Among the poisonous articles daily vended to the public, none are of more potent effect than the pickles sold by unprincipled oilmen. For the purpose of giving a fresh and lively green colour or hue to those stimulants of the palate, they are intentionally coloured by means of copper or verdigris, or at least placed for a considerable time in copper or brazen vessels for the purpose of allowing the articles to be impregnated by the joint action of the metal and the vinegar. The cookery books (save and except “_The Cook’s Oracle_”) in vogue also direct the “lovers of good cheer” to boil their pickles in _bell metal or copper pots_, or to boil _halfpence_ or _a bit of verdigris_ with them, in order to impart a green colour! Ought not the authors, whose gender seems “_doubtful_,” and Messieurs les Bibliopoles, of those pests, to be indited for a nuisance and malice prepense to the _loving_ subjects of our late “_good old king_?” The ready way to detect the presence of copper in these articles is to pour a little liquid ammonia, diluted with an equal quantity of water, over a small quantity of the suspected pickle reduced into small pieces, and placed in an enclosed phial or vessel; when, if the pickles contain the minutest quantity of copper, the ammonia will assume a blue colour. VINEGAR. Vinegar is adulterated with sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, nitric acid, oil of vitriol, a variety of acrid vegetable substances, and frequently contains metallic impregnations of lead, tin, pewter, iron, and copper, from the stills or vessels in which it is made. Its more harmless adulteration is a considerable dilution with water.