red beet-root, strychnine, sloe leaves, spermaceti, star anise, sulphuric acid, sugar of lead, tansy, tumeric, tannic acid and wormwood.

The vineyards of the great wine-producing countries have been devastated for the last twenty years by the phylloxera, and it is a matter of record that the quantities of wine actually produced in certain famous districts have been vastly decreased by this insect's ravages; yet wines of every kind and name have become more plentiful than before. (See PHYLLOXERA.) It has long been notorious that particular countries, like England and the United States, consume more pretended champagne, port, sherry, Madeira, etc., than the districts where these special kinds of wine are made yield.1

A form of adulteration very generally in use among the makers of spurious

wines is called "fortification."

To a

quantity of wine raw alcohol is added, and the strength of the resulting compound is reduced and its bulk very much increased by liberally diluting it with water. Thus by a very simple process the dishonest dealer swells his stock and

enhances its marketable value. No secret

is made of the "fortifying" method. The California wine-makers, while advertising their brands as "pure" and "straight,” have been so bold in demanding cheap alcohol for "fortification "pur poses that they have made a political issue of the matter; and during the Congressional session of 1890 a measure was enacted providing that spirits required by wine manufacturers in their business should not be subject to the Internal Revenue tax. Spain formerly imported from England about 1,600,000 gallons of spirits annually, by far the largest part of which was used to "fortify" the celebrated Spanish wines; but Germany offered a cheaper article, manufactured from beets and potatoes, and the adept Spanish vintners then preferred the German alcohol to the British.2

The presence of the most deleterious

Before the Select Committee on Wines (House of Commens, 1352). Cyrus Redding stated that though the annual export of port wine amounted to only 20,000 pipes no less than 60,000 were consumed, a goodly amount being concocted out of Cape wines, cider and brandies. etc., most of the spurious being concoe ed in the London docks, presumably for exportation.-Foundation of Death (New York, 1987), p. 48.

* On the authority of Mr. Vizitelly, British Wine Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition.

substances in well-nigh all the wine offered for sale has been repeatedly shown by careful investigation. A striking instance is reported by George Walker, formerly United States Consul-General at Paris. The Municipal Laboratory of that city, during the ten months ending December, 1881, tested 3,001 samples of wines, and found 1,731 to be "bad," 991 "passable," and only 279 "good." (U. S. Consular reports, vol. 6, p. 559.)

ADULTERATIONS OF MALT LIQUORS. The adulterations of malt liquors, though perhaps not executed with so much nicety as is needed in falsifying wines, scale. In England the rascally practices are perpetrated on an equally extensive of the brewers have at various times in the last 200 years occasioned the passage ation. of special legislation against beer adulterParliament passed an act forbidding In the reign of Queen Anne brewers, under severe penalties, to employ cocculus indicus or any other deleterious ingredients. In 1817 the Government found it necessary to establish more rigid provisions, and prohibited the use of molasses, honey, licorice, vitriol, quassia, cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, Guinpreparation of the same, or any substitute ia pepper, or opium, or any extract or for malt or hops, under a penalty of £200; and no chemist or vendor of drugs was permitted to sell, send or deliver things to a brewer or retailer of beer under a penalty of £500." 3

66

any such

The cocculus indicus berry, stronger than alcohol in its poisonous action, is the favorite adulterant used by brewers to give fictitious strength to their product. The growing increase in the importation of cocculus indicus into England prompted the London Lancet to say, March 2, 1867:

"If it be true that we English consume about 900 000,000 gallons of beer every yearan increase of about 40 per cent. in ten yearsample opportunity must exist for adulteration in this particular article of general and every. day consumption. It has been asserted over and over again that one of the ingredients is cocculus indicus. Though we are not aware of any actual proof of its use. there is the most conclusive evidence that it is largely sent into this country, and that it is not used for medicinal purposes. What becomes of it? In 1865, 9.400 lbs. were imported, enough to adulterate 120.000 bbls. of beer; and in an old treatise we find full directions given for its employment in Encyclopædia Brittanica, article on "Adulteration,"

the manufacture of porter. The only inference that we can possibly draw is, that it is used by the brewers surreptitiously. Unfortunately there is no duty imposed upon the drug, which is very much to be regretted. As it is rot employed as a medicine, and is known to possess most deleterious qualities, and suspected to be used for the doctoring of beer, it seems to us facts and to ask that some steps may be taken to prevent the possibility of its being used at all in England."

most advisable to call attention to the above

Again (Feb. 21, 1874), the Lancet, commenting on a statement in the Pharmaceutical Journal that 1,066 bags of cocculus indicus had been imported in a recent month, said that there need be "no hesitation in affirming that a very large portion of it is put into malt liquor to give it strength and headiness," and that "a viler agent could not well be introduced into beer than the berry, the stupefying effects of which are so well known that it is frequently used to kill fish and birds." The object of using the cocculus indicus and other injurious substances, like picric acid, aloes, quassia, buckbean, gentian, phosphoric acid, alum, copperas, glycerine, oil of vitriol, sulphate of iron, etc., is, of course, to give the maximum strength and flavor to the beer at the minimum cost.

