418 FATAL EFFECTS OF ADULTERATION. 



miles from the metropolis, (Salt Hill) where several 

 gentlemen, empoisoned by the wine, lost their lives. 

 These monitory facts ought not to escape from the 

 public recollection. The present writer, from curiosity 

 in trying the wines of certain pretenders to superior 

 excellence, has, in three or four instances, found his 

 stomach and head affected in a very alarming manner. 

 Within the last month, having drank part of a glass 

 of Madeira from a bottle in which remained only two 

 or three glasses, I was seized some time afterwards 

 with violent retchings and vomitings, which continued 

 above an hour. Something acted in a peculiar 

 manner, by vellicating the intestines, as it seemed to 

 me some chemical ingredient. Violent palpitations 

 of the heart, succeeded with vertiginous affections of 

 the head, and it was unsafe for me, during several 

 days, to walk without support. I had constantly 

 remarked in drinking this wine, that it left the 

 above noted peculiar acid sensation in the bowels, 

 and I experienced the 'described dangerous effects, 

 from drinking the no doubt chemical contents near 

 the bottom of the bottle. That which makes this 

 occurrence most extraordinary is, that the wine was 

 purchased from a highly respectable house ; in course, 

 we must suppose, it had been adulterated abroad. A 

 more harmless adulteration is indeed said to have been, 

 of late years, a regular practice at Madeira, where are 

 constantly a number of ships laden with Cape wine. 



In the year 1829, the dinner company of Sir John 

 Douglas, Bart, of Roxburghshire, consisting of six 

 persons, were almost immediately after tasting their 

 wines, which were Teneriffe, light French wine, and 



