

PURE BEER 267 



To complete this survey extracts from the report of the 

 Select Committee on Adulteration of Food, of 1856, are given 

 below. * There is every reason for believing that, notwith- 



* "As regards foreign products, some arrive in this country in an 

 adulterated condition, while others are adulterated by the English 

 dealer. 



" Not only is the public health thus exposed to danger, and pecuniary 

 fraud committed on the whole community, but the public morality is 

 tainted and the high commercial character of this country seriously 

 lowered, both at home and in the eyes of foreign countries. 



" Though happily very many refuse under every temptation to 

 falsify the quality of their wares, there are, unfortunately large numbers 

 who, though reluctantly practising deception, yield to the pernicious 

 contagion of example or to the hard pressure of competition forced 

 upon them by their less scrupulous neighbours. 



" The adulteration of drinks deserves also special notice because 

 your Committee cannot but conclude that the intoxication so deplorably 

 prevalent is in many cases less due to the natural properties of the 

 drinks themselves, than to the admixture of narcotics or other noxious 

 substances intended to supply the properties lost by dilution. 



" Though adulteration prevails more or less in all districts, it may be 

 assumed as a rule that the poorer the district the greater is the amount 

 of adulteration, nor have the poor the same power to protect them- 

 selves as their richer neighbours. 



" These adulterations may be classed under three heads : those of 

 which the object is to lower the price of the article adulterated by the 

 admixture of a substance of a cheaper kind ; those which are intended 

 to improve the appearance of the adulterated article, and thus in many 

 cases to deceive the public as to its quality ; and those which are 

 practised for the purpose of simulating some property injured or 

 destroyed in the process of adulteration. 



"It is necessary to distinguish between the pecuniary fraud prac- 

 tised on the public and the injury to public health. 



" Whenever an article is so adulterated as to involve pecuniary 

 fraud or injury to health, it appears to your Committee to be the duty 

 of the Legislature to provide some efficient remedy. 



" One great difficulty of legislating on this subject lies in putting an 

 end to the liberty of fraud without effecting the liberty of commerce. 

 In England the law affords redress to consumers in cases of adultera- 

 tion by action : if the injury be individual in its character, by indict- 

 ment : if the injury be general, by summary charge before a magistrate 

 and by proceedings instituted by the Excise. 



" Mixtures of an innocuous character made known by the seller or 

 used for the preservation of the article cannot be forbidden without 

 danger to the needful freedom of commerce, and ought not to be inter- 

 preted as coming within the provisions of the penal law. 



" The law should be clear and positive in forbidding adulteration and 

 by punishing those who practise it. 



' Hitherto the progress of legislation has not kept pace with the 

 ingenuity of fraud, which has not scrupled to avail itself of every 

 improvement in chemistry or the arts which could subserve its purpose." 



Definition of adulteration by Dr. Hassel, Food Adulteration Com- 

 mittee, 1856, Question No. 4424 : " Adulteration may be defined to 

 consist in the intentional addition to an article for purposes of gain or 



