Pickles, and other Articles employed in
Domestic Economy; and Method
of detecting them.
(Copied from the British Review, No. XXIX. p. 171.)
Mr. Accum seems determined that even the outside of his book shall awaken our fears. The cover of our copy bears a death’s head emblazoned upon a pall, and, underneath, the motto “there is death in the pot.” The pall is supported by the point of a dart. Four other darts support the four corners of the device. Twelve serpents, with forked tongues and tails entwined, form a terrific wreath around; while the middle is occupied with a large cobweb, delineated with much attention to detail, in the centre of which a spider, full as large as a moderate sized hazel nut, and so frightful that more than one young lady of our acquaintance would think it necessary to scream at the sight of it, holds in its envenomed fangs an ill-fated fly, which is sinking under the loss of blood, and buzzing in the agonies of death.
We are by no means desirous to raise or maintain a popular clamour; but Mr. Accum certainly advances some weighty charges, and his work comes with an advantage in bearing a name not unknown to the scientific world. Of the adulterations specified, some are deleterious, and others merely fraudulent. Accordingly, we shall offer a few extracts, both from the original matter of Mr. Accum, and from his citations drawn from previous authors.
“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.” (P. 3.)
But we pass on from the general statements at the beginning of the work to particulars.
Water, by standing in leaden reservoirs, acquires a highly deleterious property.
In some particular cases, the consequences have been most fatal.