1018 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 21, 1S73. 
From what Mr. Watts did it will he seen there 
were some slight difficulties in getting rid of the 
spirit, and some of the reasons given by Mr. Car- 
mouche for being able to sell it so cheaply were cer¬ 
tainly plausible, but not such as to satisfy any 
person desiring to buy in a legitimate way. To one 
person he said the cheapness of his spirit was due to 
the fact that although the duty on perfumed spirit 
imported had been recently raised from 14s. to 
16s. 6d. a gallon, yet in Harwich and some other 
small ports it could still be imported at 14s. a 
gallon. This lame tale passed muster, and the per¬ 
son referred to at once gave an order for the so- 
called perfumed spirit, which was admitted to be 
only very slightly altered in character by the ad¬ 
dition of a small quantity of essential oil, and not 
such spirit as could be denominated perfumed spirit. 
Other spirit manufactured at the Albion distillery 
was sent by rail to Edinburgh to be converted by 
Messrs. Smith into “sweet spirit of nitre.” The 
Messrs. Smith, like Mr. Watts, had their suspicion 
aroused by the fact that the spirit was always sent 
by rail and not by water. If it had been sent by 
water the cost of carriage would have been reduced 
to about one-fourth of the cost by rail, and from this 
fact, coupled with the further fact that the spirit was 
called perfumed, and sent without certificate, when 
it was plain spirit, they also put themselves in com¬ 
munication with the Inland Revenue department, 
and six casks were seized in consequence. When all 
the circumstances of this case were known, there 
was no difficulty in finding a reason for the casks 
being sent by railway. If they had been forwarded 
by water the Customs authorities at Leith might 
have examined the contents of the casks and seized 
them, but when forwarded by rail there was no risk 
run, as the spirit would be delivered at its destina¬ 
tion without question, being sent only from one 
inland town to another. 
We can see from the transactions thus rapidly 
passed under review how easy it would have been for 
any person understanding his business, who had made 
purchases such as we have described, to have con¬ 
cluded that Mr. Carmouche was either defrauding 
the revenue or not acting honestly to those from 
whom he bought the spirit. The difference between 
the market price and the selling price of the spirit 
purchased by Mr. Watts may at first sight appear 
trilling; but if we look a little more closely into the 
matter, the difference will be seen to be extraordinary. 
The strength of this spirit was 57‘0 overproof, and 
the Customs’ duty would have been 16s. 4 d. a gallon, 
leaving Is. 2d. for the short price of the spirit, a price 
which any man in the spirit trade must know was 
simply absurd for the article in question. The dif¬ 
ference therefore between the selling and market price 
was 2d. per gallon more (viz. Is. 4 d.) than the short 
price of the spirit offered to and purchased by Mr. 
Watts, a difference which when compared with the 
short price of spirit is by no means contemptible, 
and such a margin of profit to a distiller would prove 
a fortune to him in a very short time. 
We must say a word more about perfumed spirit 
as defined in the Customs laws. It is that spirit 
which can be used for perfumery only; and evidently 
this definition refers to eau de Cologne, lavender 
water, and such like perfumed spirit, which is so de¬ 
filed by the addition of essential oils as to be rendered 
unfit for use as a beverage. This is the reason that 
such perfumed spirit is sent from the Custom House 
without permit or certificate, because it was never 
contemplated that such spirit could be used for any¬ 
thing but perfumery. The spirit sent out by Car¬ 
mouche could be used for almost any purpose, and 
as this fact was so palpable to Baron Bramwell, he 
placed on the same footing the seller and purchaser 
of spirit which was sold as perfumed spirit, but which 
although containing little or no essential oil, was not 
accompanied by certificate, and was sold much below 
market price. 
PHARMACY IN THE FLOWERY LAND. 
Whatever may be the truth of the Chinese asser¬ 
tion that gunpowder, the mariner’s compass, and the 
art of printing w r ere known to that people millen¬ 
niums before they -were invented in Europe, there is 
no doubt that of certain therapeutic agents they pos¬ 
sessed a knowledge antecedent to our own. The 
dietetic value of animal juices they early recognized. 
From an interesting paper read before the North 
China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society at Shanghai 
by Dr. D. J. Macgowan, we learn that they had a 
preparation somewhat similar to Liebig’s extractum 
carnis, called “mutton wine,” which they credited 
with a host of therapeutic virtues, and particularly 
with a restorative and invigorating action on the sto¬ 
mach, the kidneys, and the testes. Dr. Macgowan, 
after describing its mode of preparation, forms an 
estimate of its medicinal properties, and records a 
case in which its efficacy was proved beyond a doubt. 
He further informs us that the Chinese recognize no 
distinction between medicine and food—between the 
materia medica and what he calls the materia ali- 
mentaria. They hold all portions of animals, brute 
as well as human, to possess therapeutic value in 
medical treatment; while in preparation these por¬ 
tions are made to.undergo simply a culinary mani¬ 
pulation. 
From another interesting paper read by the same 
physician before the same learned body, we gather 
that the Chinese had some inkling of the virtues of 
fish-liver oil in phthisical ailments. To the olea¬ 
ginous secretion of the shad—nay, even to the flesh 
of the shad itself—they ascribed virtues similar to 
those which have gained for the oleum morrhuce so 
much repute as a counteragent or even cure in tuber¬ 
culosis. These are of an alterative and stimulating 
kind, and in the hands of Chinese practitioners have 
proved efficacious in precisely the same circumstances 
