Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-11-04
The Wine of the Borgia.

| Since our recent remarks on the danger o
drinking spirituous liquors without being per-
fectly we'll assured as to their origin, we have
heard within week, from three different sourc
es, of the death of six different persons-four
in one place and two in two others-from drink.
ing spirits. The deaths in question were all i'm.
mediate, and caused, not by excessive drinking,
but by the poisonous nature of the liquor.
If this poison was strychnine, and it is not
impossible, the cause of the deaths would be ap-
parent enough. Stryehnine, is horrible fla
voring material, rather worse than anything
else known 10 the mGterio medica, oxalic acid
not excepted; and those who have seen man
die from its effects have also seen the intense ag-
ony to which poor humanity can be subjected.
The fearful convulsions and intensity of racking
pain which it occasions seem like foretaste Of
tortures beyond human conception. Decidedly.
strychnine is not nice, and those who do not
fancy it had better be rather nice when the
temptation to drink doubtful liquor comes in
their way.
But strychnine does not always come a.
lone. Evil angels always fly in focks. In all
newly distilled spirits from corn occurs the dead
ly ''fusel" or ''fousel" oil-otherwiss known as
anylic alcohol--a peculiar oily spirit, first de-
tected and collected in the process of distilling
spirit from potatoes 1t is found, however, in
several kinds of sprituous liquors, and abounds
in common whiskey. Its presence in the liquor
is in exact proportion to the amount of spirit
extracted from the grain, or as it is expressed in
Turner's Chemistry, ''t is particularly abund-
ant towards the close of the process" Thus in
good old fashioned domestic distilling, and when
liquor was allowed to grow old enough to al
low the fusile oil to lose much of its bad quail.
ties. it had but little effect. Now, however,
when steam distilling wrenches the last possible
drop of spirit from the corn, it brings an unwont-
ed quantity of this poison, which acts with ter
ribe results on the nerves seeming like dia-
bolical inspiration, stirring up mania, convul-
sions and the horrors, in an incredibly short
space oftime. This fusel oil is deadly poison,
few drops suficing to destroy life. "If," says
Turner, ''its vapor, mixed with air, is breathed
for little time, asthmatic pains and coughing
are likely to ensue and even vomiting" A
pretty strong article, that. And it is far from
being scanty in roughly distilled spirits 1t can
be removed, but only partially, by frequent, dis
tillaton. In thus redistilling three hundred
barrels of whiskey, one whole barrel of pure fu-
sci oil has been collected.
1t is very remarkable that the fusel oil, schen
removed from the whiskey, is only taken away
to be put back again 10 another but still more
deadly FORM From it is made the oil of cognac,
one dclar's worth of which will turn one hum
dred gallons of whiskey into slime old brandy"
A very few drops of this "deviPs elixir" as it
has been called, will produce almost instant
death-as happened indeed last summer in Cam
ada West to young man who, while busted in
turning whiskey into brandy, inadvertently tast-
ed the transforming medium and died directly.
AS this black chemistry is not always carried
On by practised chemists, who are very careful
as 10 the proportions, it may well be supposed
that mistakes will occasionally occur. Young
men desirous Of giving an extra high flavor to
brandy, and who are ignorant of the deadly
qualities of the fsvoring essence, may very in
nocently raise the ''rosy" up to killing pitch
In fact we have known one manufacturer who
honestly believed that made brandy" was more
wholesome than the best imported, having got
the idea that the oil deposited ''foculent mat
ter" and took all the fusel poison out of the
whiskey. And there are thousands upon thou
sands Of men who would sell any amount of
poison if they could only make an additional
cent gallon by it.
Of late the facilities for poisoning liquor have
increased with such fearful rapidity that we can
no more refrain from cautionng our readers
than we could from cau,ionng them against the
existence of any pest. Books are circulated
giving the fullest directions for preparing poi
scnous counterfeits of every variety OF liquor;
and yet we never hear of their authors or prin-
tiers being indicted, while we have seen in this
very city, and in newspaper, an advertise
ment in which one familiar with the business
offered his services by the day. guaranty to be
able to make all sorts of liquors at an expense
of only forty cents gallon beyond the cost of
the whiskey. We suggest that some of the zeal
now bestowed, and very properly, on prevent
ing the circulation of works of an immoral char
acter be extended to those of a deadly nature
Phil Erening Bulletin