The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-03-17
For the Register.
Adulterated Liquors.


Mr.. EDIToR-You know me as chem
list and as temperance man, but it may
be necessary to tell your readers that
have been staunch teetotaller since the
age of nine but must state that / have
never analysed single specimen of IL
quor, and further on | will tell you why.
There is an impression that the intoxi-
eating principle of cheap liquors at the
present day is something else than alcohol
that it is strychnine (nox vomica) coc-
culus indicus,or some such poison. have
not the least idea that it is so. None of
these are cheaper poisons than alcohol
and this is the active ingredient in all
adulterated liquors. Medford Rum, Ohio
Whiskey and the like, are the raw mate
rial of all adulterated liquors beyond
doubt The whiskoy is first deprived of
its Valeriol or Fusel oil and concentrated.
1t then becomes neutral spirit, having the
taste and smell of mere alcohol, but none
other to distinguish its origin. The rum
in the same way is deprived of all evil
dence of its age and origin and becomes
neutral spirit. With this is made wine,
brandy, gin, schnapps, &c., by the addi-
ton of fearful list of ingredients, it is
true, but all in small quantities. The
most fatal ingredient still is alcohol.
But in beer, ale, lager bier, &c., the al
cohol is not so abundant, and quassia is
the most prominent ingredient. OF them
however 1 will not now speak.
All adulterated liquors are costly. To
adulterate rot-gut, as it is euphoniously
called, with strychnine would be as alb
surd as to adulterate tallow candles by a
fraudulent intermixture Of spermaceti or
beeswax. l have been asked to analyze
such liquors, but I would as soon melt
down a pewter spoon to sec if the rascally
manufacturer had not put in silver.
| People who buy "strychnine whiskey :"
at Wholesale measure the quantity of al
cohol in it by the hydrometer, and do not
guage its intoxicating power by swallow
ing it. Take five hundred gallons of
whiskey, make it thousand by the add.
ton of water, and as deadly as before by
what you will, and you cannot sell it for
80 much ct wholesale as before you doc
tored it.
If you wish to avoid adulterated Ii
quors, chemistry will hardly aid you. The
best Fictitious wines and brandies are as
good as the genuine. In extreme cases
you can no more tell them apart than you
can tell of hay in the bale whether it was
moved by machine or scythe. But if,
because of the worst and more deadly
mixtures, you would avoid them all will
give you few rules:
First, never pay over three cents glass
for your liquor at the bar, and never call
for wine.
Second, never buy for domestic pur-
poses anything but neutral spirit, cam.
phene. alcohol, cologne alcohol and rot-gut.
Third, make your wine for sacramental
purposes of grapes or raisins-for medi.
cal use from logwood, sugar, &c. Brew
your own beer for tonic.
Fourth, make your best medical brandy
several years before you want it of proof
spirit, and water only, administer while
unhavored.
Fifth, brandy for beverage may as
well be made according to the usual re-
cipe. 1t is to carry you to an early grave.
We are fast people. The more Of the
terrific ingredients the better. So of gin,
and schapps. and wines. All you save by
making them is the expense and you lose
the luxury of being cheated.
But the strychnine in the slops The
dead hogs and the tons of dead fish! That
strychnine never was sold for uhishev.
1t was used TO aid the fermentation. It
was thrown to the fishes becau1e it could
not be extracted from the Stops and sold.
The administration to the swine was
blunder-no man fats his swine on whis.
key. .! want no stronger proof that the
strychnine did not go into tie xhaskey
than that it remained in the slops and
poisoned the fish.
But delirium tremens-why is it more
common than formerly? Because our
nervous systems are weaker than formerly.
Tic doloroux, spinal disease, neuralgia, &c. ,
are all new diseases and all from this
same cause. Why this change in our
constitutions it is out of place here to
state. think that three centuries of to-
bacco, two of tea, one of rum and half
century of coffee ought to make power
ful impression on our nervous constitution;
but what, will not say.
| come now to the last objection. The
cask OF topper within ten miles of a GER
tain meat-shop was found frozen solid one
Of these cold mornings in its hiding-place
in the hay-mow. If that liquor was as
powerful as proof spirit it would show
that alcohol was not its only intoxicating
ingredient. But believe the purchaser
was capable of drinking quart or two in
a day of this diluted matter and according
ly conjecture that the dealer of whom he
bought was not conscientious man. n
We learn, from the freeman, that
Kent, the opposition candidate is elected
Commissioner i'll Washington County.
The freeman also says;
In nine towns heard from in Orange