Chapter 10

Hic Jacet,FREDRICK ACCUM,Operative Chemist,OLD COMPTON STREET,SOHO.

Since we read his book, our appetite has visibly decreased. At the Celtic club, yesterday, we dined almost entirely on roast beef; Mr. Oman’s London-particular Madeira lost all its relish, and we turned pale in the act of eating a custard, when we recollected the dreadful punishment inflicted on custard-eaters, in page 326 of the present work. We beg to assure our friends, therefore, that at the present moment they may invite us to dinner with the greatest impunity.—Our diet is at present quite similar to that of Parnel’s hermit,

“Our food the fruits, our drink the crystal well;”

though we trust a few days will recover us from our panic, and enable us to resume our former habits of life. Those of our friends, therefore, who have any intention of pasturing us, had better not lose the present opportunity of doing so. So favourable a combination of circumstances must have been quite unhoped for on their part, and most probably will never occur again.[24]V. S.

24.To save some trouble, we may announce that we are already engaged to dinner, on the 23d, 27th, and 28th of this month, and to evening parties, on the 22d, 23d, 26th, 28th, and 29th, and 3d of March.

Since, by the publication of Mr. Accum’s book, an end has been for ever put to our former blessed state of ignorance, let us arm ourselves with philosophy, and boldly venture to look our danger in the face; or, as the poet beautifully expresses it, in language singularly applicable,

“Come, Christopher, and leave all meaner things,To low ambition and the pride of kings;Let us, since life can little else supply;Than just to swallow poison and to die;Expatiate free o’er all this dreadful field,Try what the brewer, what the baker yield;Explore the druggists’ shop, the butchers’ stall;Expose their roguery, and—damn them all!”Pope.

“Come, Christopher, and leave all meaner things,

To low ambition and the pride of kings;

Let us, since life can little else supply;

Than just to swallow poison and to die;

Expatiate free o’er all this dreadful field,

Try what the brewer, what the baker yield;

Explore the druggists’ shop, the butchers’ stall;

Expose their roguery, and—damn them all!”

Pope.

Melancholy as the details are, there is something almost ludicrous, we think, in the very extent to which the deceptions are carried. So inextricably are we all immersed in this mighty labyrinth of fraud, that even the venders of poison themselves are forced, by a sort of retributive justice, to swallow it in their turn.—Thus the apothecary, who sells the poisonous ingredients to the brewer, chuckles over his roguery, and swallows his own drugs in his daily copious exhibitions of Brown stout. The brewer in his turn, is poisoned by the baker, the wine-merchant, and the grocer. And, whenever the baker’s stomach fails him, he meets hiscoup de gracein the adulterated drugs of his friend the apothecary, whose health he has been gradually contributing to undermine, by feeding him every morning on chalk and alum, in the shape of hot rolls.

Our readers will now, we think, be able to form a general idea of the perils to which they are exposed by every meal.

Mr. Accum’s details on the adulteration of wine are extremely ample, and so interesting, that we regret our limits prevent our making more copious extracts, and oblige us to refer our readers for farther information to the work itself.

Having thus laid open to our view the arcana of the cellar, Mr. Accum next treats us with an expose of the secrets of the brew-house. Verily, the wine-merchant and brewer arepar nobile fratrum; and after the following disclosures, it will henceforth be a matter of the greatest indifference to us, whether we drink Perry or Champaigne, Hermitage or Brown stout.Latet anguis in poculo, there is disease and death in them all, and one is only preferable to the other, because it will poison us at about one-tenth of the expense.

“Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favourite beverage of the inhabitants of London and of other large towns, is amongst those articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently committed.

“The practice of adulterating beer appears to be of early date. To shew that they have augmented in our own days, we shall exhibit an abstract from documents laid lately before Parliament.

