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, πιχρος, bitter; and τοξιχον, 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.