Part 12
"The woman, aged thirty-nine, felt all the same symptoms, but in a higher degree. She totally lost her voice and her senses, and was either stupid, or so furious that it was necessary she should be held. The white vitriol was offered to her, of which she was capable of taking but very little; however, after four or five hours, she was much recovered: but she continued many days far from being well, and from enjoying her former health and strength. She frequently fainted for the first week after; and there was, during a month longer, an uneasy sense of heat and weight in her breast, stomach, and bowels, with great flatulence. Her head was, at first waking, much confused; and she often experienced palpitations, tremblings, and other hysteric affections, to all which she had ever before been a stranger.
"The child had some convulsive agitations of his arms, but was otherwise little affected. He was capable of taking half a scruple of ipecacuanha, with which he vomited, and was soon perfectly recovered."
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
The edible mushroom is the basis of the sauce called mushroom catsup; a great proportion of which is prepared by gardeners who grow the fungi. The mushrooms employed for preparing this sauce are generally those which are in a putrefactive state, and not having found a ready sale in the market; for no vegetable substance is liable to so rapid a spontaneous decomposition as mushrooms. In a few days after the fungus has been removed from the dung-bed on which it grows, it becomes the habitation of myriads of insects; and, if even the saleable mushroom be attentively examined, it will frequently be found to swarm with life.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] Fungi plerique veneno turgent. Linn. Amæn. Acad.
[115] Quæ voluptas tanta ancipitis cibi?--Plin. Nat. Hist. xxii. 23.
[116] Sen. Ep. 95.
_Poisonous Soda Water._
The beverage called soda water is frequently contaminated both with copper and lead; these metals being largely employed in the construction of the apparatus for preparing the carbonated water,[117] and the great excess of carbonic acid which the water contains, particularly enables it to act strongly on the metallic substances of the apparatus; a truth, of which the reader will find no difficulty in convincing himself, by suffering a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas to pass through the water.--See p. 70.
FOOTNOTES:
[117] Some manufacturers have been hence induced to construct the apparatus for manufacturing soda water wholly either of earthenware or of glass. Mr. Johnston, of Greek Street, Soho, was the first who pointed out to the public the absolute necessity of this precaution.
_Food poisoned by Copper Vessels._
Many kinds of viands are frequently impregnated with copper, in consequence of the employment of cooking utensils made of that metal. By the use of such vessels in dressing food, we are daily liable to be poisoned; as almost all acid vegetables, as well as sebaceous or pinguid substances, employed in culinary preparations, act upon copper, and dissolve a portion of it; and too many examples are met with of fatal consequences having ensued from eating food which had been dressed in copper vessels not well cleaned from the oxide of copper which they had contracted by being exposed to the action of air and moisture.
The inexcusable negligence of persons who make use of copper vessels has been productive of mortality, so much more terrible, as they have exerted their action on a great number of persons at once. The annals of medicine furnish too many examples in support of this assertion, to render it necessary to insist more upon it here.
Mr. Thiery, who wrote a thesis on the noxious quality of copper, observes, that "our food receives its quantity of poison in the kitchen by the use of copper pans and dishes. The brewer mingles poison in our beer, by boiling it in copper vessels. The sugar-baker employs copper pans; the pastry-cook bakes our tarts in copper moulds; the confectioner uses copper vessels: the oilman boils his pickles in copper or brass vessels, and verdigris is plentifully formed by the action of the vinegar upon the metal.
"Though, after all, a single dose be not mortal, yet a quantity of poison, however small, when taken at every meal, must produce more fatal effects than are generally apprehended; and different constitutions are differently affected by minute quantities of substances that act powerfully on the system."
The author of a tract, entitled, "Serious Reflections on the Dangers attending the Use of Copper Vessels," asserts that a numerous and frightful train of diseases is occasioned by the poisonous effects of pernicious matter received into the stomach insensibly with our victuals.
Dr. Johnston[118] gives an account of the melancholy catastrophe of three men being poisoned, after excruciating sufferings, in consequence of eating food cooked in an unclean copper vessel, on board the Cyclops frigate; and, besides these, thirty-three men became ill from the same cause.
The following case[119] is related by Sir George Baker, M. D.