“Mr. Accum not only amply proves, that unwholesome ingredients are used by fraudulent brewers, and that very deleterious substances are also vended both to brewers and publicans for adulterating beer, but that the ingredients mixed up in the brewer’s enchanting cauldron are placed above all competition, even with the potent charms of Macbeth’s witches:

‘Root of hemlock, digg’d i’ the dark,* * * ** * * *For a charm of pow’rful trouble.Like a hell-broth boil and bubble;Double, double, toil and trouble,Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.’

‘Root of hemlock, digg’d i’ the dark,

* * * *

For a charm of pow’rful trouble.

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble;

Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.’

Mr. Accum very properly gives us a list of those miscreants who have been convicted of adulterating their porter with poisonous ingredients, and want of room alone prevents us from damning them to everlasting fame, by inserting their names along with that of the Rev. Sennacherib Terrot, in the imperishable pages of this miscellany.

Mr. Accum gives us a long dissertation on counterfeit tea, and another on spurious coffee; but as these are impositions by which we are little affected, we shall not allow them to detain us. The leaves of the sloe-thorn are substituted for the former, and roasted horse beans for the latter. These frauds, it appears, are carried to a very great extent.

We must now draw our extracts to a close; but we can assure our readers, that we have not yet introduced them to one tythe of the poisonous articles in common use, detected by Mr. Accum. We shall give the titles of a few to satisfy the curious:—Poisonous confectionary, poisonous pickles, poisonous cayenne pepper, poisonous custards, poisonous anchovy sauce, poisonous lozenges, poisonous lemon acid, poisonous mushrooms, poisonous ketchup, and poisonous soda water! Read this, and wonder how you live!

While we thus suffer under accumulated miseries brought upon us by the unprincipled avarice and cupidity of others, it is surely incumbent on us not wantonly to increase the catalogue by any negligence or follies of our own. Will it be believed, that in the cookery book, which forms the prevailing oracle of the kitchens in this part of the island, there is an express injunction to “boil greens with halfpencein order to improve theircolour?”—That our puddings are frequently seasoned with laurel leaves, and our sweetmeats almost uniformly prepared in copper vessels? Why are we thus compelled to swallow a supererogatorary quantity of poison which may so easily be avoided? And why are we constantly made to run the risk of our lives by participating in custards, trifles, and blancmanges, seasoned by a most deadly poison extracted from theprunus lauro-cerasus? Verily, while our present detestable system of cookery remains, we may exclaim with the sacred historian, that there is indeed “Death in the Pot.”

A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,AND CULINARY POISONS,Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,Spirituous Liquors, &c. and Methods of detecting them.ByFREDRICK ACCUM.(From the Edinburgh Review, No. LXV. Page 131.)

A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,

AND CULINARY POISONS,

Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,

Spirituous Liquors, &c. and Methods of detecting them.

ByFREDRICK ACCUM.

(From the Edinburgh Review, No. LXV. Page 131.)

It is curious to see how vice varies its forms, and maintains its substance, in all conditions of society;—and how certainly those changes, or improvements as we call them, which diminish one class of offences, aggravate or give birth to another.—In rude and simple communities, most crimes take the shape of violence and outrage—in polished and refined ones, of Fraud. Men sin from their animal propensities in the first case, and from their intellectual depravation in the second. The one state of things is prolific of murders, batteries, rapines, and burnings—the other of forgeries, swindlings, defamations, and seductions. The sum of evil is probably pretty much the same in both—though probably greatest in the civilized and enlightened stages; the sharpening of the intellect, and the spread of knowledge, giving prodigious force and activity to all criminal propensities.

Among the offences which are peculiar to a refined and enlightened society, and owe their birth, indeed, to its science and refinement, are those skilful and dexterous adulterations of the manifold objects of its luxurious consumption, to which their value and variety, and the delicacy of their preparation, hold out so many temptations; while the very skill and knowledge which are requisite in their formation, furnish such facilities for their sophistication. The very industry and busy activity of such a society, exposes it more and more to such impostures;—and by the division of labour which takes place, and confines every man to his own separate task, brings him into a complete dependence on the industry of others for a supply of the most necessary articles.

