618 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a license. Such examination is generally made by distilling the 

 liquor and determining the alcohol in the distillate. 



" The whiskies examined have in Massachusetts, as a rule, been 

 free from any substance more injurious than the alcohol they con- 

 tain. They have generally (as well as the other distilled liquors 

 examined) been of standard strength that is, they have contained 

 about fifty per cent of alcohol, and as a rule have not given much 

 over the amount of residue allowed by the Pharmacopoaia. As you 

 will see by the foregoing remarks, the provisions of the Massachusetts 

 liquor law, so far as adulteration is concerned, are practically a dead 

 letter. I have been repeatedly before the Legislature asking for such 

 modifications of the law as would enable me to make an intelligent 

 study of the subject; but it seems satisfied to allow the matter to stand 

 as it now is. Several diificulties arise in regard to any enforcement of 

 the law. One of these that samples must be paid for, and there 

 is no appropriation to pay for them I have already pointed out. In 

 the second place, the State Board of Health (which has full power 

 to inspect liquors under the food act) has discovered that the chief 

 adulteration is water in distilled liquors, and that this, together with 

 a little burned sugar and sirup, is practically the only adulteration. 

 Large amounts of rectified spirits are used in the preparation of 

 whiskies for the market, where the whisky is used only as a flavor- 

 ing material. But such manufactured whiskies meet the require- 

 ments of the Pharmacopoeia better than the genuine article, being 

 more free from the higher alcohols and ethers than a pure whisky. 

 The only point in which they do not agree is that they are not three 

 years old. But the only method for determining the age of a liquor 

 that I am acquainted with, is the brand on the barrel. It certainly 

 can not be determined by any chemical means." 



But, with the exception of Massachusetts, where Mr. Sharpless 

 points out clearly the reason why the law against adulteration 

 is a dead letter, all the reports speak encouragingly. Michigan, 

 Illinois, and Ohio believe that the operation of the provision will 

 do genuine good. Says Food Commissioner Blackburn, of Michi- 

 gan, " It is my opinion that this law has and will decrease drunken- 

 ness, for the reason that pure liquor will not create the unnatural 

 appetite that compounded, adulterated, or artificially prepared 

 liquors do." 



The State of Washington sends no report. There is a provision 

 in the South Carolina law providing that liquors shall be " pure " ; but, 

 as the State is the dispenser of liquors, the operation of this clause 

 has not been considered exemplary for the purposes of this article. 

 Mr. Lyman, in New York, thinks that sufficient time has not elapsed 

 to fully pronounce as to the benefits of the law. 



