BEARDED DARNEL DELETERIOUS SCOTCH ALE. 361 



poly : all monopolists, indeed, not forgetting the high 

 and mighty company of the East, ought to be aware 

 that the days or years of 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 



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