The honesty of the dealer, and of the original manufacturer, is the only security to the public for the genuineness of the article in which he deals. The consumer can in general know nothing of their component parts; he must take them as he finds them; and, even if he is dissatisfied, he has in general no effectual means of redress.

It will be found, that as crimes of violence decrease with the progress of society, frauds are multiplied; and there springs up in every prosperous country a race of degenerate traders and manufacturers, whose business is to cheat and to deceive; who pervert their talents to the most dishonest purposes, prefering the illicit gains thus acquired to the fair profits of honorable dealing; and counter-working, by their sinister arts, the general improvement of society.

In almost every branch of manufacture, there are fraudulent dealers, who are instigated by the thirst of gain, to debase the articles which they vend to the public, and to exact a high price for what is comparatively cheap and worthless. After pointing out various deceptions of this nature, Mr. Accum, the ingenious author of the work before us, proceeds in his account of those frauds, in the following terms.

‘Soap used in house-keeping is frequently adulterated with a considerable portion of fine white clay, brought from St. Stephen’s in Cornwall. In the manufacture of printing paper, a large quantity of plaster of Paris is added to the paper stuff, to increase the weight of the manufactured article. The selvage of cloth is often dyed with a permanent colour, and artfully stitched to the edge of cloth dyed with a fugitive dye. The frauds committed in the tanning of skins, and in the manufacture of cutlery, and jewellery, exceed belief.’ pp. 27-29.

What is infinitely worse, however, than any of those frauds, sophistications, we are informed, are carried on to an equal extent in all the essential articles of subsistence or comfort. So long as our dishonest dealers do not intermeddle with these things, their deceptions are comparatively harmless; the evil in all such cases amounting only to so much pecuniary damage. But when they begin to tamper with food, or with articles connected with the table, their frauds are most pernicious: in all cases the nutritive quality of the food is injured, by the artificial ingredients intermixed with it; and when these ingredients, as frequently happens, are of a poisonous quality, they endanger the health and even the life of all to whom they are vended. We cannot conceive any thing more diabolical than those contrivances; and we consider their authors in a far worse light than ordinary felons, who, being known, can be duly guarded against. But those fraudulent dealers conceal themselves under the fair show of a reputable traffic—they contrive in this manner to escape the infamy which justly belongs to them—and, under the disguise of wealth, credit, and character, to lurk in the bosom of society, wounding the hand that cherishes them, and scattering around them poison and death.

It is chiefly for the purpose of laying open the dishonest artifices of this class of dealers, that Mr. Accum has published the present very interesting and popular work; and he gives a most fearful view of the various and extensive frauds which are daily practised on the unsuspecting public.

‘Among the number of substances used in domestic economy, which are now very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished—tea, coffee, bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar, mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence.—Indeed, it would be difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in an adulterated state; and there are some substances which are scarcely ever to be procured genuine.—Some of these spurious compounds are comparatively harmless when used as food; and as, in these cases, merely substances of inferior value are substituted for more costly and genuine ingredients, the sophistication, though it may affect our purse, does not injure our health. Of this kind are the manufacture of factitious pepper, the adulterations of mustard, vinegar, cream, &c. Others, however, are highly deleterious; and to this class belong the adulterations of beer, wines, spirituous liquors, pickles, salad oil, and many others.’ pp. 2-4.

There are, it appears, particular chemists who make it their sole employment to supply the unprincipled brewer of porter and ale with drugs, and other deleterious preparations; while others perform the same office to the wine and spirit merchant, as well as to the grocer and oilman—and these illicit pursuits have assumed all the order and method of a regular trade.

‘The eager and insatiable thirst for gain’ (Mr. Accum justly observes), which seems to be a leading characteristic of the times, calls into action every human faculty, and gives an irresistible impulse to the power of invention; and where lucre becomes the reigning principle, the possible sacrifice of a fellow-creature’s life is a secondary consideration.’