"Some cyder, which had been made in a gentleman's family, being thought too sour, was boiled with honey in a brewing vessel, the rim of which was capped with lead. All who drank this liquor were seized with a bowel colic, more or less violently. One of the servants died very soon in convulsions; several others were cruelly tortured a long time. The master of the family, in particular, notwithstanding all the assistance which art could give him, never recovered his health; but died miserably, after having almost three years languished under a most tedious and incurable malady."
Too much care and attention cannot be taken in preserving all culinary utensils of copper, in a state unexceptionably fit for their destined purpose. They should be frequently tinned, and kept thoroughly clean, nor should any food ever be suffered to remain in them for a longer time than is absolutely necessary to their preparation for the table. But the sure preventive of its pernicious effect, is, to banish copper utensils from the kitchen altogether.
The following wholesome advice on this subject is given to cooks by the author of an excellent cookery book.[120]
"Stew-pans and soup-kettles should be examined every time they are used; these, and their covers, must be kept perfectly clean and well tinned, not only on the inside, but about a couple of inches on the outside; so much mischief arises from their getting out of repair; and, if not kept nicely tinned, all your work will be in vain; the broths and soups will look green and dirty, and taste bitter and poisonous, and will be spoiled both for the eye and palate, and your credit will be lost; and as the health, and even the life, of the family depends upon this; the cook may be sure her employer had rather pay the tin-man's bill than the doctor's."
The senate of Sweden, in the year 1753, prohibited copper vessels, and ordered that none but such as were made of iron should be used in their fleet and armies.
FOOTNOTES:
[118] Johnston's Essay on Poison, p. 102.
[119] Medical Transactions, vol. i. p. 213.
[120] Apicius Redivivus, p. 91.
_Food Poisoned by Leaden Vessels._
Various kinds of food used in domestic economy, are liable to become impregnated with lead.
The glazing of the common cream-coloured earthen ware, which is composed of an oxide of lead, readily yields to the action of vinegar and saline compounds; and therefore jars and pots of this kind of stone ware, are wholly unfit to contain jellies of fruits, marmalade, and similar conserves. Pickles should in no case be deposited in cream-coloured glazed earthenware.
The custom which still prevails in some parts of this country of keeping milk in leaden vessels for the use of the dairy, is very improper.
"In Lancashire[121] the dairies are furnished with milk-pans made of lead: and when Mr. Parks 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.
"In some parts of the north of England it is customary for the inn-keepers to prepare mint-salad by bruising and grinding the vegetable in a large wooden bowl with a _ball of lead_ of twelve or fourteen pounds weight. In this operation the mint is cut, and portions of the lead are ground off at every revolution of the ponderous instrument. In the same county, it is a common practice to have brewing-coppers constructed with the bottom of copper and the whole sides of lead."
The baking of fruit tarts in cream-coloured earthenware, and the salting and preserving of meat in leaden pans, are no less objectionable. All kinds of food which contain free vegetable acids, or saline preparations, attack utensils covered with a glaze, in the composition of which lead enters as a component part. The leaden beds of presses for squeezing the fruit in cyder countries, have produced incalculable mischief. These consequences never follow, when the lead is combined with tin; because this metal, being more eager for oxidation, prevents the solution of the lead.
When we consider the various unsuspected means by which the poisons of lead and copper gain admittance into the human body, a very common but dangerous instance presents itself: namely, the practice of painting toys, made for the amusement of children, with poisonous substances, viz. red lead, verdigris, &c. Children are apt to put every thing, especially what gives them pleasure, into their mouths; the painting of toys with colouring substances that are poisonous, ought therefore to be abolished; a practice which lies the more open to censure, as it is of no real utility.
FOOTNOTES:
[121] Park's Chemical Essays, vol. v. p. 193.
INDEX.
