, or fabricated port wine is usually made by mingling or blending together in large vats Benecarlo, or black strap, which is a strong coarse Spanish wine of inferior quality; Red Cape; a sufficient quantity of Mountain to soften the mixture and give it the appearance of richness; a portion of sal tartar and gum dragon (the object of the first ingredient is to cause the wine to crust soon when bottled; of the second, to impart a fullness and roundness of flavour and consistence of body); colouring matter, or berry-dye, which is an extract of German bilberries; brandy or rum cowe, which is the rinsings of casks containing those liquors, obtained by throwing in a few gallons of water into them after the liquor is drawn off, and leaving it closely bunged up till the cask has imparted the flavour of the liquor to the water; and a quantity of spoiled cider, of which many thousand pipes are annually brought to the metropolis for this purpose. Sometimes a small quantity of port is made use of, with rectified spirits and coarse brandy, and, instead of the colouring articles above mentioned, red saunders wood, or the juice of elderberries or of sloes is employed. According to the Mechanics’ Magazine, the chemical analysis of a bottle of cheap port wine was as follows: spirits of wine, three ounces; cider, fourteen ounces; sugar, one and half ounce; alum, two scruples; tartaric acid, one scruple; strong decoction of logwood, four ounces. And this is the “genuine old port,” of unrivalled flavour and quality, of the London fabricators and compounders. “Amber-coloured Sherry,” or “the fine pale Amontillado Sherry,” of the advertising wine-factor and placarding gin-shop keepers is manufactured of coarse highly-brandied brown Sherry, Cape wine, and brandy cowe; to which are added extract of almond-cake or gum benzoin, to impart a nutty flavour; cherry-laurel-water, to give a roundness of flavour; lamb’s blood, to fine the mixture and clear or decompose its colour; and oyster-shells and chalk, for the purpose of binding and concentrating the whole; and this delectable composition the knavish adept in the art of deleterious combination palms on the credulity of the public under the inviting title of “fine pale Sherry, of peculiar delicacy and flavour.” Had the late Dr. Kitchiner been aware of these sophistications he would not have said “that, of the white wines, Sherry is the most easy to obtain genuine, and is the least adulterated.”

The “fine old East-India Madeira, at unprecedented cheap prices, for ready money only,” of these worthies is a commixture of a portion of East-India Madeira with Teneriffe, Vidonia, or Direct Madeira,[C] and East-India Cape.[D] The “fine old soft-flavoured West-India Madeira, of capital quality,” and, of course, at exceedingly low prices, is manufactured from a portion of genuine West-India Madeira and a sufficient modicum of old thin Direct Madeira; and should the precious commixture be approaching to acidity the kindness of the sophisticating compounder obliges the palate of his poor gulled customer with the insertion of a few ounces of carbonate of soda. The genuine colour of pure Madeira (one of the best off-hand methods of forming an opinion of the goodness of Madeira is, as the author of The Private Gentleman and Importing Merchants’ Wine and Spirit Cellar-Directory judiciously says, by its colour) is much paler than that of Sherry. When it has a pinkish hue it is a sign of its having been adulterated with Teneriffe.

“The Old London Particular,” or any other imposing and dainty appellation extracted from the adulterating vocabulary of the artful sophisticator, is generally composed of a combination of cheap Vidonia, common dry Port, Mountain, and Cape wine, properly fined and reduced to the requisite colour by means of lamb’s blood.

The Cape wine generally sold to the public is composed of the drippings of the cocks from the various casks, the filterings of the lees of the different wines in the adulterators’ cellars, or from any description of bad or spoiled white wines, with the addition of brandy or rum cowe and spoiled cider. “The delicately pale Cape Sherry, or Cape Madeira, at astonishingly low prices,” and, of course, for ready money, is composed of the same delicious ingredients, with the addition of extract of almond cake, and a little of that delectable liquor, lamb’s blood, to decompose its colour, or, in the cant phraseology, to give it “complexion.”

In fact, the impositions practised in regard to this species of wine fully justifies the reprobation of the writer in the 43d number of the Quarterly Review. “The manufactured trash,” says the judicious critic, “which is selling in London under the names of Cape Champagne, Burgundy, Barsac, Sauterne, &c. are so many specious poisons, which the cheapness of the common and inferior wines of the Cape allows the venders of them to use as the bases of the several compositions, at the expense of the stomach and bowels of their customers.” By mixing these wines with the lees of other kinds, and fining and compounding them with various drugs, they endeavour to counterfeit the more costly vintages of Spain and Portugal, and even France.

It is unnecessary to state that the “Old Vidonia Wines,” the “Fine old delicately-pale Bucellas,” and the “Unequalled and beneficial Tent,” for the sick and infirm, and the offices of our holy religion, “sold remarkably cheap, for ready money,” by those honest and tender-conscienced gentry, are base substitutes for the genuine articles. To say nothing worse, Tent, Mountain, Calcavella, &c. is Port wine, transmuted by the addition of capillaire, &c. And, from the report of a late case which came on before the Court of King’s Bench, it appears that the scarce and costly Tokay, the Lachryma Christi, and La CrÊme Divine, are seldom any other than identical Sicilian wines of an inferior description; the current price of which in the market is about twelve pounds sterling per hhd. Oh! friend Bull, how the sophisticating rogues trifle with thy dainty palate! Hadst thou not better rest contented with thy soul-stirring, heart-cheering, vinum Britannicum,—thy home-brewed ale, and Sir John Barleycorn, instead of filling thy dear stomach with a medley of foreign slops. Oh, John, when wilt thou learn wisdom and find a loyal pleasure in paying thy quota of tax on articles of home manufacture! Alas! Johnny, thou art a sadly wayward fellow! there is more hope of “the wild ass’s colt” than of thee, when thy longings after foreign luxuries seduce thy palate and blind thy understanding!

Nor are the costly French wines less exempt from the devices and sophistications of the imps of the “Father of Deceit.” The “super-excellent” or “genuine Claret of exceedingly fine description and of the choicest quality” of the advertising and placarding dealers, is a composition of inferior claret and a quantum sufficit of Spanish red wine and rough cider, with the colouring berry-dye. The colouring process is sometimes performed by the agency of “black sloes,” “a dozen new pippins,” or a “handful of the oak of Jerusalem,” are often kindly introduced to improve its quality; and to tickle the taste of the consumer of this wine, or of Port, “an ounce of cochineal” is considerately thrown into a hogshead of liquor “to make it taste rough.”

When one views this goodly enumeration of items, it must be admitted that the burthen of the old song does not appear overcharged:

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

O ye gulled Jacky Bulls, who revel in bibbing “costly French wines,” how angry you will be with me when I tell you that while you think you are sipping “Genuine Sparkling Champagne,” you are titillating your exquisite gullets with merely plain home-made English gooseberry wine; or, what may be more alarming to you, with worthless Champagne wine of very dangerous and deleterious quality and tendency; whose effervescence or sparkling is produced by disengaging the carbonic acid of the wine by the agency of sugar. To gain this end, the solid sugar is corked up in the bottle, so that the disengaged gas is retained under the pressure of the cork, ready to fly out whenever it is removed. The agency of litharge of lead, in its worst form, is often invoked in the manufacture of Champagne, as well as of other white wines, in order to correct and render bright such wines as have turned vapid, foul, or ropy, or to prevent the progress of any ascescent quality that they may have acquired. The least pernicious mode of manufacture of this wine is by adding to the spoiled Champagnes, a portion of the low, or “third quality” wines from the indifferent vineyards, and occasioning the admixture to undergo a fresh fermentation, by the action of strong chemical agents; and then it is vended as “prime still Champagne.”