Mr. Accum having exhibited this general view of his subject, proceeds to enter into an examination of the articles most commonly counterfeited, and to explain the nature of the ingredients used in sophisticating them. He commences with a dissertation on the qualities of good water, in which he briefly points out the dangerous sophistications to which it is liable, from the administration of foreign ingredients.

But in the case of water, the adulteration is purely accidental, which cannot be said of the other articles specified by Mr. Accum. In the making of Bread, more especially in London, various ingredients are occasionally mingled with the dough. To suit the caprice of his customers, the baker is obliged to have his bread light and porous, and of a pure white. It is impossible to produce this sort of bread from flour alone, unless it be of the finest quality. The best flour, however, being mostly used by the biscuit-bakers and pastry-cooks, it is only from the inferiorsorts that bread is made; and it becomes necessary, in order to have it of that light and porous quality, and of a fine white, to mix alum with the dough. Without this ingredient, the flour used by the London bakers would not yield so white a bread as that sold in the metropolis.

Wine appears to be a subject for the most extensive and pernicious frauds.

‘All persons (Mr. Accum observes) moderately conversant with the subject, are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose of brightening their colour; that Brazil wood, or the husks of elderberries and bilberries, which are imported from Germany, under the fallacious name ofberry-dye, are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red port of a pale colour; that gypsum is used to render cloudy white wines transparent; that an additional astringency is imparted to immature red wines by means of oak-wood and sawdust, and the husks of filberts; and that a mixture of spoiled foreign and home-made wines is converted into the wretched compound frequently sold in the metropolis by the namegenuine old Port.’

Other expedients are resorted to, in order to give flavour to insipid wines. For this purpose bitter almonds are occasionally employed; factitious port wine is also flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins; and other ingredients are frequently used, such as sweet brier, orris root, clary, cherry-laurel water, and elder flowers.

In London, the sophistication of wine is carried to an enormous extent, as well as the art of manufacturing spurious wine, which has become a regular trade, in which a large capital is invested; and it is well known that many thousand pipes of spoiled cider are annually sent to the metropolis for the purpose of being converted into an imitation of port wine.

Innumerable are the tricks practised to deceive the unwary, by giving to weak, thin, and spoiled wines, all the characteristic marks of age, and also of flavour and strength. In carrying on these illicit occupations, the division of labour has been completely established; each has his own task assigned him in the confederate work of iniquity; and thus they acquire dexterity for the execution of their mischievous purposes. To one class is allotted the task ofcrusting, which consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine bottles with a red crust. This is accomplished by suffering a saturated hot solution of super-tartrate of potash, coloured red with a decoction of Brazil wood to chrystallize within them. A similar operation is frequently performed on the wooden cask which is to hold the wine, and which, in the same manner as the bottle, is artificially stained with a red crust; and on some occasions, the lower extremitiesof the corks in wine bottles are also stained red, in order to give them the appearance of having been long in contact with the wine. It is the business of a particular class of wine-coopers, by means of an astringent extract mixed with home-made and foreign wines, to produce ‘genuine old port,’ or to give an artificial flavour and colour to weak wine; while the mellowing and restoring of spoiled white wines is the occupation of another class called refiners of wine. Other deceptions are practised by fraudulent dealers, which are still more culpable. The most dangerous of these is where wine is adulterated by an admixture of lead.

Mr. Accum justly observes, that the ‘merchant or dealer who practises this dangerous sophistication, adds the crime of murder to that of fraud, and deliberately scatters the seeds of disease and death among those customers who contribute to his emolument.’