A
Adulteration of anchovy sauce, 234 beer, 113 brandy, 187 bread, 98 catsup, 227 cayenne pepper, 215 cheese, 206 coffee, 176 confectionery, 224 cream, 222 custard, 231 gin, 187 lemon acid, 243 lozenges, 236 malt spirits, 197 mustard, 241 olive oil, 239 pepper, 211 pickles, 217 porter, 113 rum, 187 soda water, 251 tea, black, 173 green, 173 vinegar, 173 distilled, 221 wine, 74
Age of beer, how fraudulently imitated, 148
Alcohol, quantity contained in different kinds of wine, 94 malt liquors, 126 spiritous liquors, 205
Ale, Burton, quantity of spirit which it contains, 162 Dorchester, ditto ditto, 162 Edinburgh, ditto ditto, 162 Home-brewed ditto ditto, 162
Alum, bleaching property in the panification of bread flour, 104 method of detecting it in bread, 108 for brightening muddy wines, 74 clarifying spiritous liquors, 200 adulterating beer, 134
Arrack, imitation of, 196 Batavia, quantity of alcohol contained in it, 205
Arrow root, sophistication of, 29
B
Bakers, their methods of judging of the goodness of bread flour, 111
Beer, adulteration of, 113 act prohibiting it, 114 method of detecting it, 158 with narcotic substances, 150 with opium, tobacco, &c., 150 colouring of, act prohibiting it, 123 heading, composition and use of, 134 hard, what is meant by it, 148 fraudulent method of producing it, 148 half-spoiled, fraudulent practice of recovering it, 149 illegal substances used for adulterating it, 131 old, what is meant by it, 144 quantity of spirit contained in different kinds, 160 strong, adulteration of with small beer, 140 act prohibiting it, 140 how defined by law, 128 strength of different kinds, 125
Bilberries, employed for colouring port wine, 74
Bittern, for adulterating beer, 18
Black Extract, for adulterating beer, 150
Bland, Mr. tragical catastrophe of, 81
Bouquet of high-flavoured wines, how produced, 75
Brandy, adulteration of, 187 and method of detecting it, 195 complexion of, what is meant by it, 195
Brandy flavour of, how imitated, 193 imitative, manufacture of, 194 method of compounding for retail trade, 195 quantity contained in different sorts of wine, 94 of alcohol contained in different kinds of, 205 legal strength, 190 how discovered by the Excise, 188 false strength, 195 flavour, imitative, how produced, 193
Brazil wood, application of for colouring wine, 74
Bread, adulteration of with alum, 98 methods of detecting it, 108 with potatoes, 105 goodness of, how estimated in this metropolis, 98 how rendered white and firm, 99 corn, method of judging its goodness, 110 flour, different sorts of from the same kind of grain, 99 adulteration of with bean flour, 99 process of making five bushels into bread, 102 made from new corn, improvement of, 107 method of judging of goodness, 110
Brewers, list of, prosecuted for using illegal substances in their brewings, 151 convicted of adulterating their strong beer with table beer, 143 Druggists, 119 prosecuted for supplying illegal ingredients to brewers for adulterating beer, 119
Breweries, illegal substances seized at various, 136
Brown Stout, quantity of spirit contained in it, 126
C
Calcavella, quantity of brandy which it contains, 95
Carbonate of ammonia, used by fraudulent bakers, 105
Catsup, adulteration of, 227
Claret, quantity of brandy which it contains, 95
Clary, used for flavouring wine, 75
Cheese, poisonous, and method of detecting it, 206
Chemists, are not permitted to sell illegal ingredients to brewers for adulterating beer, 118 list of, convicted of this fraud, 119
Cherry-laurel water, dangerous application of for flavouring creams, &c., 231 used in the manufacture of spurious wines, 75 in the manufacture of brandy, 195
Citric Acid, adulteration of, 244 method of detecting, 245
Cocculus indicus, nefarious application of in the brewing of beer, 18 early law prohibiting its application, 115 brewers prosecuted for using it, 152 seizures made of at different breweries, 136 narcotic property of, to what owing, 153 extract of, application in brewing, 136
Coffee, adulteration of, 176 law in force against it, 177 grocers lately convicted of selling spurious, 176
Confectionery, adulteration of, 224 methods of detecting it, 225
Conserves, contamination of with copper, 226 should never be deposited in vessels glazed with lead, 257
Constantia, quantity of spirit which it contains, 94
Copperas, or salt of steel, publicans convicted of mixing it with their beer, 129 seizures of, at various breweries, 136
