CHAPTER XI.

ADULTERATIONS OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

How can wine possibly prove innoxious, when it is mixed with so many destructive ingredients.-PLINY.

Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark

For a charm of powerful trouble.
Like a hell-broth, toil and bubble;
Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.-SHAKSPEARE.

THE adulteration of intoxicating liquors, forms an interesting and important subject of inquiry. The value of the traffic led to an early adoption of this injurious practice. Ancient writers distinctly allude to the subject of adulteration.

The observations contained in the present chapter, must not be understood to implicate all who are engaged in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. Evidence, however, of the most conclusive character, demonstrates that the practice, although not universal, is very general, and that it is carried on to a most alarming

extent.

This deleterious system has two objects in view, viz., 1st, To substitute an artificial compound at a cheaper rate in the place of the genuine article. This is effected by various means adapted to imitate the colour, taste, and intoxicating quality of the liquors professed to be prepared; and, 2ndly, To prevent these liquors from going into pcculiar states or conditions, termed by some, diseases, and thence popularly denominated the art of "Doctoring." This practice will be explained in its proper place.

ADULTERATIONS OF WINE.

The wines of the ancients were frequently adulterated. The writings both of Greek and Roman authors, acquaint

us with numerous receipts for this purpose. Their genuine wines were rendered more potent by the admixture of wines of a stronger kind, or, as was commonly the practice, articles were added, with the view to impart to them an artificial flavour, as well as to render them more durable.

In a passage of the "Esopus," of Alexis, allusion is made to the practices of the Athenian wine merchants, who, as is humorously described, in order to spare the heads of their customers, put it out of their power to drink unmixed wine at their meals, by selling it ready diluted from the carts.*

In England, there are early notices of this practice. In the fourteenth century, in the reign of Edward III., a law was enacted, imposing penalties on adulterations, and directing that an essay of all the wines imported should be made, at least twice a year in every town.

In 1426, Sir John Rainewell, mayor, received information that the Lombard merchants were guilty of mal-practices in the adulteration of wines; upon inquiry, he ascertained that the charge was well founded, and ordered that the noxious compound, to the quantity of 150 butts, should be thrown into the kennel.†

In the sixteenth century, a similar enactment was passed in the fifth year of Mary. Much dread is expressed of adulteration of good wine, either with inferior wines or water, the penalty on discovery being the loss of their whole stock. "And besyde the samin sic wymes as are sould in commoun tavernis ar commonlie mixt with auld corrupt wines and with watter, to the greit appeir and danger and seikness of the byaris and greit perrell of the saulis of the sellaris."

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In the seventeenth century, the practice of adulterating intoxicating liquors, appears to have been very prevalent. It was common at that period to mix burnt lime or gypsum with dry Spanish wines. Shakspeare alludes to this prevalent custom: "You rogue, there is lime in this sack too. There is nothing but roguery to be found in villanous man!" Sir William Hawkins makes the following remarks, in his "Observations on a Voyage into the South Sea," A. D., 1622: "Since the Spanish sacks have been common in our taverns, which for conservation, are mingled with the lime in the making, our nation complains of calentures, of the

Athenæus, x. 8.

† Dr. Hughson's, London, p. 94.

stone, the dropsy, and infinite other distempers, not heard of before this wine came into common use. Besides, there is no year that it wasteth not two millions of crowns of our substance, by conveyance into foreign countries."

In the 12th Car. ii. c. 25, sec. 11, certain restrictions are found in regard to the mixing and adulteration of wines. The guilty persons were subject to heavy penalties on conviction.

The fictitious preparations of wines has been thus satirized in an old song :—

One glass of drink, I got by chance,
'T was claret when it was in France;
But now from it moche wider.
I think a man might make as good
With green crabbes, boiled in Brazil wood,
And half a pinte of cider.

Addison, in the Tatler, seems to have been well aware of the practice of palming fictitious wine on the public:"There is in the city, a certain fraternity of chemical operators, who work under ground in holes, caverns and dark retirements, to conceal their mysteries from the eyes and observations of mankind. These subterraneous philosophers, are daily employed in the transmutation of liquors, and by the power of magical drugs and incantations, raising under the streets of London, the choicest products of the hills and valleys of France. They can squeeze Bourdeaux out of the sloe, and draw Champaigne from an apple. Virgil in that remarkable prophecy,

Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,

VIRGIL, Ecl. iv. 29.

seems to have hinted at this art, which can turn a plantation of northern hedges into a vineyard. These adepts are known among one another, by the name of wine brewers; and, I am afraid, do great injury, not only to Her Majesty's customs, but to the bodies of many of her good subjects."*

