Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1859 — Adulteration of Liquors. [ARTICLE]

Adulteration of Liquors.

The fact that intoxicating and malt liquors are adulterated frequently by the introduction of the most poisonous ingredients, and that wines are skillfully counterfeited, being often manufactured without containing a drop ot the juice of the grape, is well authenticated. But the fact that this adulteration and manufacture is systendtically pursued as a distinct branch of the liquor trade, adds ii possible to the enormity ot this businass, which tends to demoralize those engaged in it- as ’A ell as the poor victims of their destructive traffic. Several years since a wealthy -wine merchant in Bordeaux, France, retired from the business with a fortune; but lining quite a chemist, he undertook to counterfeit the various kinds of liquors, in which after experimenting thirty years, he succeeded. For the purpose of testing Ins production, he gave a splendid entertainment to the wine merc ants and connoisseurs of that city, at which he treated lljem on his manufactured liquors, each was labelled with the name of a pretended vineyard and the year of the vintage. The deception was complet ’,'he best judges pronounced 'he wines oi the best quality. At the close ol the feast he told them, to their great surprise, that they had ail been deceived, as there was not a particle of the juice of the grape in anything they h d drank, In? hav ng manufactured them all himself. He further told them that by the method he had discovered, they could supply England and the Uni’.< <1 States, who bought so 1 irgely of them, at a much less co t than formerly, even if the grape crop should be cut ofl’. At their earnest r ’quest he arranged the resu.tot his researches, ttnd published them expressly for the liquor dealers, tor which he received a largy sum. It bad a limited circulation in the wine growing countries ot Europe before the vintages there began to fail, so that when the grape crop was destroyed, the market was supplied nearly as abundantly as ever. A copy ol the book was brought to New York, and an edition was published and copy-righted here by tlie liquor dealers tor their especial use,-enabling them to manufacture spurious liquor at an enormous profit. Among the articles used in counterfeiting different drinks are sulphuric and.citric acid, caustic potash, nitrate ot silver, gamboge, indigo, iodine, logwood, sugar ot lead, mix vomica, and strychnine, some of which are active and deadly poisons. Much of the increase of crime, now stxjilarmingly prevalent, is ascribed to the effect of the poisons used in liquors now generally sold, upon the brain. A bottle o! so called pure Champagne wine, purchased of the importer by a chemist, was found to contain a quarter of an ounce of sugar of lead. E. C. Delavan, Esq., ot Albany, N. Y., who has done so much in calling intention io the evils ot intemperance, state- chi' facts he has in ais possession go to ‘establish the alatming truth, that among all the ' wines of commerce now - for sale ami in use

in this country, such an article as the pure, unmixed juice of the grape is almost, if not altogether unknown.” He st tes that “the avails of frauds committed in the adulteration of wine and spiri’s in the city of New A ork alone, amottn*, it is supposed, to st least three millions of dollars annually. The greater part of the wines sold in this country cost the manufacturer only f rom fifteen to twenty cents a gallon.” There are large establishments in this city where common whiskey is turned into win-e, and vyhere wine casks are made that clos> ly imitate the foreign, of which the Custom-house marks . are easily counterfeited, These facts that are now coming to the light, reveal a degree of criminal recklessness in those who so steadily arid so »t®»)thi--ly have carried on this destructive work, that deserves the reprobation of al! good and honorable citizens.— American Messenger.