500 
they thall be protected, not only againf 
the highway rufhan or midnight thief, but 
alfo againft that more dangerous and de- 
teftable mifcreant who, uhder the mafk of 
honeft trade, deals out poifon in the guife 
of a cordial beverage, and demands an 
exorbitant price as the reward of his 
crime. Nor is the detection of this fpe- 
‘cies of villany fo difficult a tafk as fome 
people may imagine: witnefs the fimple 
and fuccefsful meafures adopted for that 
purpofe under the regal government in 
France—which meafures, no doubt, are 
ftill purfued with equal vigilance and effect 
under the confular adminittration. 
In that country, pérfons, privately em- 
ployed by tne police, made it their bufi- 
nefs to vilit taverns and other places where 
wine was fold, called for a bottle, and, 
having filled a glafs, ‘poured into it a few, 
drops or grains of a chymical liquor or 
powder, which, by a change in the color 
of the wine or the precipitation of a iedi- 
ment, immediately detefted the prefence 
of lead or arfenic or any other poifonous 
ingiedient; in confequence of which de- 
te&tion, the vender.was infiantly taken into 
cuftody, as guilty of plotting again& the 
lives of his Majetty’s fubjeéts. 
Now, if Frenchmen, who paid only 
ten pence or a fhilling per bottle for good 
wine, experienced fuch paternal attention 
to their health on the part of government, 
how much greater attention are Englifh- 
men entitled to expect, who pay three or 
four times that fum for the very worft 
wine they drink, and who are much more 
expofed to the danger of being poifoned, 
as the temptations to adulterate wine are 
confiderably ftronger in this ifland than 
they can poflibly be in France, or in 
any other country of which wine is the in- 
digenous produce! 
If I thould be here afked what was the 
liquor or powder employed by thefe agents 
of the Gallic Government, I cannot anfwer 
the queftion. But any good chymift can 
eafily point out liquors and powders that 
poficfs the property of precipitating lead 
and copper and arfenic, or of changing 
_ the color of the wine in which thofe dele- 
terious minerals are contained. A recipe 
for the compofition of fuch a liquor is 
given in the ‘* Repertory of Arts and Ma- 
nifadiures,° volume x1, page 280; and 
the ingredients are at once both cheap and 
common, viz. ojffer-feells, fulbhur, cream 
of tarter, and /pirit of fea fat. Another 
recipe IT -remember to have feen in the. 
‘¢ Critical:Review” about two cr three 
years back. In fhort, no difficulty feems 
(  Deteétion of Adulterated Wine. 
[July 1, 
to exift refpefting. the preparation of 4 
liquor that fhould fully enable the con-~ 
fumers of wine to difcover whether they 
were about to {wallow arfenic or any other 
poifon: the only thing neceffary is to en- 
courage honeft chymifts to prepare the 
compolition, and keep it always ready for 
fale in their fhops at a reafonable price. 
And, if our rulers do not think expe- 
dient to employ perfons to vifit the ta- 
verns and other public houfes for the pur- 
pole of dete&ing poifonous liquors, they 
may accomplifh the bufinefs at a cheaper 
rate, and perhaps even much more effec 
tually, in the following manner— 
Let a committee of chymifts be com~- 
miffioned by government to try the necef- 
fary experiments, and to determine what 
fubftances, dry or liquid, are beft cal- 
culated for the dete€tion of fraud in wine. 
Let a law be enacted, making it felony in 
any wine-merchant to fell a fingle bottle 
of wine containing any poifonous mixture: 
and let every vender’ of wine be obliged, 
under a fevere penalty, to keep conftantly 
expofed to public view, in one or more 
confpicuous parts of his fhop or room or 
warenoule, a printed paper furnifhed by 
the officers of excife, and containing clear, 
and ample directions for the ufe of the 
detecting liquor or powder. Thus every 
man who drinks wine will be able to prove 
each bottle as it comes in—at leaft fo 
long as he continues fober: and none will 
incur the rifk of being poifoned, except 
the drunken toper, who, in his intoxica- 
tion, negleéts to try his liyguor before he - 
venture to {wallow it. 
Exclufive of the benefit which muft re- 
fult to his Majefly’s faithful fubje&ts from 
the legiflative. eftablifhment of fuch a 
public teit to afcertain the purity of wine, - 
I enceive moreover that it would, mate- 
rially contribute to the augmentation of 
the revenue. know feveral perfons who 
never choole to drink wine at inns or ta-— 
verns, and whofe only motive for that 
felf denial is the fear of drinking poifon :. 
and, ne ee others in every part of 
the kingdém are occafionally deterred. 
from wine-drinking by fimilar apprehen- 
fions, I haye not the fmalleft doubt. Bur,’ 
when once the public are furnifhed with a 
cheap and infallible criterion to dete& the 
poifon or prove the whcelefome quality of 
the liquor, fuch perfons as thefe above 
defcribed, being thenceforward relieved 
from their terrors, will confume 2 greater 
quantity of wine than they drink at pre- 
fent, and will yield a conlequent increale 
of revenue to the trealury, 
“The : 
