Frederick Accum has an interesting article on the "Adulteration of Beer:" in his book published nearly 100 years ago. He says:

Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favorite beverage of the inhabitants of London, and of other large towns, is amongst those articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently committed.

The statute prohibits the brewer from using any ingredients in his brewings, except malt and hops; but it too often happens that those who suppose they are drinking a nutritious beverage, made of these ingredients only, are entirely deceived. The beverage may, in fact, be neither more nor less than a compound of the most deleterious substances; and it is also clear that all ranks of society are alike exposed to the nefarious fraud. The proofs of this statement will be shown hereafter.

The author of a Practical Treatise on Brewing, which has run through eleven editions, after having stated the various ingredients for brewing porter, observes "that however much they may surprise, however pernicious or disagreeable they may appear, he has always found them requisite in the brewing of porter, and he thinks they must invariably be used by those who wish to continue the taste, flavor, and appearance of the beer. And though several Acts of Parliament have been passed to prevent porter brewers from using many of them, yet the author can affirm, from experience, he could never produce the present flavored porter without them. The intoxicating qualities of porter are to be ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it. It is evident some porter is more heady than other, and it arises from the greater or less quantity of stupefying ingredients. Malt, to produce intoxication, must be used in such large quantities as would very much diminish, if not totally exclude, the brewer's profit.

The practice of adulterating beer appears to be of early date. By an Act so long ago as Queen Anne, the brewers are prohibited from mixing cocculus indicus, or any unwholesome ingredients, in their beer, under severe penalties; but few instances of convictions under this act are to be met with in the public records for nearly a century. To show that they have augmented in our own days, we shall exhibit an abstract from documents laid lately before Parliament.

These will not only amply prove, that unwholesome ingredients are used by fraudulent brewers, and that very deleterious substances are also vended both to brewers and publicans for adulterating beer, but that the ingredients mixed up in the brewer's enchanting cauldron are placed above all competition, even with the potent charms of Macbeth's witches:

"Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark,

"For a charm of pow'rful trouble, "Like a hell-broth boil and bubble; "Double, double, toil and trouble, "Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

1 A Treatise on the Adulteration of Food, London, 1820.

The fraud of imparting to porter and ale an intoxicating quality by narcotic substances, appears to have flourished during the period of the late French war: for, if we examine the importation lists of drugs, it will be noticed that the quantities of cocculus indicus imported in a given time prior to that period, will bear no comparison with the quantity imported in the same space of time during the war, although an additional duty was laid upon this commodity. Such has been the amount brought into this country in five years, that it far exceeds the quantity imported during 12 years anterior to the above epoch. The price of this drug has risen within these 10 years from 2 shillings to 7 shillings the pound.

It was at the period to which we have alluded, that the preparation of an extract of cocculus indicus first appeared, as a new saleable commodity, in the price-currents of brewers'-druggists. It was at the same time, also, that a Mr. Jackson, of notorious memory, fell upon the idea of brewing beer from various drugs, without any malt and hops. This chemist did not turn brewer himself; but he struck out the more profitable trade of teaching his mystery to the brewers for a handsome fee. From that time forward, written directions, and receipt-books for using the chemical preparations to be substituted for malt and hops, were respectively sold; and many adepts soon afterward appeared everywhere, to instruct brewers in the nefarious practice, first pointed out by Mr. Jackson. From that time, also, the fraternity of brewers'-chemists took its rise. They made it their chief business to send travelers all over the country with lists and samples exhibiting the price and quality of the articles manufactured by them for the use of brewers only. Their trade spread far and wide, but it was amongst the country brewers chiefly that they found the most customers; and it is amongst them, up to the present day, as I am assured by some of these operators, on whose veracity I can rely, that the greatest quantities of unlawful ingredients are sold.

The Act of Parliament prohibits chemists, grocers, and druggists, from supplying illegal ingredients to brewers under a heavy penalty, as is obvious from the following abstract of the Act:

No druggist, vender of or dealer in drugs, or chemist, or other person, shall sell or deliver to any licensed brewer, dealer in or retailer of beer, knowing him to be such, or shall sell or deliver to any person on account of or in trust for any such brewer, dealer or retailer, any liquor called by the name of or sold as coloring, from whatever material the same may be made, or any material or preparation other than unground brown malt for darkening the colour of worts, or beer, or any liquor or preparation made use of for darkening the color of worts or beer, or any molasses, honey, vitriol, quassia, cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, Guinea pepper or opium, or any extract or preparation of molasses, or any article or preparation to be used in worts or beer for or as a substitute for malt or hops; and if any druggist shall offend in any of these particulars, such liquor preparations, molasses, etc., shall be forfeited and may be seized by any officer of Excise, and the person so offending shall for each offense forfeit 500 pounds.