I04 TVVEXTY-FIVE YEARS OF CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION. 



Beer and Vinegar Act of 1908. How did such a result come 

 about? To answer that question we must go back just over 

 six years. Large quantities of brilHantly coloured so-called fruit 

 cordials were being exposed for sale throughout the country. As 

 to the manner of their manufacture there was very little doubt, 

 and so representative samples were procured and analysed. At 

 first blush the analysis of such synthetic preparations could have 

 t-ut little, if any, interest for the agriculturist, and yet this first 

 step led to a series of investigations culminating in laws pos- 

 sessing the closest bearing on certain branches of agriculture. 

 Those cordials were found to contain varying quantities of the 

 preservative salicylic acid, and, amid the mass of conflicting evi- 

 dence that the subsequent legal proceedings brought forth, it was 

 soon seen how hopeless it was to rely upon the ordinary 

 machinery of the Food Adulteration Act to restrain the sale of 

 such beverages. However, even gentlemen who gave scientific 

 evidence for the defence readily admitted that the arguments 

 adduced by them in favour of the addition of salicylic acid to 

 the cordials then under consideration could not apply in the case 

 of wines. Steps were taken at once to investigate the point, 

 and ultimately led to a far-reaching series of analyses. Eighteen 

 samples of wine were first of all procured and tested ; the only 

 preservatives found in any of them were sulphur dioxide and 

 salicylic acid. Then a fuller investigation was made: 104 samples 

 were procured from farmers and 176 from dealers. No preser- 

 vatives except salicylic acid and sulphur dioxide were fovmd in 

 any of them, and in none of the farmers' wines was there any 

 salicylic acid. In my report submitted to Parliament,''" I strongly 

 urged the need of specific legislation, and especially of legislation 

 embodying definitions and limits in which the Food and Drugs 

 Act of 1890 was lacking. In the same Reportt I also drew 

 attention to the impasse that followed upon a series of investi- 

 gations that had been made into the composition of the brandy 

 and Vv'hisky on the local market, when a test case against the ven- 

 dors of a factitious whisky had resulted in a dismissal on account 

 of the absence of a working definition. I was accordingly com- 

 missioned to draft a Bill which, with a few modifications, ulti- 

 mately emerged from the Legislature as the Wine, Brandy, 

 Whisky, and Spirits Act of 1906. 



It was generally recognised that this statute was to be only 

 the first of a series, but before a further tightening of the reins 

 could take place it was thought desirable to obtain fuller infor- 

 mation as to the composition of Cape brandies, and hence an 

 investigation was instituted in 1906 on lines similar to that 

 adopted for the wines during the previous year. Full analyses 

 were therefore made of thirty-seven samples of Cape and the 

 same number of imported brandies during that year, and of forty- 

 seven imported brandies and whiskies during the subsequent 

 year. These were supplemented by thirty-eight analyses of Cape 



* Report of Senior Analyst for 1905, pp. 18-20, 25- 

 t Pages 15-17. 



