Adulteration of Pale Ales by Strychnine. 271 



disadvantages, the certainty of the means of .detecting 

 strychnine in beer by the chemical tests described above, 

 which any medical man or practical chemist can apply, and 

 the chance of the use of so dangerous a substance for any 

 purpose of adulteration, becomes in the last degree impro- 

 bable.* J'je'idua oil* no noioiqana He 

 -IjjJh ,ifiw ,.IIV ^tnoH 'to ioA 



[The following letter on the alleged adulteration of bitter 

 beer, from Professor Liebig to Messrs Allsopp, inserted in 

 the Times, will interest our readers.] 



" The unguarded remark of a French chemist, that the 

 strychnine imported in England, is employed in part as a 

 substitute for hops in the manufacture of beer, has lately 

 spread alarm among the lovers of pale ale. Having been 

 appealed to by you to express my opinion on this subject, 

 which appears to me to be, in a dietetic point of view, one of 

 considerable public interest, I now offer the following brief 

 statement. 



" About a quarter of a century ago, a brewer in West- 

 phalia fell into the practice of adulterating his beer with Nux 

 vomica, from which it iswellknown that strychnine is obtained. 

 The peculiar morbid symptoms, however, which resulted from 

 the consumption of this adulterated beer, speedily led to the 

 detection of the fraud. The effects produced by Nuao vomica 

 and strychnine are so characteristic, that every medical man 

 will readily detect their origin. The French novelist, Alex- 

 andre Dumas, has described them, though with more imagi- 

 nation than truth, in his romance of 4 Monte Christo.' It is 

 possible that the Westphalian case, which, from being made 

 the subject of a criminal trial, obtained great notoriety, has 

 given rise to the assumption, that in England the strych- 

 nine imported is used for the purpose of mixing with beer. 

 But nobody at all acquainted with the great breweries of 

 that country could seriously entertain the suspicion of an 

 adulteration of beer with strychnine or any deleterious sub- 

 stance. It is practically impossible that any operation of a 

 doubtful character could be carried out in these extensive 



* Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. v., No. 18, p. 173. 



T 2 



