Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-01-13
Is Beer a neaithy beverage

From the Cincinnati Gazeste.l
The plea put i'll for the German ma
tional drink is that it is not only harm
less, but also decidedly healthy. Beer
brewers, we are told. ere public benefac
tors, for they supply the people with a
mildly stimulating and pleasant drink,
which is destined at no very distant day
to supplant and drive from the country
whisky and all the other distilled liquors
which are producing such an amount of
drunkenness and woe in the land. In
deed, we are assured that beer is even
an element of morality and honesty
and that when once the American peo-
pie generally will patronize the beer sa
looms on Sunday instead of Puritanic
churches, the millennium of morality
and honesty will have come. Let but
the time come when all shall worship at
the shrine of Gambrinus, and there will
be no more salary grabbing, no more
Credit Mobilier, no more ring swiudling,
nor any of the thousand and one forms
Of public and private robbery now in
vogue.
We have 30 disposition, at present at
least, to dispel the delightful vision thus
conjured up by the philosophic German
mind, but will only record the fact, re-
Gently brought to light in Germany,
skst beer there is no longer the simple
;2ice OF barley, spiced with hops, which
II formerly was, and which many in
their simplicity still belieYe it to be-
Like everything else, the art Of beer
brewing has saep making progress, and
the old fogy notion that harley and hops
Shall constitute the only ingredients Ct
the beverage is exploded. The barley
part has been, to great extent, super
ceded for years by West India molasses,
sugar of starch and similar substances,
which, by the decomposition of the fusil
oil contained therein, by the process OF
fermentation. do no eonirilutc very ma
terially TO the heaithful1ess ot leef.
Now, to crown all, the discovery IS
made that the seed Of the extremely
poisonous colchicum antomale is largely
used as a sghstitute for hops in the
manufacture OF KbeeF tte a7idence up
on which this charge against the 6erAan
brewers is founded may be summed up
tnGS In the first place, chemical ex-
periments AYE shown that it is possible
to use the ailaloid of colchicum (colehi-
einj in place Of the bitter principle Of
the hop. Then, again, the consumption
of colchicum has latterly Increased in a
most inexplicable manner. DIR. A. Spies,
Of Frankfort, calls attention to the fact
that the manufacture Of beer has in.
CREASED ffteen fold within the last few
decades, Vhiis The quantity of hops
raised has remained the sane. This
fact Of itself points With unerring GER
tainty TO the adoption Of substitute in
place Of the hop, and the strong proba-
biliiy is tLst + is the poisonous colchi
Gin, decootioa OF eolck;cum seed, that
is largely used az such substitute.
The quantity of colchicum seed used
for medicinal purposes is so small that
IL scarcely enters into the account.
Twenty hundres Eeight Of the seed
would suffice to produce ali the eo,chi-
cum used for that purpose in commerce.
Lea s.ill is needed for the balance OF the
eolehinin pregesstions, so that We do not
overstate the case vhen Ee say that
sixty hundred weight would supply all
the demands Of commerce, 50 far as the
medicinal preparations are concerRed.
Ten years ago the colShicum seed could
bs procured at cost Of two " three
kreutzeuFs Zone and half or two cents
per pound, and frequently those who had