I have said at the above mentioned page that “the perfection of adulteration is in gin;” and on reviewing that passage I have no cause to modify the expression; but must, with all my heart and soul, assent to the declaration of honest Jonas Hanway, that it is “a liquid fire;” and must further agree with the said true-hearted old Englishman, that “it should be sold only in quart bottles, sealed up with the king’s seal, with a very high duty, and never sold without being mixed with a strong emetic.” This I admit is a very harsh prescription, and no doubt every true lover of “blue-ruin” will exclaim, notwithstanding that he or she is aware that their “comfort” is in the most abandoned state of adulteration, and is a rank slow poison, equally ruinous to the health and the purse;—What! a gin-drinking nation, and yet not a drop of “the genuine”—of the popular English beverage, the diurnal consumption of which in the metropolis alone, would inundate the largest parish within the bills of mortality—not a drop of “the genuine” to be had for money! Yes, Bull, whether thou beest of the masculine or feminine gender, this is the truth; and it is a circumstance, the reformation of which would well become the labours of the informing tribe and the bellowers of radical reform. Here there would be a fine field for radicalism and “informing” to exercise themselves in. Note to page 83. I have stated at page 83, that fish out of season is unwholesome. The following fact will confirm the truth of this assertion. It is well known that in Ireland and Scotland, where great facility is presented to the country people in catching salmon, both during and after the spawning season, the eating of the fish in that state has been productive of very serious consequences to the health of the consumers. Probably the unwholesome consignments of noxious fish obtained _exclusively_, as the fashionable fishmongers phrase it, out of season, and to be purchased only at extravagant prices, often occasion to their epicurean customers and the legitimate gourmands much of the illness assigned to other causes. Note to page 87.