That certain wines were occasionally liable to produce endemic colics, is a fact which has been long known; although the disease was universally ascribed to a mistaken origin, until the publication of the elaborate researches[[354]] of Sir George Baker, into the cause of the Devonshire colic; which, like the same disease observed in other countries, was attributed to the acidity of the liquor so abundantly drunk[[355]] in these districts. This celebrated physician, however, was early led to entertain doubts with respect to the truth of this doctrine: “when I consider,” says he, “that this colic of Devonshire is precisely the same disease as that which is the specific effect of all saturnine preparations, and that there is not the least analogy between the juice of apples and the poison of lead, it seems to me very improbable that two causes, bearing so little relation to one another, should make such similar impressions on the human body.” The investigation of the subject completely established the justness of these views; and no doubt remains, but that the endemic colic, which harrassed the cyder drinkers in Devonshire for some years, was the effect of saturnine impregnation, derived from the lead used in the construction of the apple mills and cyder presses; and in some cases, from the pernicious practice of introducing a leaden weight into the cask, or even racking the cyder into leaden cisterns, where the liquor fretted too much, and was thereby in danger of becoming acetous. Sir G. Baker also states that the custom of boiling the must in vessels capped with lead, affords another source of saturnine impregnation; and he informs us that, a few years ago, this very practice produced the Devonshire colic in the county of Kent. Some cyder, which had been made in a gentleman’s family, being thought too sour, was boiled with honey in a brewing vessel, capped with lead. All, who drank this liquor, were seized with this disease; some more, others less violently; one of the servants died very soon in convulsions: several others were cruelly tortured a long time. The master of the family, notwithstanding all the assistance which art could give him, never recovered his health; but died miserably, after having for nearly three years languished under a tedious and incurable malady. Dr. Lambe observes, that the saturnine colic is not endemial in Devonshire, or the other cyder countries, during the whole year, but is confined to those months when the liquor is still new, crude, and the fermentation incomplete. When the liquor becomes fine, the noxious matter in a great measure separates, and is carried to the bottom of the vessel, as the feculencies subside. Tartar is generated during the vinous fermentation, the acid of which, uniting with the lead, forms a salt, scarcely, if at all, soluble in water; and hence the purification which the liquor receives. But although this new salt is insoluble in water, it is otherwise in regard to vinegar; for this acid dissolves a small quantity, and forms a triple compound, an aceto-tartrate of lead;[[356]] and since no cyder, or perhaps wine, is wholly destitute of vinegar, it necessarily follows that if the liquor has been once contaminated during the first stages of fermentation, it is impossible for it ever to become entirely pure, except by processes which would render it unfit for drinking.[[357]] It has very lately been discovered, that Gallic acid and tannin are capable of combining with lead in solution, and of forming a perfectly insoluble substance, which falls to the bottom of the cask; hence all liquors which have been kept in oak casks, for a certain time, must be freed from lead. This explains a fact with respect to the effect of new rum in the West Indies, of some importance. This spirit, when newly distilled, is found to contain traces of lead, derived from the leaden rims of the coppers, and the leaden worm, used for its condensation; but, by keeping about twelve months in oaken casks, it loses its deleterious properties, and no longer exhibits any traces of this metal.[[358]]
Another source, from which acescent liquids may contract saturnine impregnation, is afforded by the metallic glazing of earthenware[[359]]; that for instance of the common cream coloured ware is composed of an oxide of lead,[[360]] and is accordingly easily acted upon by vinegar, and saline compounds; jars and pots of this description ought therefore never to be used for preserving pickles, jellies of fruits, marmalade, and similar conserves. For the same reason, Sir George Baker protests against the custom of baking fruit tarts in such ware.[[361]] Stone ware is glazed with muriate of soda, and is therefore not liable to such an objection.[[362]]
The custom which prevails in some parts of England of keeping milk in leaden vessels, is extremely improper; Dr. Darwin[[363]] has illustrated this subject by the following case; “A delicate young girl, the daughter of a dairy farmer, who kept his milk in leaden cisterns, used to wipe off the cream from the edges of the lead, and frequently, as she was fond of cream, licked it from her finger. She was seized with the saturnine colic, and semi-paralytic wrists, and sunk from general debility.” We are informed by Mr. Parkes,[[364]] that in Lancashire the dairies are furnished with milk-pans made of lead; and that when he expostulated with some individuals on the danger of this practice, he was told that leaden milk pans throw up the cream much better than vessels of any other kind.