Spirituous liquors, which in this country form one of the chief articles of consumption, are subjects of equally extensive fraud with wine. The deceptions which are practised by the dealers in this article, are chiefly confined to fraudulent imitations of the peculiar flavour of different sorts of spirits; and as this flavour constitutes, along with the strength, the value of the spirit, the profit of the dealer consists in imitating this quality at a cheaper rate than it is produced in the genuine spirit. The flavour of French brandy is imitated, by distilling British molasses spirit over wine lees; previous to which, however, the spirit is deprived of its peculiar disagreeable flavour, by rectification over fresh-burnt charcoal and quicklime. This operation is performed by those who are called brewers’ druggists, and forms the article in theprices-currentcalledSpirit Flavour. Wine lees are imported into this country for the purpose, and they pay the same duty as foreign wines. Another method of imitating the flavour of brandy, which is adopted by brandy merchants, is by means of a spirit obtained from raisin wine, after it has begun to become somewhat sour. ‘Oak sawdust,’ (Mr. Accum observes), ‘and a spirituous tincture of raisin stones, are likewise used to impart to new brandy and rum aripe taste, resembling brandy or rum long kept in oaken casks, and a somewhat oily consistence, so as to form a durable froth at its surface, when strongly agitated in a vial. The colouring substances are burnt sugar, or molasses; the latter gives to imitative brandy a luscious taste, and fulness in the mouth.’ Gin, which is sold in smallquantities to those who judge of the strength by the taste, is made up for sale by fraudulent dealers with water and sugar; and this admixture rendering the liquor turbid, several expedients are resorted to, in order to clarify it; some of which are harmless, while others are criminal. A mixture of alum with subcarbonate of potash, is sometimes employed for this purpose; but more frequently, in place of this, a solution of subacetate of lead, and then a solution of alum,—a practice reprobated by Mr. Accum as highly dangerous, owing to the admixture of the lead with the spirit, which thereby becomes poisonous. After this operation, it is usual to give a false appearance of strength to the spirit by mixing with it grains of paradise, guinea pepper, capsicum, and other acrid and aromatic substances.

In the manufacture of malt liquors, a wide field is opened for the operations of fraud. The immense quantity of the article consumed, presents an irresistible temptation to the unprincipled dealer; while the vegetable substances with which beer is adulterated, are in all cases difficult to be detected, and are frequently beyond the reach of chemical analysis. There is, accordingly, no article which is the subject of such varied and extensive frauds. These are committed in the first instance by the brewer, during the process of manufacture, and afterwards by the dealer, who deteriorates, by fraudulent intermixtures, the liquor which he sells to the consumer. ‘The intoxicating qualities of porter (he continues) are to be ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it;’ and, as some sorts of porter are more heady than others, the difference arises, according to this author, ‘from the greater or less quantity of stupifying ingredients’ contained in it. These consist of various substances, some of which are highly deleterious. Thus, the extract disguised under the name ofblack extract, and ostensibly destined for the use of tanners and dyers, is obtained by boiling the berries of thecocculus indicusin water, and converting, by a subsequent evaporation, this decoction into a stiff black tenacious mass, possessing in a high degree the narcotic and intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry from which it is prepared. Quassia is another substance employed in place of hops, to give the beer a bitter taste; and the shavings of this wood are sold in a half torrified and ground state, in order to prevent its being recognised.

Not only is the use of all these deleterious substances strictly prohibited to the brewer under severe penalties, but all druggistsor grocers convicted of supplying him with any of them, or who have them in their possession, are liable to severe penalties; and Mr. Accum gives a list of twenty-nine convictions for this offence, from the year 1812 to 1819. From the year 1813 to 1819, the number of brewers prosecuted and convicted of using illegal ingredients in their breweries, amounts to thirty-four. Numerous seizures have also been made during the same period at various breweries, and in the warehouses of brewers’-druggists, of illegal ingredients, to be used in the brewing of beer, some of them highly deleterious.

