Transcriber’s Note
The original begins with a 22 page catalogue of “PRACTICAL BOOKS ONSporting Subjects”. This has been moved to the end.
DEADLY ADULTERATION
AND
SLOW POISONING UNMASKED;
OR,
Disease and Death
IN THE POT AND THE BOTTLE;
IN WHICH
THE BLOOD-EMPOISONING AND LIFE-DESTROYING
ADULTERATIONS
OF
WINES, SPIRITS, BEER, BREAD, FLOUR, TEA, SUGAR, SPICES, CHEESEMONGERY,
PASTRY, CONFECTIONARY MEDICINES, &c. &c. &c.
ARE LAID OPEN TO THE PUBLIC,
WITH
TESTS OR METHODS
FOR ASCERTAINING AND DETECTING THE
FRAUDULENT AND DELETERIOUS ADULTERATIONS
AND THE GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES
OF THOSE ARTICLES:
With an Exposé of Medical Empiricism and Imposture, Quacks and
Quackery, Regular and Irregular, Legitimate and Illegitimate: and
The Frauds and Mal-practices of Pawnbrokers and Madhouse-keepers.
NEW EDITION.
BY AN ENEMY TO FRAUD AND VILLANY.
“The Workshop of the Distillery [and of the Wine and Spirit Compounder] isthe Elaboratory of Disease and of Premature Death.”—Manual for Invalids.
Devoted to disease by baker, butcher, grocer, wine-merchant, spirit-dealer,cheesemonger, pastry-cook, and confectioner; the physician is called to our assistance;but here again the pernicious system of fraud, as it has given the blow,steps in to defeat the remedy; the unprincipled dealers in drugs and medicinesexert the most diabolical ingenuity in sophisticating the most potent and necessarydrugs, (viz. peruvian bark, rhubarb, ipecacuanha, magnesia, calomel, castor-oil,spirits of hartshorn, and almost every other medical commodity in generaldemand;) and chemical preparations used in pharmacy. Literary Gazette.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, GILBERT AND PIPER,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
LONDON:
MARCHANT, PRINTER, INGRAM-COURT.
THE AUTHOR’S ADDRESS
TO
THE READER.
The catalogue of frauds and enormities exhibited inthe following pages will, no doubt, excite the abhorrenceand indignation of every honest heart. Its author is,however, convinced that he will find that he has undertakena very unthankful office—that his book willbe the dread and abhorrence of wicked and unprincipleddealers and impostors of all kinds; and himselfexposed to their utmost rancour and bitterest maledictions.But the die is cast: he has discharged a publicduty, and sincerely hopes that the Public may be benefitedby his disclosures.
It has been justly said, that all attempts to melioratethe condition of mankind have, in general, been coldlyreceived, while the artful flatterers of their passions andappetites have met their eager embraces. And it isno less true, that it has always been the fate of thosewho have attempted any great public good, to be obnoxiousto such as have profited by the errors of mankind.The divine Socrates, whose life was a continuedexertion to reprove and correct the overweening andthe vicious, died a victim to the Heathen Mythology,on account of his maintaining the unity and perfectionsof the Deity, and exp