■s 
38S 
mixing with them a quantity of white lead or litharge. I be¬ 
lieve that this adulteration is punished with death in some 
parts of Germany ; and it were to be wished that every where 
else it were liable to the severest penalty. 
In 1750, the farmers in general being astonished at the great 
quantity of spoiled wine brought to Paris to be converted into 
vinegar, they redoubled their exertions to discover the cause 
of the enormous increase of that article. For some years before 
1750, there had been brought in annually about 30,000 hogs¬ 
heads, instead of which, the quantity of the same liquor, for 
forty years before, did not on an average exceed 1200 hogs¬ 
heads a-year. They found that several wine merchants, who 
called themselves vinegar merchants, bought these sour wines, 
which were rendered still more sour by the custom of pouring 
nto each hogshead six quarts of vinegar before they were 
sold, and which, after they had restored their taste with 
litharge, they sold as merchantable wines; for this substance 
pot only corrects the sourness of wine, but as it gives body to 
such as is weak, it affords an additional temptation for using it. 
This ingredient does not excite any fermentation. 
An edict was published in France, dated February 27, 1787, 
prohibiting the adulteration of wine or cider with litharge, 
white lead, or any preparation whatever of lead, under a pe¬ 
nalty of a thousand livres (40I.) for each offence, and in case 
©f insolvency, of being condemned to serve on board the gal¬ 
leys for three years. 
The reader may judge to what danger the consumer of such 
liquors is exposed, from the following fact: — 
“ An evening one of my neighbours laid in a trough a few 
brushes daubed over with white lead paint ; several ducks 
were in the habit of going to drink out of it, which were all 
found dead the next morning.” 
There is no preparation of that metal, which when taken in¬ 
ternally, is not destructive. The use of it is not confined to 
wine and cider, 3s villainy is become more knowing in the art 
of imposing, and these fatal discoveries are by no means un¬ 
known among us. A nefarious mixture of these poisons with 
spirituous liquors, of which they improve the taste and calm 
the heat, hurries away prematurely to the grave a great num¬ 
ber of useful citizens. The strongest and most healthy con¬ 
stitutions, are by no means proof against an immoderate use of 
the best spirits; but, when they are impregnated with lead, 
which is often the case, the delinquents, who made such a mix¬ 
ture. seem to be fit objects for the most exemplary punish¬ 
ments. 
It is melancholy, that among us, no measures are taken 
against the guilty practices of these public assassins. If the 
police is ignorant how to unravel this mystery of iniquity, it 
is then, if ever, that an enlightened and protecting legislature 
Ought to interpose. 
The following receipts will enable one to discover, what 
drinks are adulterated in the maimer I have mentioned. They 
may 
