IN WHICH THE BLOOD-EMPOISONING AND LIFE-DESTROYING ADULTERATIONS OF WINES, SPIRITS, BEER, BREAD, FLOUR, TEA, SUGAR, SPICES, CHEESEMONGERY, PASTRY, CONFECTIONARY MEDICINES, &c. &c. &c. ARE LAID OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, WITH TESTS OR METHODS FOR ASCERTAINING AND DETECTING THE FRAUDULENT AND DELETERIOUS ADULTERATIONS AND THE GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES OF THOSE ARTICLES : With an Exposé of Medical Empiricism and Imposture, Quacks and Quackery, Regular and Irregular, Legitimate and Ill

The catalogue of frauds and enormities exhibited in the following pages will, no doubt, excite the abhorrence and indignation of every honest heart. Its author is, however, convinced that he will find that he has undertaken a very unthankful office—that his book will be the dread and abhorrence of wicked and unprincipled dealers and impostors of all kinds; and himself exposed to their utmost rancour and bitterest maledictions. But the die is cast: he has discharged a public duty, and sincerely h

That this denunciation of fraud and villany is not mere assertion, the terrific disclosures that I am about to make (some of which are to be found in Mr. Accum’s book, and in greater detail than the space I have prescribed myself allows) will fully prove to the contrary, and show that it is the duty of the government to protect the public by some legislative provisions, and to prohibit and render penal the nefarious practices in daily use for the diabolical and deleterious adulteration of the ne

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 a

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 larges

“The nutricious and strengthening [I] beverage” of the English, “their own native old Sir John Barley corn,” 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

“The wholesale mealman frequently purchases this spurious commodity, (which forms a separate branch of business in the hands of certain individuals,) in order to enable himself to sell his decayed flour. “Other individuals (namely, the “ gentlemen ” druggists) furnish the baker with alum mixed up with salt, under the obscure denomination of stuff . There are wholesale manufacturing chemists, whose sole business is to crystallize alum in such a form as will adapt this salt to the purpose of being

The Butcher has his arts and sophistications. To make meat weigh as heavy as possible he checks the full bleeding of the victim of his knife, and to make it appear plump and white and glistening, particularly joints of veal and lamb, he inflates the cellular membrane, by blowing into it with all his might, the breath respired from his lungs: by means of which practice, should he be infected with any loathsome disease, his customers stand a very good chance of being inoculated with “the blessing.

No article of consumption is more subject to adulteration than the pleasant one which forms the principal ingredient of the tea-table. It is not only adulterated by the Chinese vender, but it undergoes sophistication by the Chinese artist. By the former several vegetable productions, particularly a kind of moss, are mixed among genuine tea, and often sold by the antemundane subjects of “the Brother of the Sun and Moon, and The Light of Nations,” in its stead. Among the manufacturers and venders

Pepper is subject to adulteration, like most other articles of consumption. The spurious pepper consists of chalk, flour, ground mustard-seed, &c. mingled with a certain portion of the genuine berry, a quantity of pepper dust, or the sweepings of the pepper warehouses, mixed with a little Cayenne pepper; the whole being made into a cohesive mass by means of mucilage. Even the whole berry has not been able to escape the ingenuity of sophistication. The adulterated berry is manufactured of

Among the poisonous articles daily vended to the public, none are of more potent effect than the pickles sold by unprincipled oilmen. For the purpose of giving a fresh and lively green colour or hue to those stimulants of the palate, they are intentionally coloured by means of copper or verdigris, or at least placed for a considerable time in copper or brazen vessels for the purpose of allowing the articles to be impregnated by the joint action of the metal and the vinegar. The cookery books (sa

The best cheese is that which is of a dry compact texture, without holes in it; of a whitish colour, and which, on being rubbed between the finger and thumb, almost immediately becomes a soft and somewhat greasy mass. Nor is a moist smooth coat a bad criterion of its quality. It should also be of a moderate age; for neither very decayed, nor decaying cheese, is wholesome; nor is that which is new, adhesive, and ropy, when heated by the fire, of a good kind. Cheshire cheese which crumbles and tas

The confectionary-artist is not behind his compeers in trade in the honourable vocation of sophistication. There are few articles which owe their paternity to his handy-work, that partake wholly of the ingredients to which they bear resemblance in name and appearance: all, almost all, here is the work of “the black art.” But this is not the worst part of the business. Were any person to be admitted into the “elaboratorical pandemonium” of a pastry-cook or a confectioner—were he to see the disgus

Devoted to disease by baker, butcher, grocer, wine-merchant, spirit-dealer, cheesemonger, pastry-cook, and confectioner; 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;—the unprincipled dealers in drugs and medicines exert the most diabolical ingenuity in sophisticating the most potent and necessary drugs, (viz. peruvian bark, rhubarb, ipecacuanha, magnesia, calomel, castor-oil, spirits of hartshor

There are few trades in which greater frauds are practised than in “the coal trade.” The dealers in the “black diamonds” are versed in all the allowable legerdemain and trickery of “ auld England’s honest tradesmen:” the most skilfully initiated in the art of sleight-of-hand would find himself at fault in attempting to rival the dexterity of the true “son of the coalshed,” under the old régime of measuring, in ingeniously tossing his “spadefuls” into the measure so as to enable “the darlings” to

The spirit of adulteration pursues poor John even into his domestic arrangements. Should he design to decorate his dwelling—“his neat suburban cottage”—and have the walls or wainscot of his drawing-room painted a delicate pink colour to rival the carnation tints of the cheek of his “cara sposa,” or those of his breakfast parlour, to imitate the lively blue of the bright eyes of his “lovely cherubs,” the vile sophisticators mar all his wishes, and he is able to obtain nothing else than dull and d

Friend Bull! if thou hast carefully and dispassionately (that is, if thou hast sufficiently divested thy honest mind of its usual scepticism—videlicet, its unwillingness to be convinced against its constitutional prejudices,) read my disclosures, I am willing to believe that thou wilt readily admit that I have established all my allegations of the frauds and impositions to which thou art subject in this sophisticating age, and that I have proved the truth and propriety of the title of my little

It has been well said, that as the poorest, the most distressed, and the most friendless are those who are compelled to have dealings with, and are exposed to the “tender mercies” of pawnbrokers, it is of the utmost consequence that such men as follow the calling should be honest, correct, and even humane characters. For the sake of honesty it is to be hoped that there are many of this description; but a little, and but a little unhappy experience when urgent necessity may compel the unfortunate

“Where the noble mind’s o’erthrown.” How true is the remark that “the history of the Red and White Houses ,” like that of the Red and White Roses, would afford many interesting though appalling particulars were they collected in a detailable form. “Yes! there still live some few who have escaped perpetual torture and confinement, which the soothing care of disinterested friends would have buried alive in those inquisitorial receptacles, but for the acute discernment of the eye of humanity, which