Some estimate may be formed of the extent of the adulteration of this costly wine by the following notice in Dr. Reece’s Monthly Gazette of Health for 1829.—“A company of Frenchmen,” says that honest abominator of roguery and quackery of all kinds, “have contracted with some farmers in Herefordshire for a considerable quantity of the fresh juice of certain pears, which is to be sent to them in London, immediately after it has been expressed, or before fermentation has commenced. With the recently expressed juice they made last year an excellent brisk wine resembling the finest sparkling Champagne; and we are told that the speculation was so productive, that they have resolved to extend their manufactory.” To this account I can, from a knowledge of the concern, perfectly assent, except that the Anglo-French manufacture does not exactly represent the first quality of Champagne wine, as it is quite impossible for any imitative preparation to represent that quality of wine.

Many thousand dozens of wines are sold in the course of the year in London as old wines, under names which have scarcely any other title to the appellation of wine than similarity of colour. “A particular friend of mine,” says a correspondent to the Monthly Gazette of Health, “purchased at a public sale by the hammer, a quantity of ‘super-excellent’ claret, at the rate of 50s. per dozen, which, on delivery, his butler discovered to be the same wine he had exchanged with a wine merchant at the rate of 20s. per dozen, being what is termed pricked. The worthy Baronet complained of the imposition, but the auctioneer would not listen to him. He had tasted it previously to bidding for it, and that was enough for him.”

Another source of great profit to the cheap dealers, the gin-shop keepers, and the advertizing wine-men, arises from the size of the bottles in which they vend their compounds and mixtures, ycleped “wine.”

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

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

The thirteens, of which there must be thirteen to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.

The fourteens, of which there must be fourteen to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.

The small fourteens, of which there must be fourteen and a half, to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.

The fifteens, of which there must be fifteen, to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.

The sixteens, of which there must be sixteen, to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.

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

The above are the frauds practised by wine-dealers, by vending bottles of inferior dimensions to the legal wine quart, which contains thirty-two ounces; but many of the bottles imposed on unwary purchasers do not contain more than twenty-four ounces, and few more than twenty-six ounces.

The readiest way of detecting the fraud is by measuring the suspected wine-bottle by Lyne’s graduated glass measure, which holds half a pint, and is divided into ounces, &c. Or, if you have not a measure of the kind by you, weigh the contents of the suspected bottle and compare the weight ascertained with the following corresponding weights:

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

By subtracting the weight of the contents of the suspected bottle from this weight, you may precisely ascertain the deficiency.

2. SPIRITS.

In the adulteration of spirituous liquors, the advertising and placarding compounder exerts equal ingenuity and fraud, and obtains an equally lucrative traffic as from wines. The “Curious old soft flavoured Cogniac, ten years old,” of those nefarious dealers, is compounded of Spanish or Bourdeaux brandy, neutral flavoured rum, rectified spirits, British brandy, British brandy bitters, cherry-laurel-water, extract of almond cake, extract of capsicums, or of grains of paradise, burnt sugar or colouring matter. But more generally that “medicinal” compound British brandy is palmed on the public, for real Cogniac brandy. This diabolical farrago of mischievous ingredients, which was held forth to the public by interested individuals concerned in the undertaking, as calculated “entirely to supersede the use of Cogniac brandy,” and “likely to prove of great benefit to the health and comfort of the poorer and middling classes of society,” is compounded of oil of vitriol, vinegar, nitrum dulce, tincture of raisin stones, tinctura japonica, cherry-laurel-water, extracts of capsicums or of grains of paradise, orris-root, cassia-buds, bitter almond meal, colouring matter, &c. from which enumeration of “neat” articles it appears that this “almost superior brandy to Cogniac,” as its modest manufacturers term it, is a slow poison, and equally deleterious in its effects, if not more so, than that vile composition—“cheap gin.” That this is not an unfounded insinuation against “the pure and unadulterated” article, sold, no doubt, “at astonishingly low prices, and for ready money,” will appear from the clear statement of the process of each manufacture given by the author of The Wine and Spirit Adulterators Unmasked, pages 179 and 198. “British brandy,” says the honest Unmasker, “is composed of drugs, gin only flavoured by them. In the manufacture of gin, the ingredients are put into the still, with a spirit which has been previously rectified, and the condensed evaporation which is derived from the whole constitutes the article gin. In the preparation, however, of British brandy, the mixture is made without any process through a still, being compounded more like a quack doctor’s nostrum. The only part of the manufacture wherein distillation is concerned, consists merely in rectifying either rum or malt whiskey, to deprive them of their essential oils, so that they may be reduced to a state as tasteless as possible, and thereby more readily receive the spurious flavours intended to be imparted to them.

“The other articles are added in their raw state.—Should it be inquired why the same process as is adopted in the manufacture of gin, should not succeed in making British brandy, the answer is, because, in distilling the necessary drugs with the rectified spirit, the flavour would neither retain the sufficient predominancy, nor be sufficiently fixed to enable the article to sustain the desired likeness to brandy, besides that the effect of several of the ingredients, such as the oil of vitriol, and nitrum dulce, which are used to impart a resemblance of the vinosity possessed by genuine French brandy, would be completely destroyed.”

“Fine old Jamaica rums of peculiar softness and flavour” are manufactured of low-priced Leeward-island rum, ale, porter, or shrub, extract of orris-root, cherry-laurel-water, and extract of grains of paradise, or of capsicums. Sometimes the composition consists of low-priced Jamaica rums, rectified spirits of wine, and the Leeward-island rums, with the necessary acid vegetable substances, to give them false strength and pungency and the requisite flavour; and thus the purchaser is accommodated by the “caterers of comfort,” with a rum which “cannot” be adulterated, of exceedingly fine and superior flavour, remarkably cheap and for ready money only. The ripe taste which rum or brandy that has been long kept in oaken casks obtains, is imparted to new brandy and rum, by means of a spirituous tincture of raisin-stones and oak saw-dust. And the water distilled from cherry-laurel-leaves is frequently mixed with brandy and other spirituous liquors to impart to them the flavour of the cordial called Noyeau. Sugar of lead not unfrequently forms part of the flavouring ingredients of the retailers’ rums.