Malt liquors, after they are delivered by the brewer to the retail-dealer, are still destined to undergo various mutations before they reach the consumer. It is a common practice with the retailers of beer, though it be contrary to law, to mix table-beer with strong beer; and, to disguise this fraud, recourse is had to various expedients. It is a well known property of genuine beer, that when poured from one vessel into another, it bears a strong white froth, without which professed judges would not pronounce the liquor good. This property is lost, however, when table-beer is mixed with strong beer; and to restore it, a mixture of what is calledbeer-headingis added, composed of common green vitriol, alum, and salt. To give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer, capsicum and grains of paradise, two highly acrid substances, are employed; and, of date, a concentrated tincture of these articles has appeared for sale in the prices-current of brewers’-druggists. To bring beer forward, as it is technically called, or to make it hard, a portion of sulphuric acid is mixed with it, which, in an instant, produces an imitation of the age of eighteen months; and stale, half-spoiled, or sour beer, is converted into mild beer, by the simple admixture of an alkali or an alkaline earth; oyster-shell powder, and subcarbonate of potash, or soda, being usually employed for that purpose. In order to show that these deceptions are not imaginary, Mr. Accum refers to the frequent convictions of brewers for those fraudulent practices, and to the seizures which have been made at different breweries of illegal ingredients—a list of which, and of the proprietors of the breweries where they were seized, he has extracted from the Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to Inquire into the Price and Quality of Beer. It may be observed, that while some of the sophistications of beer appear to be perfectly harmless, other substances are frequently employed for this purpose which are highly deleterious, and which must gradually undermine the health of those by whom they are used.

Many other of the most ordinary articles of consumption are mentioned by our author as being the object of the most disgusting and pernicious frauds. Tea, it is well known, from the numerous convictions which have lately taken place, has been counterfeited to an enormous extent; and copper, in one form or another, is the chief ingredient made use of for effecting the imitation.

The practice of adulterating coffee, has also been carried on for a long time, and to a considerable extent, while black and white pepper, Cayenne pepper, mustard, pickles of all sorts, have been all of them debased by an admixture of baser, and, in many cases, poisonous ingredients. Ground pepper is frequently sophisticated by an admixture from the sweepings of the pepper warehouses. These sweepings are purchased in the market under the initials P. D., signifying pepper dust. ‘An inferior sort of this vile refuse (Mr. Accum observes), or the sweepings of P. D., is distinguished among venders by the abbreviation of D. P. D., denoting dust, or dirt of pepper dust.’

Of those various frauds so ably exposed in Mr. Accum’s work, and which are so much the more dangerous, as they are committed under the disguise of an honourable trade, it is impossible to speak in terms of too strong reprobation; and in the first impulse of our indignation, we were inclined to avenge such iniquitous practices by some signal punishment. We naturally reflect, that such offences, in whatever light they are viewed, are of a far deeper dye than many of those for which our sanguinary code awards the penalty of death—and we wonder that the punishment hitherto inflicted, has been limited to a fine. If we turn our view, however, from the moral turpitude of the act, to a calm consideration of that important question, namely,—What is the most effectual method of protecting the community from those frauds?—we will then see strong reasons for preferring the lighter punishment. We do not find from experience, that offences are prevented by severe punishments. On the contrary, the crime of forgery, under the most unrelenting execution of the severe law against it, has grown more frequent. As those, therefore, by whom the offence of adulterating articles of provision is committed, are generally creditable and wealthy individuals, the infliction of a heavy fine, accompanied by public disgrace, seems a very suitable punishment: and if it be duly and reasonably applied, there is little doubt that it will be found effectual to check, and finally to root out, those disgraceful frauds.

POISONING OF FOOD.A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,AND CULINARY POISONS;Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cheese, Pepper, Mustard, &c. &c.And methods of detecting them.ByFREDRICK ACCUM.(From the Literary Gazette, No. CLVI. 1820.)

POISONING OF FOOD.

A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,

AND CULINARY POISONS;

Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,

Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cheese, Pepper, Mustard, &c. &c.

And methods of detecting them.

ByFREDRICK ACCUM.

(From the Literary Gazette, No. CLVI. 1820.)

