The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-01-02
The Wine Of the Borgfa.I


s. In these liquor poisoning times the {;
lowing article, with this caption, taken fro
u the Philadelphia Evening Bnlletin, will
J, read with profit:
Since our recent remarks on the dang
OF drinking spirituous liquors without beir
n perfectly well assured as to their origin, v
have heard within week from three diffe
: ent sources, of the death of six differel
: persons from drinking spirits. The deatt
t m question were all immediate, and causes
not by excessive drinking, but by the po
. sonous nature Of the liquor.
If this poison were strychnine, and it
mot impossible, the cause of these death
would be apparent enough. Strychnine
horrible favoring material, rather wors
than anything else known in the materi
medica, cxalc acid not accepted and a
those who have seen a man die from its e.
fects. have also seen the intense agony t
which poor man can be subjected. Th
fearful convulsion and intensity of rackin
pain which occasions, seem like fore-tast
of tortures beyond human conception. De
cidedly, strychnine is not nice, and thos
who do not fancy it had better be rathe
nice when the temptation to drink doubtful
liquor comes in their way.
/ "But strychnine does not always com
alone. Evil angels always fly in focks.-
In all newly distilled spirits from corn, oc
| ours the deadly "fusel" or "fousel' oil
otherwise known as amylic alcoholic pc
cuiiar oily spirit, first detected and collected
in the process of distilling spirit out of po
tatoes. This is found, how, yer, in severa
kinds Of spirituous liquors, and it abound:
in common whiskey. It's presence in the
liquor is in exact proportion to the amour,
Of spirit extracted from the grain, or as il
is expressed in Turner's Chemistry, ''it is
particularly abundant towards the close oi
the process" Thus, in good old fashion
domestic dstilling. and when liquor was
allowed to grow old enough to allow the fu-
sci oil to lose much of its bad qualities, it
had but little effect. Now, however, when
steam distilling wrenches the lest possible
drop Of spirit out of the corn, it brings
with it an unwonted degree of this poison,
which acts with terrible results upon the
nerves; seeming like diaboica inspiration,
stirring up the mania, commissions and the
horrors in an incredible short space Of time
This fusel oil is a deadly poison, a few drops
sutficing to destroy lite. "If," says Turner,
sits vapor mixed with air is breathcd for
little time, asthmatic pains and coughing are
iihNlb " cHoGe, anu even "A
pretty strong article that. And it is very
far from being scauty in roughly distilled
spirits. 1t can be removed but only partial
", by frequent distillation. Thus by redis-
tilling three hundred barrels of whskev.
one whole barrel of fusel oil has been col
lected.
at is very remarkable that the fusei oil
when removed from the whiskey, is only
taken away to be put back again in another
but still more deadly form. From it Is
made the oil of cognac, one dollars worth
of which. will turn one hundred gallons of
whiskey into fine old brandy. \ very few
drops Of this devils elixir, as it has been
cvlled, viii produce almost instant death,
as happened indeed during last summer in
Canada West, to yhnng man who, busted
in turning whiskey into brandy, inadvert-
emily tasted the transforming medium and
died disectly. As this black chemistry is
not always carried on by practical chemists,
who are very careful as to the proportions,
Il may well be supposed thct some mistakes
will occasionally occur. Young men dcsir-
ing to give an extra high favor to brandy,
ane who are ignorant of the deadly quail
ties of the flavoring essence, may very
easily raise the rosy" up TO killing pitch.
We have known of one manufacturer who
honestly believed that "made brandy" was
more wholesome than the best imported,
having got the idea that the oil deposited
4" foculent matter" and took all the fusel
oil out of the whiskey. And there are
thousands upon thousands 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 cautioning
our readers against the existence Of any
pest. Books are circulated, giving fullest
directions for preparing poisonous counter
feits of every variety of liquor, and yet we
never hear of their authors or printers being
indicted, while we have seen in this very
city, and in a newspaper, an advertisement
in which one familiar with the business Of
fered his services by the day, guaranteeing
to be able to make all sorts of liquors at an
expense of only forty cents a gallon beyond
the cost of the whiskey. We suggest that
some of the zeal now bestowed, and very
properly, on preventing the circulation Of
works of an immoral character, be extended
to those of deadly nature.