But the perfection of adulteration is in gin,—cheap gin—“the real comfort,”—patronized by the poor for its supposed genuineness! This infernal compound of combustibles is distinguished from the other slow poisons to which a large portion of the population of “the queen of cities,”—our “modern Carthage,” make themselves the willing victims, by the poisonous nature of the ingredients of which it is composed.[E] These are the oils of vitriol, turpentine, juniper, cassia, carraways, and almonds, sulphuric ether or phosphorus, extracts of orris-root, angelica-root, capsicums or grains of paradise, sugar, and heading. The aid of lime-water and of spirits of wine is also invoked in the course of the operation. The purposes of these mischievous ingredients are as follow: The oil of vitriol is to impart pungency and the appearance of strength, when the liquor is applied to the nose, while the extract of capsicums or of grains of paradise is designed to perform the same office for the taste. The extracts of orris and angelica roots give a fulness of body and the coveted flavour called cordial to the large proportion of the compound, which consists only of water. The remaining oils are to give strength, the sugar to sweeten the composition, and the lime to unite the oils with the spirit; while the sulphuric ether, phosphorus, and heading are intended to give the semblance of being highly spirituous from the fiery taste, and the appearance of the light bead which is caused to appear and remain for some time on the surface of the noxious compound. The introduction of the white arsenic is intended to promote an irritable and feverish thirst, so that the poor deluded consumer may be compelled to have recourse to fresh potations of the “liquid fire.” The Hollands of the gin-shop keepers and advertising dealers is a commixture of a small portion of the genuine article with rectified spirits, peppermint, cloves, &c. The cordial, called Shrub, says Mr. Accum, Culinary Poisons, p. 257, frequently exhibits vestiges of copper, which arise from the metallic vessels employed in the manufacture of the liquor. But, had that ingenious gentleman been thoroughly acquainted with the manufacture of shrub in the cellars of spirit dealers, he would not have been quite so moderate in his remarks respecting this seductive “cordial.”

Such is a list of the detestable articles palmed on the public, by the avaricious and unprincipled dealers and cozeners in the factitious wines and spirits on constant and extensive sale throughout every quarter of the metropolis. The credulity and infatuation of the public in the consumption of the deadly draughts are truly astonishing, and are a verification of the sarcasm that were the vision of death to appear to the tippler in each glass of liquor that he puts to his lips, yet he would still persevere in habits which are inevitably destructive of health and comfort, and eventually productive of disease and death. “Oh blindness to the future!—” Surely old Jeremy Taylor’s observation respecting Apicius is equally applicable to the inveterate consumer of wines and spirits—“It would have been of no use,” says that orthodox old divine, “to talk to Apicius of the secrets of the other world, and of immortality; that the saints and angels eat not! The fat glutton would have stared awhile and fallen a-sleep. But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a lamprey, a large mullet, or a boar, animal propter convivium, and had sent him a cook from Asia to make new sauces, he would have attended carefully, and taken in your discourses greedily.” The same feeling I expect will be displayed towards this book by the inveterate dram-drinker: he or she will curse the author, as a busy-body, for his intermeddling with, and abusing their “dear comfort.” People are apt to conclude that a practice sanctioned by time and numbers must be right; but there cannot be a conclusion more fallacious. The grossest possible absurdities have been sanctioned for the same reasons. No doubt some will defend their practice of dram-drinking and immoderate potations of wines, and of malt and spirituous liquors by the unsound plea that they find no ill effect from their self immolation from drinking the deadly draughts; but reasoners so deluded should recollect that, though there are persons who are insensible to the immediate effects from strong liquors, either spirituous or malt, yet to those who seldom or ever use them, they act as quick poisons; not waiting their tedious operation in the form of fever, gout, stone and gravel, dropsy, bile, rheumatism, head-ache, scurvy, cancer, asthma, consumption, palsy, brain fever, apoplexy, mania, and a long list of other frightful and loathsome diseases. In truth, as the author of “The Oracle of Health and Long Life” forcibly observes, “they paralyze the nervous system and the heart’s action; and the tremulous hand, the palsied limbs, the bloated and inflamed countenance, and the faltering tongue, super-induced by their immoderate use, indicate that premature death lays claim to his deluded and self-destroying victim!”

Nor is this the worst consequence of the immoral and unsocial act: for the unhappy wretch who is addicted to the habitual and vicious use of ardent spirits, besides subjecting himself to the attack of “the whole army of diseases” which assault the human frame from intoxication, often exhibits a more awful demonstration of the consequences of violating the laws of morality and social decency: I allude to the extraordinary fact of the spontaneous combustion of the body, which has often terminated the existence of old and inveterate drunkards.

This combustion is occasioned in such persons from the whole fabric of the body being so changed, by the constant practice of spirit-drinking, with inflammable matter (probably hydrogen); or, chemically speaking, it acquires so powerful an attraction for oxygen, that it suddenly takes fire, (in some instances spontaneously, in others from the flame of a candle or too powerful a heat of the fire,) and the body is reduced to a cinder.

The persons in whom this dreadful visitation of apparently supernatural punishment for the violation of the laws of nature has occurred, have been chiefly women. In some cases the unhappy sufferers have been found burning, “sometimes with an open flame flickering over the body, sometimes with a smothered heat or fire, without any open flame whatever; whilst the application of water has occasionally seemed rather to quicken than impede the combustion.

“In no instance has the fire or flame thereby excited in the body been so powerful as essentially to injure the most combustible substances immediately adjoining it, as linen or woollen furniture.

“The event has usually taken place at night, when the sufferer has been alone, and has commonly been discovered by the foetid penetrating scent of sooty films, which have spread to a considerable distance. The unhappy subject has in every instance been found dead, and more or less completely burnt up.”

The above awful account is quoted from Dr. Mason Good’s “Study of Medicine;” but relations of numerous cases of the above horrid termination of existence may be found in the Philosophical Transactions, Vols. 63 and 64, in Dr. Young’s “Medical Literature,” and in a variety of Foreign Journals, medical as well as general.

Let all those who are addicted to habitual intoxication and the consumption of the infernal compositions of nefarious dealers in spirits, read and re-read the above quotation, and may they take warning, and renounce that unhappy propensity.

It is true that wine and malt liquors, and even occasionally spirits, are far from prejudicial, when properly made, and used with discretion; but as it is almost impossible to find them in that state, except when home-made or home-brewed, there is certainly much risk in drinking them. Yet, strange to say, though the stoutest among us has no predilection for the “King of Terrors,” inclination and habit are so strong and seductive, that the greater part of mankind still persevere in habits with a perfect knowledge of their inevitable consequences,—that they are destructive of health and inductive of death. For the purpose of awakening the attention of those who are under this unhappy delusion, is the design of the present publication. The most grateful sensation to a well disposed heart is the salvation of a fellow creature from misery and perdition. I beseech heaven that I may be successful in my undertaking.

But the base and iniquitous adulterations of wines and spirits are not the whole of the “illicit doings” of the advertisers and placarders, and their worthy compeers, the commission-men, the wine-hawkers, and the dock wine-merchants. “Among the deceptions practised by this class of dealers,” says the author of Wine and Spirit Adulterators Unmasked, p. 157, and he is no indifferent authority on the subject, “may be reckoned the delivering of a less quantity of wine than is charged for in the invoice, the disposing of a wine with a false description of its being of some particularly fine and noted vintage; the sending of another wine, of an inferior quality, as the one which had been tasted and sold; together with a variety of other peculations. The gin-shop-keepers and advertising dealers in spirits not only give short measure of their adulterated ingredients, but if they sell any thing like the genuine article they dilute it much below (often one hundred per cent.) the legal strength, namely, seventeen per cent. below proof, according to Sykes’s hydrometer.”

