ADULTERATING MATERIALS. 419 



Champagne, seized with vomiting and severe pains in 

 the bowels, and a peculiar affection of the stomach, 

 the leading symptoms tallying exactly with those 

 which I have described in my own case. The whole 

 party continued to suffer in this way, during three or 

 four days. Poison being suspected, the remains of the 

 wine in the bottles was subjected to chemical analysis, 

 and in the Champagne alone arsenic was detected. 

 There seems to be no probable conjecture how arsenic 

 should find its way into this wine, unless, according 

 to an old and once too common practice, the wine 

 had been fined with that death-dealing drug. Not- 

 withstanding this accident and most fortunate escape 

 were the subject of general notoriety at the time, the 

 intelligence occasioned special little of attention. 



Extract from the Remarks on Adulterated Spirits 

 and Wines, by Powell Charles Blackett, Surgeon RN. 

 MR. CN. FLS. Surgeon Extraordinary to His late 

 Majesty, when His Royal Highness the Duke of Cla- 

 rence, &c. &c. Recces Gazette of Practical Medicine. 



" Unless the lower orders alter very much in regard 

 to cleanliness and their modes of living, they will 

 continue to be a degenerate set of people, a misery to 

 themselves, and a disgrace to their country. If they 

 would well weigh the old saying, that every glass of 

 spirits is a nail in their coffin, and drink instead of 

 this pernicious stuff, wholesome and good beer, they 

 would themselves, with their wives and families, be a 

 credit to society, and a stay to their country ; but 

 now, instead of that, they are themselves a disgrace, 

 their wives and families parish paupers, dirty beggars, 

 nay worse, very often thieves. O, ye drain-drinkers ! 

 T 6 



