Middletown transcript., 1869-01-30
Fusel-Oil whisIxcy.


remained profound secret, EXCEPT to the
dlstillers, until very recent expose by the
New York World, let the cat out Of the,
bag. This poisonous property is ascer-
tained to be ,fusel-oH, and the manner es
its production, as well as its poisonous efs
fects upon the human system, are explain
ed in the extracts which follow:
The World, of Jan. 81, says In pur4
suing his investigations into the frauds
and adulterations which affiict the commu-.
nifty, the World Commissioner has been
enabled to throw light upon one of tho
most potent causes of the existence of SO
much poisonous liquor in the country.
Our exposure of yesterday spread before
the public cherished and carefully CON.
cealed secret of the distillers In order
to evade the payment of the government tax
on the entire amount of whiskey they pro-:
duce, they have introduced from Germany a
process of quick fermentation of their raw
material. This enables them to turn out
twice or three times the amount of liquor
the government in its clumsy old notions of
distilling, gives them credit for. They
are suppo: el to put their ''mash" through
a slow and even fermentation of three or
four days, and upon the supposed yield at
that rate the tax is calculated. But, by
examining into their vats an enormous
amount of yeast, they produce fermen-
tation of twenty -four hours, and thus get
away with three or four times the amount
of whiskey the government expects them
to make. BY this means, they can keep
their books straight, hood-wink the Off
cials, and pocket the proceeds of their sur.
plus manufacture without detection.
But something more than the revenue
is affected by this trick. The rapid fer
mentation produces such an imperfect liz
quor that no subsequent refining can TO.
move the poisonous oils, and the conse-
quencc is that the country is flooded with
stuff that no human being can swallow
with safety to the coats of his stomach.
For this, rascally distillers not alone ara
to blame. Revenue officials, if they are
not willingly blind to any enormity tho
poisoncrs may commit, are so Ignorant of
their duties that not one in hundred
can tell, when he looks in distiller's tub,
if the raw material is undergoing four
days fermentation or twenty-four hours
fermentation. For this reason, if no 9th.
er, civil service act is needed. Public
officers educated to know their business
would soon put check to the stream of
fusel-oil whiskey issuing out of the distil-
leries.
After all, there is cause behind this
cause for the evil of which we write, We
see here, as in everything else the govorn1
ment touches, the blighting effects of taxa
ton. A prepostcrous tariff excludes pure
wines and brandies from abroad, and gives
encouragement to adulterations at home
and the moddlcsome interference of Com
gress in the natural laws of trade curses
the country with kind of liquor that it is
a physical destruction to drink.
WHAT Is FCsEL-OL ?-The Scientific
American thus answers this question :.
The New York dailics since the report of
analytical chemists of the Board of Ex-
else has been made, are asking the qucs-
tion, What is fusel oil? Some have
also made feeble attempt to answer the
question which is thus propounded. The
query has arisen from the fact that tho
report above alluded to states that out of
thirty-two samples of bourbon and brandy
obtained from the liquor dealers of this
city, all but four contained fuscl-oil.
One daily gives vent to its feelings in the
following:
els it after all such frightful thing?
Dunglison describes it as an acrid, vola-
tile oil, formed in the manufacture of po-
tato brandy, and which is not easily sep
arated from it; and another authority
says it accompanies ordinary alchol in its
production from potatoes and grain. Dun=
glison also says that its chemical consti-
tuition is analogous to that of alcohol, and
that, in small doses, it is highly stimula-
ting-acting like narcotics in generals
while, in large doses, it destroys the mu-
cous membrane of the stomach, The same
authority also designates it as "potato
OIL" ''grain oil" g. corn spirit OIL"
amylic alcohol" and "hydrated oxide
of amyle" Some medical men have con-
sidercd that in the use of whiskey by con-
sumptives, fusel-oil was the effective ele=
ment-having the tendency to retard the
process of decay in the tissues of the lungs.
But there is no question of the runious
effects of the fusel-oil liquors in New York:
In regard to the effects of fusel-oil upon
the human system we can do no better
than to quote the "United States Dispen-
satory," which says: "Amylic alcohol
(fusel-oiD, as shown by experiments on
inferior animals, is an active irritant poi
son." If that is not sufficiently definite to
satisfy anxious and thirsty inquirers We
shall not attempt to make it more so, OF
course, it may be taken like other poisons
diluted with water and common alcohol,
as it is found in the compounds doled out
by honest and conscientious rumsellers
without danger of immediate death or any
thing more serious than "redness of eyes,"
temporary madness of brain, and now and
then touch of delirtum tremens, until the
coats of the stomach and the nervous sys=
tenn succumb to continued and prolonged
attacks, and another wreck is cast upon
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