For the following valuable information respecting the ingenious devices of the “gentlemen” wine-merchants, I am indebted to the pages of “The Private Gentleman and Importing Merchant’s Wine and Spirit Cellar Directory:”—A work replete with the most useful information on the subject, as containing the best and most practical instructions on the selection, purchase, management, medication, and preservation of foreign wines, of any work extant in any language. It has been well said by a judicious critic, “No book is more wanted than a good, practical, and complete one on this important subject: it would be worth its weight in gold, and its author would be a public benefactor to his country. More than nine-tenths of the wine imported into this country is either spoiled or impoverished by the ignorance or mismanagement of the wine-dealer or the purchaser; as at present conducted, the management of a wine-cellar is, in most cases, all random, hap-hazard, and guess-work. Ought we to be surprised at the result, the consequent loss or injury of the wine? It is, therefore, with considerable satisfaction we recommend this little work as a valuable addition to our domestic economy.”

“As many people place reliance on the genuineness of wines purchased in the Docks, and think that such purchases are more exempt from fraud and imposition than if obtained from the dealer’s shop or vaults, and that they will have them ‘neat as imported,’ it is necessary to caution them to be on their guard in respect of the persons with whom they deal. Inferior articles, false descriptions, substitutions for the one selected, and various other peculations, take place there as frequently as is the case when wines are purchased at the dealer’s shop, &c. Other impositions of as flagrant a nature consist in transferring wines of a most inferior sort into pipes recently emptied, and originally filled with wine of the best vintages and flavour; and as the outside of the cask bears the marks of the foreign houses of character, from whose vintages the wines contained in the casks were furnished, this fraud is found to turn to very good account. By delusions of this kind, the most detestable trash ever vended under the name of wine is frequently foisted on purchasers. But if this statement is not sufficient to satisfy those who fondly suppose that by making their purchases in the ‘Docks’ that they will always have their expectations of obtaining unadulterated wine fulfilled, they should recollect that the owners of wines in the ‘Dock’ are at liberty to mix them in whatever manner and proportions they please, provided they come under one denomination as to colour and pay the same duty. These remarks will, I trust, satisfy my readers that ‘an extensive range of counting-houses,’ ‘numerous clerks employed’ and professions of ‘the high character of the house,’ should not supersede the necessity of making a little inquiry as to the fair dealing and integrity of the vender.”

The foregoing “exposÉ” of trickery and fraud, and the shameful latitude and extensive means afforded designing and iniquitous men, of practising their roguery on the credulity and folly of the public, as well as to the loss of the revenue, evidently shows that our present system of excise-laws is defective and absurd: indeed, it is disgraced by the most perfect anomalies; for, while the brewer and vender of spices, &c. are subjected to the strictest survey of the excise, and the frauds and adulterations used in those trades are punished, (when detected, though it must be acknowledged that that happy consummation of justice is rather of rare occurrence even with those sophisticators,) in the most prompt and efficient manner, the venders and compounders of “seductive poison,” in the form of drams, are allowed to manufacture and sell their deleterious inventions to an enormous extent, and with an effrontery disgraceful to civilized society. But, perhaps, the old artful plea of the “immense wealth,” and “the great value of the property,” of “the large capitalists” engaged in the nefarious trade, (the worst and most futile of all pretentions,) have entitled the “deputations” of wine and spirit dealers and compounders and distillers that have, from time to time, waited on the Chancellors of the Exchequer, to “undoubted consideration;”[F] and where the worthies have been detected (a chance which but seldom happens) in their iniquitous practices a prudent private compromise, or sum-total-fine, for the offence and the expenses of the Excise-solicitor, “have shrouded the offenders and their misdeeds in impenetrable secrecy from the public eye.”

Another lame and false doctrine that prevails in “government logic” is, that where extensive concerns, whether brewery, distillery, wine-factories, or quack-medicine-factories, yield an important contribution to the revenue, no strict scrutiny needs to be adopted in regard to the quality of the article from which such contribution is raised, provided the excise and customs do not suffer by the fraud. “But,” as that intrepid advocate of fair dealing, Mr. Accum, forcibly and justly observes, “the principles of the constitution afford no sanction to this preference, and the true interests of the country require that it should be abolished; for a tax dependent on fraud must be at best precarious, and must be, sooner or later, diminished by the irresistible diffusion of knowledge. Sound policy requires that the law should be impartially enforced in all cases; and if its penalties were extended to abuses of which it does not now take cognizance, there is no doubt that the revenue would be abundantly benefited.”

Were they all influenced by the same honest, bold, and disinterested motives as the ill-fated Accum, who has been offered a vindictive sacrifice on the altar of trading cupidity and fraud. Every honest man must allow that the expatriation of that gentleman is a disgrace to the country which he has adorned and benefited by his talents, and ought to be deplored as a loss to the real interests of science and humanity.

SECTION II.
The Tests, or Methods of ascertaining the Good or Bad Qualities of Wines and Spirits.

Though there are many tests in use for the discovery of the presence of mineral poisons, such as litharge and other preparations of lead, or pungent vegetable nostrums, namely extract of capsicums, &c. in wines and spirits, yet it must be admitted that there are no efficient tests for detecting the presence of the foreign agents above mentioned in either wines or spirits, except by chemical analysis; because, in the fraudulent combination which takes place, those articles bear the largest proportions which possess the same chemical properties as do the wines and spirits with which they are compounded. The injurious tendency of the vegetable poisons which form a component part of the spurious compositions which are vended under the denomination of cheap wines and spirits, and their injurious and lingering effects are so imperceptible on the human constitution, that, as the author of “The Oracle of Health and Long Life” observes, they must be deadly indeed to produce immediate injury, so as to give suspicion of their presence.

The presence of sugar of lead, or any other deleterious metal in wine, may be detected by filling a glass with wine, and adding a few drops of Harrowgate-water, or melted brimstone, when the wine will with the last mentioned ingredient becomes blackish, and with the other it will immediately produce a black sediment; but if it be unadulterated it will only lose its clearness, taste, and colour. Or the adulteration may be discovered by adding one part of water saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, acidulated with a small portion of muriatic acid, to two parts of wine, or any other liquid, in which the presence of lead is suspected, when a blackish coloured precipitate will settle at the bottom of the vessel, which, being dried and fused by means of the blow-pipe, will yield a globule of metallic lead. The prussiate of potash is occasionally employed for the same purpose: a drop or two being sufficient to show a white or greyish precipitate in any fluid in which lead is contained. When white wines have an unusual degree of sweetness, are of a darker colour than their age and body seem to warrant, and particularly when their use, or that of the red wines, is followed by pains in the stomach, it may be concluded that they have been adulterated with lead.

