1870.] Beer, Scientifically and Socially Considered. 313 



and wormwood, however, seemed to me to be the bitters in most 

 general use, the quantity of the latter in one case being so great as 

 to make the beer positively nauseous. One sample, which appeared 

 to me to be flavoured with orange-peel, possessed a warm, some- 

 what spicy taste, which was very apparent in the residue after 

 evaporation, indicating the addition of something more than the 

 ordinary ingredients." 



This report, it will be seen, affords experimental confirmation 

 of what was said by Mr. Glover at the Liverpool Workhouse 

 meeting, and it will therefore be interesting to inquire a little 

 further into the matter. Our authorities tell us that the following 

 substances are employed to adulterate beer. " Cocculus indicus 

 multum (an extract of cocculus indicus), colouring, honey, hartshorn- 

 shavings, Spanish juice, orange-powder, ginger, grains of paradise, 

 quassia, liquorice, carraway seeds, copperas, capsicum, mixed drugs." 

 These, we are told, " were seized at different breweries in London, 

 and at brewers' druggists' laboratories."* In addition, sulphuric 

 acid, alum, salt, Datura stramonium, picric acid, and other sub- 

 stances are mentioned by different writers. 



Of Datura stramonium Mr. Prescott says,t "It has been 

 frequently used by desperate characters for hocussing or stupefying 

 the intended victim of a robbery by surreptitiously adding it to his 

 beer at the public-house bar. It is the seed of the Thorn-apple, a 

 native of Greece, and belongs to the same family as the tobacco- 

 plant." The same author also describes very minutely the micro- 

 scopical structure of the various seeds which ought, and which 

 ought not, to be used in the preparation of beer, including barley, 

 hops, cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, and Datura stramonium, 

 his object being to facilitate the detection of fraud and crime ; and 

 I would recommend my microscopical readers, who take an interest 

 in the question, to examine these various substances with the aid of 

 a microscope and Mr. Prescott' s beautiful diagrams. 



Of the various adulterants named, sulphate of iron, alum, and salt 

 are employed to give beer a " head " or froth (salt to stimulate the 

 thirst as well) ; sulphuric acid is used to " bring it forward," or 

 harden it, and impart to new beer the character of old ; carbonate 

 of soda to neutralize acidity ; whilst cocculus indicus, quassia, worm- 

 wood, grains of paradise, and similar substances are mixed with beer 

 either to impart bitterness or pungency, and to disguise the true 

 character of the drink. 



The necessity for all this doctoring has already been touched 

 upon, but it may be as well to explain its cause more fully. At 

 AIlsopps' and other large Burton breweries (and no doubt in many 



* ' Eeport of Committee of the House of Commons.' See Watts' s ' Dictionary 

 of Chemistry,' vol. i., p. 537. 



f ' Strong Drink and Tobacco Smoke,' p. 37. 



