But the particular histories of the corruptions of wines and spirits will be more acceptable to those who are desirous of preserving their health and enjoying their existence comfortably, than quotation; for, were wine and spirit bibbers aware of the abominable and fraudulent processes of adulteration in use among wine and spirit dealers and gin-shop keepers, they would not only heartily join in the exclamation of the “poet of Nature,” “Oh! that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!” but they would be convinced that it is not only high time that the fraud and villany of their selfish and secret poisoners should be unmasked, but also punished and suppressed. For this purpose I shall detail some of the noxious compositions of the wine and spirit dealers of newspaper notoriety, and of the placarding gin-shop keepers, whose gaudy premises, as well as those of other puffers at cheap prices, are designed to catch the eye and arrest the attention of the heedless and unwary. And thus I am inclined to believe that my readers will heartily agree with one who has materially and honourably contributed to expose the villany of adulterators of all kinds, that, in the deterioration and pernicious sophistication of the necessaries and comforts of existence, it may with truth be said, in a civil as well as in a religious sense, that “in the midst of life we are in death.” Factitious wines are generally, in the slang phraseology of the adulteration trade, “doctored” or “cooked,” in order to give them particular flavours, and render them similar to the wines they are intended to represent. Thus bitter almonds (or the leaves of cherry laurel, which are cheaper) are added to give a nutty flavour; sweet briar, orris-root, clary, cherry-laurel-water, and elder-flowers to form the bouquet of high-flavoured wines; alum to render young and meagre red wines bright; cake of pressed elderberries and bilberries to render pale faint coloured port [or red sumach, &c. to tinge spoiled white wines red] of a deep rich purple colour;[A] oak saw-dust, [sloes,] and the husks of filberts, to give additional astringency to unripe red wines; and a tincture of the seeds of raisins to flavour factitious port wine; [with a variety of other ingredients, such as spice, &c. to render wine pungent]. (The Vintners and Licensed Victuallers’ Guide, p. 259.) And in the same work, p. 225, among other deleterious ingredients, “sugar of lead”[B] is directed to be used for fining or clearing cloudy white wines. That book and works of a similar kind are the accredited repositories of the arcana of sophistication for the publican and small wine and spirit dealer, and gin-shop keeper; but, as Mr. Accum (Culinary Poisons, p. 87) says, the more wholesale adulterators and “large capitalists,” whether wine and spirit brewer or ale and beer brewer, obtain, on payment of a considerable fee, a manuscript from the brewers’ and spirit-dealers’