The process to detect the presence of alum in wine, is to take some fresh prepared lime-water, and to mix the suspected wine with it, in about equal proportions; if after the mixture has stood about a day, a number of crystals is found deposited at the bottom of the vessel, the wine is genuine; but, if alum is present in the wine, there will be no crystals, but a slimy and muddy precipitate. Or the presence of alum may be detected, by dropping some solution of subcarbonate of potash into the wine, when, if the alum be present, there will be a violet coloured precipitate, or at least cloudiness, which will vanish again if a few drops of caustic, potash, or of muriatic acid are added to the mixture.

Where artificial colouring matter is suspected in wine, put a quarter of a pint of the liquor into a phial, with an ounce of fresh charcoal finely pulverized. Then shake the mixture well for a few minutes, when, if the wine is impregnated only with its own natural colouring, that colour will be chemically destroyed, and the wine, when filtered, will yield a clear limpid fluid; but, if the wine is artificially coloured, such artificial colours will not be acted on by the charcoal, and the mixture will appear unchanged.

Extraneous colours in wines may also be detected by means of acetate of lead. If this test produces, in red wine, a greenish grey precipitate, it is a sign that the wine is genuine. Wine coloured with the juice of bilberries, or elderberries, or Campeachy wood, produces, with acetate of lead, a deep blue precipitate; and fernambouk wood, red saunders, and the red beet, produce a red precipitate by the agency of the acetate of lead.

According to Cadet (Dictionnaire de Chimie, art. Vin.) this species of adulteration may be detected by pouring into the suspected wine a solution of sulphate of alumine, and precipitating the alum by potash. If the wine is pure, the precipitate will have a bottle green colour, more or less dark, according to the natural hue of the wine. But if the colour has been artificial the following will be the results:—

But Dr. Henderson says, in his learned work, entitled “The History of Ancient and Modern Wines,” p. 342, that the simple test pointed out to him by his friend Dr. Prout is equally satisfactory, and may be applied either to red or white wines. “On adding ammonia to wines, which had the appearance of being genuine, he observed that the precipitate was of an olive green colour; shewing the analogy between the colouring principle and the vegetable blues, most of which are rendered red by acids, and green by alkalis. This conjecture is, in some measure, confirmed by the recent discovery of M. Breton, professor of chemistry in Paris, with respect to the cause of that disorder in wines known by the name of tournure. Wine thus affected acquires a disagreeable taste and smell, loses its red colour, and assumes a dark violet hue, which changes are found to proceed from the presence of carbonate of potash, in consequence of the decomposition of the tartar contained in the liquor. To restore the natural colour and flavour, if the disease be not of long standing, it is only necessary to add a small quantity of tartaric acid, which, combining with the potash, forms cream of tartar, as is shown by the subsequent deposition of crystals. Revue Encyclopedique, November, 1823. In genuine wines, the colouring matter seems to partake of the character of a lake, partly held in solution by the excess of acid present, and partly combined with the earthy phosphates; for, in the precipitates obtained from these wines by means of ammonia, it appears in union with the triple phosphate of magnesia. Even the white wines of Xeres, Madeira, and Teneriffe, exhibit this mixed precipitate; their colouring matter being probably derived from the red grapes which enter into their composition. In fictitious wines, on the other hand, such as those procured from the black currant, gooseberry, orange, &c. the last mentioned salt was thrown down by ammonia, but more gradually, in less quantities, and without any admixture.”

The method of ascertaining the strength, or quantity of spirit or alcohol in wines is by the following process, for the discovery of which the public is indebted to Mr. Brande.

“Add to eight parts, by measure, of the wine to be examined, one part of a concentrated solution of subacetate of lead; a dense insoluble precipitate will ensue; which is a combination of the test-liquor with the colouring, extractive and acid matter of the wine. Shake the mixture for a few minutes, pour the whole upon a filter and collect the filtered fluid. It contains the brandy, or spirit, and water of the wine, together with a portion of the subacetate of lead. Add, in small quantities at a time to this fluid, warm, dry, and pure subcarbonate of potash, (not salt of tartar, or the subcarbonate of potash of commerce); which has previously been freed from water by heat, till the last portion added remains undissolved. The brandy or spirit contained in the fluid will become separated; for the subcarbonate of potash abstracts from it the whole of the water, with which it was combined; the brandy or spirit of wine forms a distinct stratum, which floats upon the aqueous solution of the alkaline salt. If the experiment be made in a glass tube, from one half inch to two inches in diameter, and graduated into a hundred equal parts, the per centage of spirit, in a given quantity of wine, may be read off by mere inspection. In the same manner the strength of any wine may be examined.”

The following is the proportion, or per centage, of alcohol or spirit in some of the most common wines and spirituous liquors. But such of my readers as may wish to gain more extensive information on the subject, I refer them to the first volume of the Journal of Science and the Arts, p. 290.

The above proportional quantities of alcohol contained in the different kinds of wine are extracted from Mr. Brande’s experiments detailed in the work before mentioned; but as it appears that that gentleman made his experiments on samples of wine into which adventitious alcohol had been introduced, he seems in some instances to have assigned a greater degree of spirituosity to some wines than the subsequent analysis of Dr. Prout will justify, in the case of experiments made on genuine wines. To those who are desirous of informing themselves accurately on the subject, a reference to the Table at pages 363 and 364 of Dr. Henderson’s work on the History of Ancient and Modern Wines, in which the results of the experiments of Mr. Brande, Dr. Prout, and Mr. Zist, an able chemist residing at Mentz, are detailed, is recommended.

The quantity of astringent matter, or tannin, contained in wine, may readily be ascertained by dropping a solution of isinglass into it, when a gelatinous precipitate takes place in proportion to the tannin, whether it be Port, Claret, or Burgundy.

The adulteration and false strength of spirituous liquors, as brandy, rum, and malt spirit, are detected by diluting the suspected liquor with water, when the acrimony of the capsicum, or the grains of paradise, or pepper, may be easily discovered by the taste. Or by taking about a quart of the suspected liquor, and pouring it into a retort, or small still, and boiling it gently, until the whole of the spirituous part is evaporated, the residuum, if capsicum, grains of paradise, &c. have been present in the liquor, will retain a hot pungent taste. A ready way of detecting aqua-fortis, or oil of vitriol, in spirits, is, by dropping into a glass of the suspected liquor, a bit of chalk about the size of a pea, when the liquid, if spurious, will become like milk, but, if genuine, the chalk will lie at the bottom.

The adulteration of brandy with British molasses or sugar spirit, is ascertained by rubbing a portion of the suspected liquor between the palms of the hands, when the spirit, as it evaporates, leaves the disagreeable flavour which is peculiar to all British spirits. Or the liquor may be deprived of its alcohol, by heating a portion of it in a spoon over a candle till the vapour ceases to catch fire on the approach of a lighted taper. The residue thus obtained, if genuine brandy, possesses a vinous odour, resembling the flavour of brandy, whilst the residue produced from sophisticated brandy, has a peculiarly disagreeable smell, resembling gin, or the breath of habitual drunkards. The purity of spirits may also be easily ascertained by setting fire to a little of the suspected article in a spoon, when, if they be unadulterated, they will all burn away, without leaving any moisture behind. The presence of lead, or any of its preparations, in spirituous liquors, may be detected by the same method as has been stated in the case of wine. Where gin has been highly sweetened with sugar, by evaporating some of the suspected liquor in a spoon over a candle, the sugar will appear in the form of a gum-like substance when the spirit is volatilized.