Cream, adulteration of, and mode of detecting it, 222
Custards, flavoured with cherry laurel leaves, dangerous effects from it, 231
Cyder, melancholy catastrophe of persons drinking such as was contaminated with lead, 254
E
Elder-berries are used for colouring port wine, 74 flowers are used for flavouring insipid white wines, 75
Entire beer, origin of its name, 144 composition of, 146
Extract of cocculus indicus is used by fraudulent brewers, 136
F
False strength, how given to wine and spiritous liquors, 19, 192 how given to vinegar, 220
Flavour of French brandy, how imitated, 194
Flour, new, of an indifferent quality, how rendered fit for being made into good and wholesome bread, 107 different sorts, from the same kind of grain, 99 sour, practice of converting it into bread, 105
Food, rendered poisonous by copper vessels, 252 by leaden vessels, 257
Frothy head of porter, how artificially produced, 133
G
Geneva, Dutch, quantity of alcohol which it contains, 205
Gin, adulteration of, 187 quantity of alcohol contained in different sorts, 205 dangerous method of clarifying, 202 legal exactment of its saleable strength, 197 _proof_, what is meant by this term, 188 strength of, how ascertained by the Excise, 188 sweetened, fraudulent practice of composing it for sale, 200 unsweetened, ditto ditto, 200 false strength, how given, 202
H
Hermitage, quantity of brandy which it contains, 95
Hops, adulteration of, prohibited by law, 132 its chemical action upon beer, 133
Hydrometer, legal, now in use for ascertaining the strength of spiritous liquors, 187
Hyson tea, spurious. See Tea leaves
I
Imitation arrack, 196 tea. See Tea leaves coffee. See Coffee
L
Leaden pumps and water reservoirs, dangerous effects to be apprehended from them, 62
Lisbon, quantity of spirit which it contains, 94
Lozenges, adulteration of, 236
Lemon acid, adulteration of, 243 method of detecting it, 244
M
Madeira, quantity of brandy which it contains, 94
Malaga, quantity of brandy contained in it, 94
Malt, patent, for colouring porter, 123 disadvantages of, 124 liquors, dangerous adulteration of, 115 strength of different kinds. See Porter, 126 spirits, adulterations of, 197 characteristic flavour, to what owing, 197 nefarious practices of compounding them for sale, 199 false strength, how given, 202 act restricting the strength of it, 197
Meat, salted, should not be preserved in leaden vessels, 258
Milk, improper practice of keeping it in leaden vessels, 257
Mint salad, pernicious custom of preparing it, 258
Multum, a substance employed for adulterating beer, 17 seizures of, at various breweries, 136
Mushroom, poisonous, 246 Catsup, 250
Mustard, adulteration of, 241
O
Oak-wood saw-dust, is used in the manufacture of spurious port wine, 75 in the manufacture of spurious brandy, 194
Orris-root, is used for flavouring insipid wines, 75
Olive oil, contamination of, with lead, and method of detecting it, 239
P
Pickles, contamination of with copper, 219 improper vessels for keeping them, 257
Pepper, black, adulteration of, 211 law in force against it, 213
Poisonous Cheese, 206 Cayenne pepper, 215 catsup, 227 custard, 231 olive oil, 239 mushroom, 246 pickles, 207 soda water, 251
Porter, origin of its name, 121 adulteration of with wormwood, 132 act prohibiting it, 113 average strength of, as furnished to the publican, 126 ditto, as sent out by the retailers, 127 illegal substances for adulterating it, 131 brewers, convicted of adulterating their porter with illegal ingredients, 151
Porter, frothy head of, how produced, 133 method of ascertaining the strength of different kinds, 160 quantity of alcohol contained in London porter, 162
Port wine, adulteration of, 74
Publicans, prosecuted for adulterating their strong beer with table beer, 129
Q
Quassia, fraudulent substitution of, for hops, 131 disadvantages of its application, 132 seizures of, at various breweries, 137
R
Raisin wine, quantity of brandy which it contains, 94
Rum, adulteration of, 187 false strength, how given to it, 202 is seizable, if sold, unless of a certain strength, 189 quantity of alcohol contained in it, 205
S
Soda Water, poisonous, and method of detecting it, 251
Spiritous Liquors, adulteration of, 187 dangerous practice of fining them with noxious ingredients, 202 quantity of alcohol contained in different kinds, 205
Sweetmeats, adulteration of, 224
Sweet-brier, use of it for flavouring wines, 75
T
