BEARDED DARNEL DELETERIOUS SCOTCH ALE. 



their exclusive advantages are numbered, that their 

 period must sooner or later arrive ; that, probably, 

 a higher interest may require the gordian knot to be 

 cut, and that they must look for their remuneration 

 in their profits already acquired. 



Thus a most unwholesome and sickening compo- 

 sition beverage is preferred by a discerning and 

 tasteful public, to genuine and salubrious ale, which 

 no common brewer is encouraged or expected to 

 manufacture. The retail brewers, under the new 

 act, to the extent that I have tasted their commo- 

 dity, appear to use no noxious ingredients in their 

 ale, salt and sugar, with ginger,-perhaps, being their 

 only aids. Their intermediate beer is pleasant and 

 wholesome. But it is asserted, this new scheme is 

 already on the decline. The newspapers of 1828 

 reported the culture, in Battersea-fields, of two 

 acres of the lolium temulentum, bearded darnel, sup- 

 posed to be for the use of the brewers, perhaps as 

 a cheaper substitute for the Indian berry. Darnel 

 has a stupifying, inebriating, and most dangerous 

 property. 



Having last year purchased a small quantity of 

 celebrated Scotch ale, as a specimen, I accidentally 

 drank from the bottom of a bottle which had been 

 nearly emptied the preceding day. Almost imme- 

 diately I felt vertiginous symptoms, afterwards 

 nausea and obstruction in the stomach. These 

 symptoms continued some time, and I was about to 

 chew some rhubarb, when much eructation, and 

 drinking a small quantity of water, relieved me. 

 Doubtless my safety is attributable to the smallness 