The presence of lead as a component part of cider or perry, whether happening accidentally from the leaden bed of the press, or inserted intentionally for the purpose of neutralizing the super-abundant acid of the liquor, may be tested by putting a solution of molybdate of potash into the suspected liquor; when a white precipitate will take place, even though the lead should exist in the smallest possible quantity. It is needless here to enumerate the various tricks of “the knowing ones” for giving a factitious crust to wine bottles,[G] by means of Brazil wood and potash; or the colouring and eating away of wine corks,[H] to represent long residence in the neck of the bottle, though perhaps only driven in yesterday. Nor is the crusting even of the wine-casks, which is accomplished by means of crystals of the super-tartrate of potash, to be trusted to.

Those who wish to know the allowable secrets of the adulteration trade will find them fully explained in “The Private Gentleman or Importing Merchants’ Wine and Spirit Cellar Directory,” with many other “Secrets Worth Knowing” by cozeners; but it may be observed that the older port wine is, the less of the tartar, or super-tartrate of potash is contained in it, and the greater the deposition on the sides of the cask or bottle. But new wine may be put into old casks or old bottles. Therefore, to ascertain the quantity of the salt, take a pint of wine, and boil it down to one-half, into which drop a solution of muriate of platina, when a precipitate will take place, greater or less, in proportion to the quantity of salt contained in the wine.

SECTION III.
Beer and Ale.

“The nutricious and strengthening[I] beverage” of the English, “their own native old Sir John Barleycorn,” is not exempt from the sophistications and corruptions of the adulterator! Ye topers of “pure extract from malt and hops,” do you hear this? That your own sweet proper suction—your ancient and legitimate accompaniment of the sirloin and the plum-pudding, is composed of every thing else than what it ought to be,—in fact, that it is one of the slowest and most fatal poisons with which your good friends “the honest English brewers” are continually entertaining you. Aye, John, it is the truth—and the whole truth. But should you, with your usual “well-clothed stupidity, and sneering ignorant scepticism,” feel inclined to doubt my assertion, a reference to the “Minutes of the House of Commons, appointed for examining the price and quality of beer,” will furnish you with a goodly list of nearly two hundred Excise prosecutions and convictions (between the years 1812 and 1819), of wholesale and retail brewers, publicans, and brewers’ druggists, for the nefarious adulterations of your favourite beverage, or for having in their possession, or selling the poisonous ingredients for the purpose; in which there are several instances of penalties of £500, with costs having been inflicted on the offenders. Since that time, seizures of illegal and poisonous articles have also been often made by the Excise, and convictions have taken place. During the latter end of the last year, and at the commencement of the present year, seizures have been made, and convictions have taken place, nearly equal in number to those before stated: indeed, as a writer on the subject truly observes, “scarcely a week passes without witnessing the detection of some wicked greedy wretch,” who has been sporting with the lives and health of his fellow-creatures. And, when you have satisfied your incredulous understanding of your “honest” countrymen’s dealings with you, you may, perhaps, by reading the following extract from Mr. Accum’s book on Culinary Poisons, p. 189, be satisfied that you are not exactly swallowing a “cordial balsam,” or “the elixir of life,” when you are pouring into your portly stomach that delectable mixture, in the composition of whose combustible materials the brewer’s (or “gentleman”) druggist, the brewer, and the publican have kindly and humanely exerted their honest and patriotic skill.

“That a minute portion of an unwholesome ingredient, daily taken in beer,” (says the intrepid advocate of offended justice, whose civil death to science and suffering humanity is to be sincerely deplored,) “cannot fail to be productive of mischief, admits of no doubt: and there is reason to believe that a small quantity of a narcotic substance daily taken into the stomach, together with an intoxicating liquor, is highly more efficacious than it would be without the liquor. The effect may be gradual; and a strong constitution, especially if it be assisted with constant and hard labour, may counteract the destructive consequences, perhaps for many years, but it never fails to show its baneful effects at last.”

But, perhaps, friend John, you will say that this is all talk, and a mere bug-a-boo of the “radicals” to annoy you in your daily potations of your “favourite beverage,”—thy own native nutritious liquor. And you will call for something like proofs, or an enumeration of the deleterious substances or ingredients which have been found in the possession of brewers and publicans, and for the admixture of which with their “neat article,” they have been subject to the Law’s angry visitations. This is a reasonable request, and it shall be satisfied to the best of my power.

Know then, friend Bull, that the following harmless and invigorating ingredients have been found in the possession of thine honest fellow-countrymen, the brewers, according to the list of the Excise prosecutions detailed in the Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed for examining the price and quality of beer in the year 1819.

1. Cocculus Indicus, or, as it is vulgarly called, occulus Indian berry. This is a powerfully narcotic, and most intoxicating and deleterious drug. In its mildest form, it produces excruciating head-aches and distressing sickness, when the beer is over-dosed. So great was the demand for this poisonous drug, that it rose, as Mr. Accum says, within the space of ten years, from 2s. to 7s. per lb. The extract or poisonous principle obtained from the berries is so abundant as to be easily separated from the substance, and is called by the chemist picrotoxin, a term derived from two Greek words, namely, p?????, bitter; and t??????, poison. What thinkest thou of this, friend John? In India, the berries are thrown on the surface of the water for the purpose of intoxicating the fish, when they float on the water, and are easily taken by the hand.

2. Black Extract, or, as it is called, in the slang phrase of the Adulterating Vocabulary, Hard Multum, which is also an extract of the poisonous Indian berry, or a composition of opium and other ingredients.

3. Nux Vomica and St. Ignatius’s Bean, which are both poisonous; but the first is so extremely deleterious a drug, ten or twelve grains of it being sufficient to kill a dog, that it is now expunged from the Pharmacopeias. Yet, although no one ever hears of its application, except for poisoning rats, it is imported in large quantities, and tons of this deadly poison are ground every year in the drug-mills of the metropolis. The bitter bean, or, as it is more commonly termed by the tender-conscienced gentry, who sport with the health and lives of their fellow-creatures, St. Ignatius’s bean, in order, no doubt, to appease the qualms of conscience under a sanctified name, is no less injurious to health.

4. Opium, Tobacco, Extract of Poppies, Henbane, Bohemian Rosemary, and Coriander seed, which are all highly dangerous when improperly used. Chemical experiment has proved that less than one pound of the last-mentioned ingredient equals in strength and stupefactive quality one bushel of malt.

5. Essentia Bina, or Double Essence; that is, sugar boiled down to a black colour and an empyreumatic flavour. But, instead of the concentrated essence, the intent of which is to produce the requisite colour in porter, the colouring matter now generally used by the more respectable part of the trade is malt roasted in iron cylinders until it is black like coal. In this state it is called patent malt, and is not prohibited by the Excise.

