THINGS WOKTH KNOWING. 



THINGS WORTH KNOWING. 



What our Whiskies and Teas are Made of. 



An analytical chemist lately made a number of investigations 

 into the composition of the different kinds of whisky and tea as 

 sold in the city of Glasgow. The result of his examination of these 

 articles, procured indiscriminately from retail shops, discloses a state 

 of matters sufficiently shocking to deter many people from ever 

 indulging in either of these popular beverages again without pre- 

 viously submitting them to a chemical analysis. 



The adulterants found in whisky were fusil oil, naptha, sul- 

 phuric and hydrochloric acids, sulphates of copper and zinc, shellac, 

 turpentine, etc. These ingredients it appears are added to the 

 genuine article to enable the dealer to mix with it a larger propor- 

 tion of water than it would otherwise take up without detection by 

 his customers; they therefore give a fictitious strength to the 

 whisky, and thereby delude the thirsty folk who swallow it into the 

 belief that they are being supplied with the utmost value for their 

 money. The effects which follow the immoderate and long-contin- 

 ued use of the purest alcohol are serious and deplorable enough, 

 but what must they be when that intoxicant has been adulterated 

 with such noxious elements as here mentioned? 



Out of twenty-seven samples of black tea that were analyzed 

 only six were found to be genuine, while of eight specimens of 

 green tea examined, all were more or less mixed with foreign mat- 

 ters. The substances employed in the adulteration consisted of 

 exhausted tea-leaves, the leaves of camelia sasanqua, chloranthus 

 (inconspicuus and officinalis), willow, hawthorn, oak, sloe, elm, beech 

 and elder, pieces of the rind of some plant of the pomegranate 

 order, catechu, clove and cinnamon buds, turmeric, starch, indigo, 

 Prussian blue, China clay, sand, chalk, gypsum, salts of iron, etc. 



Few persons who daily partake of what they innocently 

 believe to be the "cup that cheers but does not inebriate," are 

 aware that they are pouring into their delicate stomachs such dis- 

 gusting and poisonous matters as this chemist assures us are rarely 

 absent from the tea sold in the shops. What is true of Glasgow 

 there is too much reason to fear is equally true of all the towns and 

 villages in the United States; for, while some part of the adultera- 

 tion may be, and no doubt is, carried on by the small retailers, the 

 greater part is unquestionably effected by experienced manipulators 

 on a large scale in London, San Francisco, Isew York and China. 



After the above revelation, who will have the courage to drink 

 his beloved beverage as heretofore? 