One has laughed at the whimsical description of the cheats in Humphrey Clinker, but it is really impossible to laugh at Mr. Accum’s exposition. It is too serious for a joke to see that in almost every thing which we eat or drink, we are condemned to swallow swindling, if not poison—that all the items of metropolitan, and many of country consumption, are deteriorated, deprived of nutritious properties, or rendered obnoxious to humanity by the vile arts and merciless sophistications of their sellers. So general seems the corruption, and so fatal the tendency of most of the corrupting materials, that we can no longer wonder at the prevalence of painful disorders, and the briefness of existence (on an average) in spite of the great increase of medical knowledge, and the amazing improvement in the healing science, which distinguish our era. No skill can prevent the effects of daily poisoning; and no man can prolong his life beyond a short standard, where every meal ought to have its counteracting medicine.

Mr. Accum acts the part of Dionysius with us; only the horse-hair by which he suspends the sword over our heads allows the point gradually to enter the flesh, and we do not escape, like Damocles, with the simple fright: yet it is but justice to acknowledge, that in almost every case he furnishes us with tests whereby we can ascertain the nature of our danger; and no man could do more towards enabling us to mitigate or escape from it.

Advising our readers to abstain from perusing the annexed synopsis till after they have dined, that they may have one more meal in comfort ere they die, we proceed to the various heads under which the author ranges his dread array.

Devoted to disease by baker, brewer, grocer, &c. the physician is called to our assistance;but here again the pernicious system of fraud, as it has given the blow, steps in to defeat the remedy.

It is so horribly pleasant to reflect how we are in this way be-swindled, be-trayed, be-drugged, and be-devilled, that we are almost angry with Mr. Accum for the great service he has done the community by opening our eyes, at the risk of shutting our mouths for ever.

His account of water is so fearful, that we see there is no wisdom in the well; and if we then fly to wine, we find, from his analysis, that there is no truth in that liquid: bread turns out to be a crutch to help us onward to the grave, instead of the staff of life; in porter there is no support, in cordials no consolation; in almost every thing poison, and in scarcely any medicine, cure.

The work contains a great many excellent observations on the various sorts of water, and the modes of conveying and preserving them for use: it appears generally that leaden pipes and cisterns, and copper vessels are highly dangerous.

Good heavens! we think we hear it exclaimed, is there no end to these infamous doings? does nothing pure or unpoisoned come to our tables, except butcher’s meat, which has been rendered far less nutritive than formerly, by new methods of feeding? Why, we must answer, hardly any thing: for our author proceeds to shew thatcheese(Gloucester he mentions) has been contaminated with red lead, a deadly poison mixed with the colouring anotto, when that article was scarce: thatpepperis adulterated with factitious pepper-corns “made up of oil-cakes (the residue of lint-seed, from which the oil has been pressed), common clay, and a portion of Cayenne pepper, formed in a mass, and granulated by being first pressed through a sieve, and then rolled in a cask;” and further, that “ground pepper is very often sophisticated by adding to a portion of genuine pepper, a quantity of pepper dust, or the sweepings from the pepper warehouses, mixed with a little Cayenne pepper. The sweepings are known, and purchased in the market, under the name of P.D. signifying pepper dust. An inferior sort of this vile refuse, or the sweepings of P.D. is distinguished among vendors by the abbreviation D.P.D, denoting, dust (dirt) of pepper dust.”

As we read on, we learn the method of manufacturing adulterated vinegar, adulterated cream, adulterated lozenges, adulterated mustard, adulterated lemon acid, poisonous Cayenne, poisonous pickles, poisonous confectionary, poisonouscatsup, poisonous custards, poisonous anchovy sauce, poisonous olive oil, poisonous soda water; and, if not done to our hands, of rendering poisonous all sorts of food by the use of copper and leaden vessels. Suffice it to record, that our pickles are made green by copper; our vinegar rendered sharp by sulphuric acid; our cream composed of rice powder or arrow root in bad milk; our comfits mixed of sugar, starch, and clay, and coloured with preparations of copper and lead; our catsup often formed of the dregs of distilled vinegar with a decoction of the outer green husk of the walnut, and seasoned with all-spice, cayenne, pimento, onions, and common salt—or if founded on mushrooms, done with those in a putrefactive state remaining unsold at market; our mustard a compound of mustard, wheaten flour, cayenne, bay salt, raddish seed, turmeric, and pease flour; and our citric acid, our lemonade, and our punch, to refresh or to exhilarate, usually cheap tartareous acid modified for the occasion.