6. Heading Stuff, that is green copperas, or, as it is vulgarly called, Salt of Steel. This poisonous ingredient is used for the purpose of giving the beer a frothing head; sometimes used alone; sometimes it is mixed with alum.—In the hands of one adulterator, 310lbs. of copperas and 560lbs. of hard multum were found and condemned. A sufficient dose for slowly poisoning half a generation!

7. Capsicum, grains of paradise, carraway seeds, treacle or molasses, liquorice root, &c.

8. Wormwood, aloes, quassia, bitter oranges, &c.

9. Lime, marble dust, powdered oyster shells, hartshorn shavings, jalap, spirit of maranta, &c.

These ingredients, nocuous and innocuous, are intended to produce the following effects:

1. To give a factitious strength and intoxicating quality to the beer.

2. To increase the bitter principle, and consequently to save hops.

3. To add a stimulating aromatic flavour.

4. To produce a fine mantling head to porter, and strike a fine nut brown colour over the froth.

And, 5. To prevent acidity, or to diminish or destroy it when formed.

“It is absolutely frightful,” exclaims Mr. Donovan, (Domestic Economy, p. 201,) “ to contemplate the list of poisons and drugs with which malt liquors have been (as it is technically and descriptively called) doctored. Opium, henbane, cocculus indicus, and Bohemian rosemary, which is said to produce a quick and raving intoxication, supplied the place of alcohol. Aloes, quassia, gentian, sweet scented flag, wormwood, horehound, and bitter oranges, fulfilled the duties of hops. Liquorice, treacle, and mucilage of flax seed, stood for attenuated malt sugar. Capsicum, ginger, and cinnamon, or rather cassia-buds, afforded to the exhausted drink the pungency of a carbonic acid. Burnt flour, sugar, or treacle, communicated a peculiar taste which porter drinkers generally fancy. Preparations of fish, assisted in cases of obstinacy with oil of vitriol, procured transparency. Besides these, the brewer had to supply himself with potash, lime, salt, and a variety of other substances, which are of no other harm than in serving the office of more valuable materials, and defrauding the customer.” In this extract it is observable that that ingenious gentleman has drawn up his account in the past tense, as if there were no adulterations now!!! The author of “The Art of Brewing,” in the Library of Useful Knowledge, has adopted a juster and a more honourable course; besides giving a fuller list of poisonous articles, he has spoken boldly and truly, and tells us that poisonous adulterations are “still used extensively” by those who “sport with the lives of their fellow creatures for the sake of gain,” and that “the seizures and convictions that have been so often made, and are still making by the Excise,” are proofs of the fact. It is, however, with much satisfaction (for no other motive influences me in making the horrific disclosures detailed in this volume than a regard for the public welfare and for public justice) that the statement made in that publication respecting the introduction of gypsum into the manufacture of Burton Ale has been disproved in the recent application made to the Court of King’s Bench by the Burton Ale Brewers, who assert that the peculiarity of flavour belonging to their liquor is occasioned by the water from which it is made running over a rock of gypsum, and thus impregnated with that substance.

In the year 1807, a paragraph appeared in almost all the London daily papers, asserting that porter, brewed in London, contained deleterious drugs. The London porter brewers, indignant at the “unjust and causeless” accusation, had a meeting, and one and all agreed to prosecute the offending journalists. They of course made affidavits, and complied with all the requisites of the law to establish their “innocence.” They moved the Court of King’s Bench for criminal informations against three-fourths of the daily press, and their Counsel made long speeches on “the guilt and unfounded and malicious libels of their accusers.” All looked well for obtaining a verdict of guilty against the denouncers of fraud and villany, and establishing the purity and justice of “the brewing interests,” by the verdict “of an impartial and intelligent jury,” had not the late Lord Ellenborough declared the affidavits of the swearing-brewers insufficient, as the cunning varlets had only denied the introduction of deleterious ingredients in brewing; whereas, to ground their application and entitle them to the rule, they should have denied having used them after the beer was brewed. But as the pillory might have stared the honest gentry in the face had they made this “hard” assertion in their affidavit, the knowing folks here broke down; they could go no further. After making the town echo with the cries of “the infamous press,” they prudently dropped all proceedings against the proscribed journalists. The inference to be drawn is not difficult to surmise; but the fact is, that the publicans, who have of late been so sharply prosecuted by the Excise for adulterating their beer, can best answer the question: From whom did they learn the respectable art of beer-sophistication? Was it not from their “betters,” the “beer-mongers?”

If the foregoing statement of ingredients contained in the above infernal list is not sufficient to induce thee, friend Bull, to lay aside thy incredulity, and open thy eyes to the frauds that are daily practised on thy unsuspecting nature, I can only add that one of the “craft” (see Child, on Brewing, p. 18) tells thee that porter cannot be made of the necessary flavour and taste to suit the Londoner’s appetite, and of the proper colour to tickle his fancy by its appearance, of wholesome malt and hops, and that those simple ingredients would not furnish a profit sufficient to satisfy the modern brewer’s cupidity. Well may the old ladies exclaim (and no doubt, Mr. Bull, thou hast a penchant for displaying thy Latinity) O trickery! O mouthes!

But supposing, dear Bull, that all the above “horrid array” of poisoning and stupefying ingredients was “mere fudge,” and that you should have the fortune to deal with a brewer and publican, who have the “fear of the Lord” before their eyes, and who “wax strong in well doing,” recollect that the present manufactured “entire beer” of the most honest trading brewer alive is a very heterogeneous mixture—a composition of all the waste and spoiled beer of the publicans, the bottoms of their butts—the leavings of their pots—the drippings of their machines for drawing the beer—the remnants of beer that lay in the leaden pipes of the brewery, with a portion of brown stout, bottling beer, and mild beer. So admits that “paragon of brewers,” Mr. Barclay. (See Parliamentary Minutes, p. 94.) Surely, John, it is not courteous and loving treatment of thy “better half” and her “dutiful daughters” to expect them to sully their delicate throttles with the leavings and hawkings of some bearish beast of a coal-heaver or a night-man! This, friend John, is one of the “indicia” of the necessity of thy cultivating the clean and wholesome “home brewery” of thy forefathers; and in the promotion of this laudable and necessary undertaking I hope I shall be able to assist thee in my projected work, “The Family Brewing Oracle,” and that, by its means, thou wilt be enabled to drink a wholesome and nourishing beverage, either ale or porter, at the trifling cost of from five farthings to three halfpence per pot, after the tasting of which thou wilt never allow a drop of brewers’ or public-house porter, or intermediate beer, or any other vile or new-fangled substitution for the home-brewed liquor of thy ancestors, to enter thy chaps.

But, in your honest sincerity and “usually naive manner,” you will exclaim “but we have methods and tests for detecting the adulteration of our native liquor—our vinum Britannicum—our own Sir John Barlycorn.” Aye, have you, Old Gentleman! then I give you joy of your discovery, and hope thou wilt put it into constant practice every day of thy life before thou takest a sup of the delectable and heart-cheering composition. But, for my part, John, give me leave to say that I have always understood that the detection of the adulteration of beer with vegetable substances deleterious to health is extremely difficult, if not beyond the reach of chemical agency or analysis; and in most cases, particularly where cocculus indicus, or its extract, has been used, quite impossible. The tests for ascertaining the admixture of sulphuric acid are more determinate, and are ably detailed in Mr. Accum’s work, p. 193.

