244 



DISCUSSION. 



He had been talking to a very trustworthy man in the Police of 

 that district, who had large experience of the men who had got 

 drunk upon that wine, and his answer was, " Sir, they arc not 

 drunk, they are mad." He observed the difference between the 

 men who got drunk on spirits and those who got drunk on the 

 wine produced largely by the use of sugar, and these latter becama 

 perfectly mad with it. He was fully persuaded in his own mind, 

 that the larger the quantity of fusel oil found in beer or elsewhere 

 the more deleterious were the effects, and therefore he thought 

 that the results arrived at by our Government Analyst after 

 skilful examination were most important, and shewed that this 

 oil was to be avoided by every possible means. He had not drunk 

 any beer for a quarter of a century, but had observed the effects 

 upon others. He was very pleased that Mr. Hamlet had not 

 discovered any of those deleterious ingredients that are put in 

 some of the beers in other countries, such as grains of paradise, 

 cocculus indicus, copperas and other baneful metallic substances. 



Mr. Smith said the point seemed to have been lost sight of as 

 to the amount of amylic alcohol necessary to produce any toxic 

 effects. The authorities of the present day give *3 of a grain as 

 the quantity required to produce toxic effects on the human system. 

 Mr. Hamlet had shewn that colonial beer contained on an average 

 •05 grains to the gallon : therefore to get enough amylic alcohol 

 to produce any poisonous symptoms a man must drink six gallons 

 before it would produce any effect. It had been suggested that it 

 might remain in the system over a period of time and eventually 

 the amylic alcohol produced toxic effects upon the system. Delirium 

 tremens had been attributed to fusel oil, but was in no way caused 

 by it. Mr. Dixon had spoken about the analysis of foods : and 

 had rather cried down the analysing of food substances. With all 

 due deference to Mr. Dixon he thought the paper read that night 

 proved that there was a use in analysing food substances. Again, 

 Mr. Dixon had made the remark that anything which would pass 

 his nose and palate he thought good enough to take. He (Mr. 

 Smith) while in England studying chemistry, on one occasion had 

 been appointed to go over one of the works where potted meats 

 were largely manufactured. The course of inquiry was with 

 reference to poisonous salts found in the meat, and this necessitated 

 going through the whole process, and during the examination of 

 the manufactory he certainly saw some things which had entirely 

 prevented him for some years past from eating potted meats. The 

 filthy way in which the meats were prepared would prevent many 

 of the members here present from eating them again ; it was only 

 by analysis that we could find out and put a stop to unhealthy 

 products being put on the market. Again from a medical point 

 •of view, there were many diseases which could not be found out 