There is, says Dr. Darwin, a bad custom in almost all families, and public houses, of washing out their wine bottles by putting a handful of shot corns into them, and by shaking them about forcibly to detach the super-tartrate of potass from their sides; that such a practice may occasionally give origin to serious consequences, will become evident by the relation of the following case.[[365]] “A gentleman who had never in his life experienced a day’s illness, and who was constantly in the habit of drinking half a bottle of Madeira after his dinner, was taken ill three hours after dinner with a serious pain in the stomach and violent colic, which gradually yielded within twelve hours to the remedies prescribed by his medical attendant. The day following he drank the remainder of the same bottle of wine which was left the preceding day, and within two hours afterwards he was again seized with the most violent pains, head-ache, shiverings, and great pain over the whole body. His apothecary becoming suspicious that the wine he had drunk might be the cause of the disease, ordered the bottle, from which it had been decanted, to be brought to him, with a view that he might examine the dregs, if any were left. The bottle happening to slip out of the hand of the servant, disclosed a row of shot, wedged forcibly into the angular bent-up circumference of it. On examining the beads of shot, they crumbled into dust, the outer crust (defended by a coat of black lead with which the shot is glazed) being alone left unacted on, whilst the remainder of the metal was dissolved. The wine, therefore, had become contaminated with lead, and perhaps arsenic, for in order to form shot the former metal is alloyed with the latter.”[[366]]
But we have, hitherto, only directed the reader’s attention to the different sources from which wine, and acescent liquors, may accidentally derive saturnine impregnation. We have now to state that such liquors have, in different ages and countries, been fraudulently adulterated with lead. It appears to have been early discovered, that wines which have become morbidly acescent may be corrected by the addition of lead; whence, in those countries where Rhenish, Moselle, and other similar wines are drunk, the saturnine colic has been endemic. The celebrated colic which raged in the province of Poitou, towards the end of the sixteenth, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century, was evidently the effect of such adulteration.[[367]] We find that, in the year 1487, there was a Recessus Imperii promulgated at Rotenberg; and, in the year 1498, at Friberg; which was enacted, in the year 1500, at Tubingen; and, in the year 1508, at Frankfort; and, in the year 1577, in the same place. By which decrees it was made a capital crime to adulterate wines with litharge, or to use bismuth in the fumigation of them; it having been, at several periods, represented to the Emperors, that great mischief had accrued from such adulterations; and that they had been the cause of insuperable and mortal diseases. It should seem, that these laws were not carried into strict execution; and, indeed, that in the latter end of the seventeenth century, it was hardly known in Germany that such laws existed. In consequence of which, an epidemic colic arose, which was at length traced to the effects of lead in the wines.[[368]] A representation of this fact having been made to the Duke of Wirtemberg, it was ordained a capital crime to mix litharge with wine, or even to sell it in the shops, by a decree, bearing date March 10, 1696. But, notwithstanding the severity of this law, we are informed by Zeller, that in the year 1705, the same dangerous experiments were repeated in the circle of Zwaabe, with a view to correct the acidity of the weaker wines. Bishop Watson[[369]] informs us that, in the year 1750, the Farmers general in France being astonished at the great quantities de vin gaté which were brought into Paris, in order to be made into vinegar, redoubled their researches to find out the cause of the great increase in that article; for nearly thirty thousand hogsheads had been annually brought in for a few years preceding the year 1750, whereas the quantity annually brought in forty years before, did not exceed 1200 hogsheads. They discovered that several wine merchants, assuming the name of vinegar merchants, bought these sour wines, and afterwards, by means of litharge, rendered them potable, and sold them as genuine wines.[[370]] Dr. Warren[[371]] has related the cases of thirty-two persons in the Duke of Newcastle’s family, who were residing in Hanover in June, 1752, and were seized with the Colica Pictonum, after having used, as their common drink, a small white wine that has been adulterated with lead. Nor has the English vintner been less regardless of the health of his employer. In a popular work on wine making by Graham,[[372]] which has gone through six editions, and may therefore be supposed to have done some mischief, we find under the article of vintner’s secrets, the following receipts.—
“To hinder wine from turning,
“Put a pound of melted lead, in fair water, into a cask, pretty warm, and stop it close.”
“To soften green wine,
“Put in a little vinegar, wherein litharge has been well steeped, and boil some honey to draw out the wax. Strain it through a cloth, and put a quart of it into a tierce: and this will mend it, in summer especially.”
We have already alluded to the presence of lead[[373]] in the new rum of the West Indies, as the cause of the disease known in that country by the name of the dry belly-ache; it remains for us to state that the excise officers frequently avail themselves of the peculiar power of the sub-acetate of lead to precipitate colouring matter, in order to remove from seized Holland gin, the colour which it obtains by being long kept in the tubs in which it is smuggled over. A practice which it is said renders the gin liable to gripe.