Among the minor crimes of fraudulent brewers is the art of converting new beer (that is beer that is just brewed) into old or entire beer; and this operation (which, in the cant phraseology of the trade, is called bringing the beer forward, or making it hard) is performed by an easy, expeditious, and economical method: an imitation of the age of eighteen months is produced in an instant, or, as modern statesmen, versed in the wonderful arcana of political science, would phrase it, “As soon as you could say Jack Robinson.” To put into execution this rare feat of “brewers’ art” you have nothing more to do, in order to convert any wishy-washy slop into an old entire beer, and, consequently, to render it “rich, generous, of a full-bodied taste, without being acid, and of a vinous odour,” than to throw in a quantum sufficit of sulphuric acid.[J] Stale, half spoiled, or sour beer, may as easily be converted into mild beer, by the proper quantity of alkali, or alkaline earth, oyster-shell-powder, subcarbonate of potash or soda; which substances have the effect of neutralizing the excess of acid.

Another of the less culpable adulterations by both brewer and publican is the admixture of small with strong beer. According to the evidence of the solicitor of the Excise (Mr. Carr), given before the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed for examining the price and quality of beer, in the year 1819, (see Minutes of the House of Commons, p. 32, &c.) the retailers of beer in London and its neighbourhood, purchase stale table-beer, or the bottoms of casks, from a set of men who go about and sell such beer at table-beer price to mix in the publicans’ cellars with the new beer they receive from the brewer. Among some of the trade it is the custom to mix the poor low-priced country ales with porter.

But, O John, thou lover of a “cauliflower head!” art thou aware how this object of thy admiration, and indeed natural property of good beer is produced? No doubt thou wilt be hard of belief in this respect; but I must be candid with thee, and tell thee that the “fine frothy head,” the ne plus ultra of thy admiration and test of good porter, is produced by thy honest friend and crony, the publican, by the simple admixture of the delectable and harmless article “beer heading” with the “genuine stuff” he receives from his worthy compeer, the brewer. When thy “gentle friend” observes the frothy property of the beer to be lost by his admixture of the legitimate modicum of small beer or “aqua pura,” molasses, extract of gentian-root and isinglass, (all which ingredients, no doubt, good soul, he adds for thy better health, and to save it from the injurious effects of too strong potations,) he prudently throws in his beer-heading, which is a composition of common green vitriol, or copperas, alum, and salt. The publicans are supplied with this article either by the regular and accredited manufacturer, or they are instructed in its manufacture by those vile and infamous publications in circulation, known by the name of Publicans or Vintners’ Guides, Directors, Friends, &c.—I have carefully gone through those pestiferous books, and examined their farrago of mischievous receipts and instructions for the adulteration and “making up” of wines, spirits, beer, &c. and can safely say that more infernal ingenuity, and a more reckless want of honesty and humanity have never been displayed in the basest concoctions of fraud and villany than is the case in those wretched publications. It is, however, but fair to exempt from this censure a work which has recently appeared, entitled “Clarke’s Publican and Innkeeper’s Guide, and Wine and Spirit Dealer’s Assistant;” which, though not entirely exempt from objection, is evidently the production of a skilful, and, what is of greater importance to the public, of an honest man, and possesses the great recommendation of instructing the trade in all the allowable secrets of the craft, without endangering the health and lives of the consumers; while it enables its readers to obtain better and more efficient results by its directions than can possibly be obtained by following the deadly and inefficient receipts of its predecessors.

I have now, friend Bull, brought my disclosures respecting thy favourite beverage—thy fondly but mistakenly imagined “pure extract from malt and hops,” to a close; but, shouldst thou still be hard of belief, I recommend thee to put thy tongue into the enchanting cauldron of some brewer-friend of thine; but, remember that I cannot ensure thee that thou will redraw it quite as unaffected or renovated as the tragic poet describes Æson to have sprung from the cauldron of Medea.

In the above detail of adulterations in the public brewery of this country, no personality is intended in the tone of reprehension assumed on the subject; the remarks are intended to be applied only to “the most worthless part of the trade, to such as disgrace the name of brewer, by sporting with the lives of their fellow creatures for lucre’s sake.” Those odious and detestable wretches deserve the severest castigations, and every member of the community should lend his hearty co-operation to their exposure and punishment. But while it is the duty of every man whom nature has gifted with a heart capable of feeling for his fellow creatures, to expose the monsters who secretly poison the human race, it must be admitted that the very heavy and injudicious taxation to which brewers are subject has compelled even many of the more conscientious of the trade to have recourse to measures which are not quite agreeable to the dictates of honesty, and to draw immense lengths of wort from the least possible quantity of malt, so that the liquor is neither of a nutritive nor a relishing quality. But the error in this case arises from the same cause as it does in that of wines—the incompetency of the persons (who were either the favourites, the dependants, or the retainers of the existing ministry of the day) appointed to frame the statutes regulating those trades; and, laughable to say, those precious legislators have prohibited the use of articles which are not only innoxious, but occasionally advantageous.[K] In the statute of Charles the Second, which regulates the management of foreign wines, the blunder is singular; by that act several substances are forbidden to be mixed with wine, which, in themselves, are not only innocuous, but are highly conducive to its purity and right preservation, and give it the necessary brightness and perfection!

Oh, Bull, when will thy law-makers and law-concocters learn a little of that old-fashioned and much neglected commodity,—common sense. Were the same good sense and knowledge of the subject, and of the condition of society, indicated by them as are displayed by the more unassuming but efficient department of the state machinery—the dispensers of our laws (of course I cannot be mistaken to mean the justices of the peace!) the country would not be put to the expense of making laws one day which are to be repealed the next, and there might appear some just pretension for the high-sounding titles of “English Justinians,” and “heaven-born legislators,” with which a portion of the periodical press is idly and continually bespattering certain members of the executive department of the government.

As my printer tells me that a few lines are wanting to complete this page, and being desirous to give my readers all I can afford for their money, a word or two on the legislative mania which seems to have taken hold of some honourable members “of the noblest assembly of freemen in the world,” may not be misplaced. And for the sake of brevity, I shall adduce, as an example, the memorable attempt to modify the Quarantine Laws on the advice, testimony, and experience of the renowned Dr. M’Lean. When arguments being taken as facts, and the absurdities of reasoning as the evidence of experience, the whims and reveries of that gentleman, who was described by one (a member of St. Stephen’s) of the anti-contagionists as “one of those extraordinary persons who will be pointed out by the finger of the future historian,” would have received the stamp and authority of law, and we should have had the blessing of plague being as common in our houses as measles, coughs or colds, had not “the ignorance of those who attempt to mislead the public, and the indiscretion of those who are inclined to believe them,” been exposed and refuted by the late Dr. Gooch, in his invaluable paper “Is the Plague a Contagious Disease?” which appeared at the time (anno 1825), in The Quarterly Review, and is now appended to his Account of Female Diseases.