FOOD AND DRINK 113 



say, " does no harm." Is this correct ? It cannot be denied 

 that deadly additions have been, and may be, so made that 

 these beverages will become more speedily and manifestly 

 poisonous than they would otherwise be, but the teaching of 

 modern physiology is this : that so long as the main element 

 of danger that same alcohol from which they get their 

 stimulating and seductive properties is present, the ques- 

 tion of purity, or age, or smoothness of taste is one of little 

 importance. The "unclean thing," as the Bible calls it, is 

 present in all intoxicants, whether they be old and costly, or 

 cheap and new and fiery to the taste. (Read Note 14.) 



58. This so-called " purity " is commonly an accompaniment 

 of high cost, especially as applied to wines, and represents 

 money or capital that has long been lying idle in order that 

 the commodities in question may acquire " age " and smooth- 

 ness to the palate. " Purity " is therefore largely the cry of 

 the seller, who is anxious to get back his invested capital, with 

 interest, or perhaps with usury. It should be clearly under- 

 stood that the L 'st of these drinks, even though obtained from 

 the vineyards or wine-cellars of princes, are injurious, and that 

 the word " purity " is, in the light of science, a misnomer when 

 applied to any beverage that contains alcohol. (Read Note 15.) 



14. Adulteration in Liquors. " It is not enough that alcoholic drinks 

 are dangerous when purely made, but there is an added danger growing 

 out of the almost universal practice of the manufacturers of these drinks 

 to tamper with them and adulterate them with other harmful materials. 

 Not many months ago the city government of Paris caused a testing of 

 all the wines that were brought into the market during a month ; there 

 were 1,518 samples of French wine examined, and only 65 found abso- 

 lutely free from injurious addition that is, less than 5 per cent, was 

 really pure." N. Y. Scientific Times. 



15. Adulteration of Wine. The difficulty in the way of getting pure 

 wine is nothing new. Pliny, who lived eighteen hundred years ago, wrote 

 the following complaint : " Let us suppose that we all agree as to what 

 wine is the best, how shall we get it ? Our very princes do not drink 

 pure wine ; to such a point has the villainy of the producers and sellers 

 of wine arrived that we can buy nothing more than the name of a 

 vintage from the very wine- vat it is all adulterated and so, marvellous 

 to tell, we may say of wine, the poorer, the purer." 



58. What is said of purity as a commercial term ? 



