CHAPTER XVIL 
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Of Pipes and a Forcing Pump—Objection to Ike Use of Lead in making. 
Cider—View of the Criminal Use made of that Metal in Wine and 
Spirituous Liquors—How to Analyse them. 
Wooden or leathern pipes, and a forcing pump, are more 
expeditious, and in the long run, less expensive than pitchers ; 
an hour’s work ts sufficient with a pump of a foot long and 
three inches and a haif in diameter, to fill a tun of four hogs¬ 
heads, without losing a drop of the liquor ; it may be turned 
in box, guiacum, or any other hard wood whatever. 
The author avails himself of this edition to correct an over¬ 
sight, which had escaped him in the former, in which he re¬ 
commended a leaden pump. 
The acid of the cider causes the decomposition of that 
metal, and the friction of the piston accelerates its effect. It 
might be supposed, that the detached particles would preci¬ 
pitate with the lees, and have little or no influence on the 
liquor, after it had once worked ; on the contrary, the lead re¬ 
mains suspended in the form of a compound salt, and becomes 
a very rank poison ;* and, therefore, it is of the very highest 
importance to proscribe the use of it, as well as that of copper. 
The following extract is drawn from an eminent author, 
and indicates how to discover a fraud, which is often prac¬ 
tised by means of lead, to disguise the bad quality of wines; 
at the same time, it points out clearly the danger of using any 
in the manufacture of cider. 
*<■ Many commodities, (says Rousseau,f) are adulterated 
to make them appear better than they are. These deceptions 
impose upon'the eye and the taste, but they are pernicious, 
and make the thing adulterated, notwithstanding its fine ap¬ 
pearance, worse than it was before. 
* It is probable, as it has been thought, that the custom of covering the 
cheese board with a sheet of lead, through a toolish idea of cleanliness, has 
given birth in some of the cider districts in England, to the disorder known 
under the name of the Devonshire Cholic. The Jersey people, who have 
never followed that practice, are totally exempt from it. 
f Traits dd l’Education^ liv. 3 t :p. 43 . 
Prinks, 