Tarts of fruits, should not be baked in earthenware vessels glazed with lead, 258
Tea leaves, adulteration of, 171 method of detecting it, 171 law in force against it, 163 poisonous sophistication of, 173 method of detecting it, 174 coloring of, with verdigris, 168 black, spurious, process of manufacturing it, 168 green, imitation of, 169
Tea dealers, convicted for selling adulterated tea, 169
Toys, improper practice of painting them with poisonous colours, 259
V
Vidonia, quantity of brandy contained in it, 95
Vin de Grave, ditto ditto, 95
Vinegar, adulteration of, and method of detecting it, 220 distilled, and method of ascertaining its strength, 221
W
Water, characters of good, 37 chemical constitution of those used in domestic economy and the arts, 33 danger of keeping it in leaden reservoirs, 60 hard, how softened and rendered fit for washing, 39 New River, constitution of, 38, 45 substances contained in potable, 48 how detected, 50 substances usually contained in spring, 42 taste and salubrious quality, to what owing, 33 Thames, constitution of, 46, 48
Wine, adulteration of with alum, 74 British port, 77 champaigne, 77 bottles, improper practice of cleaning them, 85 bottle corks, practice of staining them red, 79
Wine doctors, 80 quantity of alcohol contained in various kinds, 94, 95 dangerous practice of fining them, 83 to prevent them turning sour, 84 art of flavouring them, 75 home-made, chemical constitution of, 96 improvement from age, to what owing, 91 Southampton port, 78 strength of, on what it depends, 92 specific differences of different kinds, to what owing, 89 test, 86 white, manufacture of, from red grapes, 90
Whiskey, Irish, flavour, to what owing, 197 strength of, 205 Scotch, ditto, 205
Wormwood, substitution of, for hops, 132
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Greek words in this text have been transliterated and placed between +marks+.
The word "Pharmacopoeias" used an "oe" ligature in the original.
Unusual spellings, variations in spellings, and variations in hyphenation have been left as in the original. Examples include:
inpregnating transparant coculus/cocculus inconscious orris/oris root
The following corrections have been made to the text:
page iii--comma added after "beer" in "beer, pepper, and other articles of diet"
page x--changed period to comma after "Ale" in "Method of ascertaining the Quantity of Spirit contained in Porter, Ale, &c."
page 61--changed "where" to "were" in "When men were unable to detect the poisonous matters"
page 62--corrected spelling of "snd" to "and" in "by Hyppocrates, Galen, and Vitruvius"
page 78--added "t" to "yeas" and added period at end of "before it is cold, add some yeast and ferment."
page 98--corrected spelling of "indipensable" to "indispensable" in "degree of whiteness rendered indispensable by the caprice of the consumers"
page 104--changed comma to period after "sufficient for a sack of flour"
page 113--changed comma to period after "made of these ingredients only, are entirely deceived"
page 120--corrected "Authur" to "Arthur" in "Arthur Waller" and corrected "Dun" to "Dunn" in "John Dunn"
page 126--added period after "Co" in "Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Co"
page 129--added period after "l" in "strong beer, 20l"
page 130--added comma after "Harbur" in "John Harbur, for using salt of steel"
page 140--added ending quote mark after "of them from brewers' druggists, within these two years past."
page 149--changed comma to period after "resorted to only by fraudulent brewers"
page 152--changed semi-colon after "Stephens" in "Septimus Stephens, brewer"
page 154--corrected spelling of "apolexy" to "apoplexy" in "drinkers are very liable to apoplexy"
page 169--corrected spelling of "Malin's" to "Malins'" in "Malins' coffee-roasting premises"
page 185--corrected spelling of "find" to "fined" in "were fined 20l. each"
page 202--added the word "on" in "as stated on pages 70 and 86"
page 210--corrected spelling of "annotta" to "anotta" in "who adulterated the anotta"
page 222--added hyphen in "arrow-root"
page 223--added hyphen in "tea-spoonful" and corrected spelling of "jodine" to "iodine" in "few drops of a solution of iodine"
page 227--added "s" at end of "Mr. Lewi "
page 231--corrected spelling of "cookry" to "cookery" in "articles of cookery"
page 245--corrected spelling of "glanular" to "granular" in "insoluble precipitate in minute granular crystals"