Against all these, and many other impositions, Mr. Accum furnishes us with easy and certain tests: his work, besides, contains many curious documents and useful recipes; and it is replete with intelligence, and often guides to the right while it exposes the wrong.

Other Works lately published byFREDRICK ACCUM.DESCRIPTIONOFTHE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURINGCOAL GAS,For the Lighting of Streets, Houses, and Public Buildings,WITH ELEVATIONS, SECTIONS, AND PLANS,Of the most improved Sorts of Apparatus now employed at theGas Works in London,And the principal Provincial Towns of Great Britain.Price 15s.

Other Works lately published byFREDRICK ACCUM.

DESCRIPTION

THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING

COAL GAS,

For the Lighting of Streets, Houses, and Public Buildings,

WITH ELEVATIONS, SECTIONS, AND PLANS,

Of the most improved Sorts of Apparatus now employed at the

Gas Works in London,

And the principal Provincial Towns of Great Britain.

Price 15s.

CHEMICAL AMUSEMENT,Comprising a Series of curious and instructive Experiments in Chemistry, whichare easily performed, and unattended by Danger.The Fourth Edition. Price 9s.

CHEMICAL AMUSEMENT,

Comprising a Series of curious and instructive Experiments in Chemistry, which

are easily performed, and unattended by Danger.

The Fourth Edition. Price 9s.

This Day is published,A TREATISEON THEArt of Brewing,Exhibiting the London practice of Brewing Porter, Brown Stout, Ale, TableBeer, and various other kinds of Malt Liquors.ByFREDRICK ACCUM.

This Day is published,

A TREATISE

ON THE

Art of Brewing,

Exhibiting the London practice of Brewing Porter, Brown Stout, Ale, Table

Beer, and various other kinds of Malt Liquors.

ByFREDRICK ACCUM.

By the same Author,A TREATISEON THE ART OF MAKING WINEFrom Native Fruits;

By the same Author,

A TREATISE

ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE

From Native Fruits;

Elucidating the Chemical Principles upon which the Art of Wine-making depends. The Fruits best adapted for Home-made Wines, and the Methods of preparing them.

A MANUAL OF ANALYTICAL MINERALOGY,

Intended to facilitate the practical Analysis of Minerals, by pointing out to the Student concise Directions for performing the Analysis of Metallic Ores, Earths, and other Minerals.Second Edition. 2 Vols. Price 15s.

A SYSTEM of THEORETICAL and PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY,In Two Vols. with Plates. Second Edition. Price 15s.

A SYSTEM of THEORETICAL and PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY,

In Two Vols. with Plates. Second Edition. Price 15s.

ELEMENTS OF CHRYSTALLOGRAPHY,After the Method of Haüy with Plates and Graphic Designs,

ELEMENTS OF CHRYSTALLOGRAPHY,

After the Method of Haüy with Plates and Graphic Designs,

Exhibiting the Forms of Crystals, their Geometrical Structure, and general Laws, according to which the immense variety of actually existing Crystals are produced.Price 15s.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHEMICAL APPARATUS ANDINSTRUMENTS,WITH FIFTEEN QUARTO COPPER-PLATES.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHEMICAL APPARATUS AND

INSTRUMENTS,

WITH FIFTEEN QUARTO COPPER-PLATES.

A PRACTICAL ESSAY on CHEMICAL RE-AGENTS or TESTS,

Exhibiting the general Nature of Chemical Re-Agents or Tests—the Effects which they produce upon different Bodies—the Uses to which they may be supplied, and the Art of applying them successfully.

Second Edition. Illustrated by a Series of Experiments. Price 9s.

Transcriber’s Notes:The references to figures 1 through 4 on pages 130 and 132 do not exist in any edition of the book. This has been confirmed by the Project Manager.Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.Typographical errors were silently corrected.Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book.

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