The present race of "chemical operators," are no less ingenious, than those to which Addison alludes. Wine merchants' guides abound in recipes for the preparation and adulteration of fictitious wines. The present state of the wine trade, indeed, is such, that it is almost impossible to procure genuine wine of any description. It would appear that the quantity professed to be exported from

*Tatler, No. 131.

saccharine matter, and to many of which, brandy is added to increase their strength. Perhaps, too, the predominant acids may undergo some transmutation in the stomach, which renders their presence still more detrimental." And again, "the gallic acid of port wines renders them unfit for weak stomachs. The excitement they produce is of a more sluggish nature than that attending the use of the pure French wines, and does not enliven the fancy in the same degree. As a frequent beverage they are unquestionably much more pernicious." In addition to these, Dr. Henderson adds the following judicious observations: "When introduced into the stomach, vinous liquors may be considered as acting in two ways, either by their chemical affinities, as they become mixed with the food, or by their stimulant operations on the nervous and muscular systems. Now there is every reason to believe, that in the former point of view, they will not assist the digestion of proper nutriment in the healthy subject, but will have a directly contrary effect, especially if they contain much spirit or acid. If they undergo decomposition, a portion of the saccharine and mucilaginous matter may, perhaps, enter into the formation of chyme, and a small quantity of the alcohol may be taken up by the absorbents; but this principle constitutes no part of the blood, and cannot therefore remain in the system. The neutral salts will, of course, exert their specific actions on the alimentary canal, or they may enter into partial combination with the food. In weak stomachs, however, where the muscu lar action is slow, even the purest wine is apt to degenerate a deleterious acidity; and the stimulant power of the alcohol, which, in persons of sounder habits, is sufficient to overcome its antiseptic tendency, is thus completely lost. But that in persons of the strongest frame, wine does not directly forward the process of digestion, is proved by the derangement of the alimentary organs, which always succeeds excessive indulgence in its use. Great drinkers, it is well known, are small eaters, and usually terminate their career by losing their appetite altogether."

The following objection has been frequently urged in opposition to one of the fundamental principles of the temperance reformation. Alcohol, it is observed, is the product of nature, and therefore a "good creature of God," and to be received with thanksgiving. The fallacy of this proposition admits of ready proof. Alcohol is now universally acknowledged to be the product of vegetable DE

COMPOSITION. Hence, it is not eliminated from any living or natural process. On the supposition that the formation of alcohol is the result of natural laws, it may pertinently be inquired why man interferes with, and disturbs the operations of, nature, at a particular period, that is exactly at the commencement of her object, and thus prevents that ultimate action which otherwise would inevitably take place. The answer is simple and decisive. He arrests the operations of nature exactly at that period, when he can supply himself with a product calculated to gratify his depraved and vitiated appetites. Hence, the multifarious and complicated inventions of the wine-maker and brewer.*

This branch of our inquiry may be better understood by a slight review of the active laws of animate vegetable creation, so far, at least, as they have connexion with the present object of our investigation. The constituent principles of vegetables, consist of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. The poisonous upas, and the nutritious grape; the fragrant rose, and the nauseous assafœtida; the refreshing foliage, and the delicate tints of the vast arcana of vegetable nature, each owe their peculiar quality to these simple substances. So wonderful, indeed, is the laboratory of nature, that even from the same trunk, and from a mass of sap, apparently homogeneous in its character, substances of a very opposite nature are produced. An oil bland as that of the olive, is eliminated from the poppy. In some parts of the globe it is extensively employed for dietic purposes. From the same plant is extracted the milky juice, from whose substance is produced the poisonous opium. The delicious pulp of the peach also is well known to enclose in its kernel, a poison of a most deadly character. Olive oil is another instance in point. Its chemical constituents approach near to those of alcohol; how materially however do these substances differ in their operation on the human system? These facts are sufficient to

We were taken to task a few years since, by Prof. McLean of New Jersey, in the N. Y. Observer, for advancing the above opinions, and yet they are demonstrably correct, and known to be so, by every one who will devote the slightest attention to the matter. Alcoholic wine does not exist in nature-it is an artificial product, and requires great skill in its manufacture and great care in its preservation, for, if left to the operation of the laws of nature, it would soon change into vinegar, and from that run into the putrefactive fermentation. We maintain that wine as well as beer, is, quoad hoc, a creature of art, and not of nature, and those who say it is not, must point us to it, existing in nature, without man's supervention. Then, and not before we will yield the point.-AM. ED.