“That a minute portion of an unwholesome ingredient, daily taken in beer,” (says the intrepid advocate of offended justice, whose civil death to science and suffering humanity is to be sincerely deplored,) “cannot fail to be productive of mischief, admits of no doubt: and there is reason to believe that a small quantity of a narcotic substance daily taken into the stomach, together with an intoxicating liquor, is highly more efficacious than it would be without the liquor. The effect may be gradual; and a strong constitution, especially if it be assisted with constant and hard labour, may counteract the destructive consequences, perhaps for many years, but it never fails to show its baneful effects at last.” But, perhaps, friend John, you will say that this is all talk, and a mere bug-a-boo of the “radicals” to annoy you in your daily potations of your “favourite beverage,”—thy own native nutritious liquor. And you will call for something like proofs, or an enumeration of the deleterious substances or ingredients which have been found in the possession of brewers and publicans, and for the admixture of which with their “_neat article_,” they have been subject to the Law’s angry visitations. This is a reasonable request, and it shall be satisfied to the best of my power. Know then, friend Bull, that the following _harmless_ and _invigorating_ ingredients have been found in the possession of thine honest fellow-countrymen, the brewers, according to the list of the Excise prosecutions detailed in the Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed for examining the price and quality of beer in the year 1819. 1. Cocculus Indicus, or, as it is vulgarly called, occulus Indian berry. This is a powerfully narcotic, and most intoxicating and deleterious drug. In its mildest form, it produces excruciating head-aches and distressing sickness, when the beer is over-dosed. So great was the demand for this poisonous drug, that it rose, as Mr. Accum says, within the space of ten years, from 2_s._ to 7_s._ per lb. The extract or poisonous principle obtained from the berries is so abundant as to be easily separated from the substance, and is called by the chemist picrotoxin, a term derived from two Greek words, namely, πιχρος, bitter; and τοξιχον, poison. What thinkest thou of this, friend John? In India, the berries are thrown on the surface of the water for the purpose of intoxicating the fish, when they float on the water, and are easily taken by the hand. 2. Black Extract, or, as it is called, in the slang phrase of the Adulterating Vocabulary, Hard Multum, which is also an extract of the poisonous Indian berry, or a composition of opium and other ingredients.