Daily national Democrat., 1859-01-26
The Latest on AdulteratIon.

touches on this universally talked of subject:
Much harm as may be done by this whole.
sale adulteration, by which every retail Gus
toner is certain to be victimized, there is still
we cannot help thinking, at least this one
advantage in it. Drugs are So diluted. and
poisons SO mixed up with more innocuous in
gradients, than one would find. it difficult be
use to make away with oneself; and many
suicide may be stopped from taking prussc
ACID by the doubt If prussic acid would be
strong enough to kill him. AS everything
nowadays is almost anything on earth but
that which it is said to be. we question verv
much, ifby buying what in nine shops out of
ten would be sold TO us as arsenic, we should
be served with such an article as would do
our business for US, Death would much more
probably ensue from pennyworth of pep
permint, or loliipop or two, or whatever
else We fancied to be perfectly innocuous
Anything that is reputed to be perfectly
harmless, we may be almost sure is harmful
and poisonous in the extreme and whenever
We are warned that this or that would kill
us, we may swallow it with very little
thought Of being hurt Ivy it.
For the welfare Of humanity these facts
should be known, and every one, we trust.
well lend q hand or tongue to spread them
Circulation through the press will ensure
them wide hearing and our playwriQhts
may, we think, likewise extend the knowl.
dye of them. Poisons are more frequently
In acquisitions on the stage than in real life.
and 1T would be competent for any of our
dramatists TO put the fact Of their adultera.
tion before the footlights and the public.
What striking situations might be made in
melodrama through the taking of q dose of
adulterated poisonl What vilainv might be
thwarted, and what virtue triumph bv it !
Villany buys laudanum, aud Virtue finds it
liquorice. Vilany has forged virtues will,
aud proceeds to read it. Villany sheds
tears over his d.dear f.friend and d.departed
bib benefactor, who to every ones surprise
has left Villany his fortune. Slow music.
Lights burn blue. In stalks Virtue all Sc.
rene. hold in his hand ii bottle labelled ali.
quorice" Villany takes him for his ghost,
and falls down on his knees, with his hands
up and his teeth chattering. Enter in posses
session the Police Of the Period Vllany is
walked off, and the Gods hooray for virtue.
Vivdt Adntteration! No Money Returned!
Or say it is "A tragedy the writer is engag.
ed upon, and that he wants to clear off some
haltdozen of his characters to end it. WHY
not take leaf from the Lucrezia Borgia
Cookery book and make them all sit down
TO an adulterated dinner, and there polish
them all off with aduterated sweetmeats?
In tarces or burlesques the same text might
be preached, and Willikinses and their Di
nahs might be killed by some "cold poison
in the shape of cheap ice creams in which
both ice and creams had been deleteriouslv
adulterated.
In the like way, too. our novelists might
do the State some service, by giving more
publicity to the important truth, that lust
now one had best eat very little and drink
less. if one has wish to avoi alulteration
Plots might be constructed wherein all the
troubles and torments of the heroine and hei o
might be brought on or cleared off by a iu
dieious introduction of adulterated articles.
What affecting invalid scenes might be work
ed out of the fact Of the heros having eaten
AN adulterated sausage, or been lunching Oft
cold meat and aduterated pickles What
touching reconciliations might be got M
through the incident ofboth heroine and hero
simultaneously sickening from the effects of
having seen each other at a party, where, to
drown their feelings, the hero drank two
glasses of adulterated negus, while the hero
inc consoled herself with some half dozen
c ps Of what in trusting innocence she finci
ed to he coffee. Negus has the character of
beieg harmless staff and the weakest headed
hero, one would think might take two glass.
es of it. But when made of doctored wines
it is in fact, mere doctors stuff and one
should never take a dose of it, except it be
prescribed for one In like way tea and
coffee are now far from being so innocuous as
many people deem them. and should never
be exhibited" excepting under proper medi
i IL. l.. Al - 4
fingers have probed the trades where Toison
fingers, it is clear that tea and coffee. harm.
less as we think them, are drinks which may
by no means be indulge in with impunity.
Besides the milk which is chalk.mixture and
the sugar which is daft" half the coffee
which is sold is merely beans and bone dust.
favored with baked chicory, and colored
with burnt cows liver; while the genuine
unmixed tea. with which the public are
supplied, is merely trade synonym for what
is in reality nothing but slow poison.