The brewers stoutly resist every attempt to legislate against adulteration. In 1890 the United States House of Representa tives had under consideration the Turner bill, prohibiting the use by brewers of any ingredients other than malt, hops and yeast. The Committee on Ways and Means granted a hearing (June 12) to persons interested in the measure, and Col. H. H. Finley, arguing in favor of its passage, cited advertisements of various adulterants that had appeared in the Brewers' Journal (chief organ of the brewing interests of America). At this hearing the United States Brewers' Association was represented by Dr. Francis Wyatt, a chemist, and by William A. Miles, Chairman of its Executive Committee, and both gentlemen earnestly opposed the bill and declared that the brewers wished to avail themselves of the resources of science without hindrance.

ADULTERATION OF SPIRITUOUS LIQ JORS.

Spirituous liquors are adulterated by using inferior alcohol and terrible acids, especially tannic, acetic, pyroligneo's and pyroxylic acids, and the oil of creosote,

together with glucose, essence of angelica, oil of vitriol, etc. In the natural process of distillation a comparatively long period is required for ageing the liquor, but by unscrupulous means the distillers are able to artificially ripen their spirits and thus avoid the necessity of keeping them for several years. The whiskey manufacturers are constantly striving to produce the maximum quantity of whiskey per bushel of grain. Formerly a gallon and a half per bushel was the average amount obtained, but now three, four and five gallons are extracted from a bushel. This increase is obtained partly by applying a higher heat in distilling the grain, and that necessarily implies a much greater percentage of impurities in the resulting liquor, and especially a larger quantity of fusel oil. Liquors sold as brandy, gin and Jamacia rum are almost invariably fraudulent articles, vilely compounded. "The greater portion of the brandy of the United States," says Dr. William A. Hammond, " is made here from whiskey, and nine-tenths of the rest is manufactured in France and England in the same way. Liquors called brandies are thus made which are not worth a ninth part as much as brandy." 1

The United States Consul at Bordeaux, in 1882, George Gifford, made a detailed investigation concerning French brandies, and wrote, in an official report: "All French brandy might and perhaps ought to be excluded from the United States on sanitary grounds. A general measure excluding the article would seem, therefore, to be the only effective defense against the admission of a poison for which our people pay one or two million dollars a year, besides the import duty, which in the case of an impure article is over 100 per cent. of its invoice value."

Some writers and speakers, in discussing the drink question, maintain that the enactment and rigid enforcement of laws for suppressing adulterations would go far towards correcting the worst evils of the liquor traffic. Accordingly "Pure Wine" laws have been passed in New York and California, and various provisions against adulterations are contained in the statutes of other States. These measures are of no practical value: no prosecutions are conducted under them,

1 Treatise on Hygiene (New York, 1863), pp. 553-4.

and they are helpful rather than harmful to the "trade," because in the absence of arrests and convictions the drink-dealers are able to plausibly claim that no adulterations are practiced. The political power of the liquor men is sufficient to prevent any honest crusade by the authorities against adulteration.

On the other hand, the organized temperance people, recognizing that the active principle of evil in all intoxicating drinks is alcohol more than any other drug or poison, or all others combined, and that an extension of the alcoholic habit would undoubtedly result if the public could feel assured of the purity of the liquors on the market, have generally manifested indifference to the demand for anti-adulteration laws.

Advent Christian Church. - No action on the Prohibition question has been taken by the National Association of this church at any annual meeting for several years. This statement is made on the authority of the editor of the World's Crisis, the leading denominational organ.

Africa. The home of aboriginal tribes, the greater part of Africa has been comparatively free from the liquor curse until recent years. It is true native intoxicants have been and are prepared from the sap of the palm and other substances, and African travelers have described the gross debauchery witnessed at times; but there is every reason to believe that the African native did not acquire an adequate realization of the corrupting power of alcoholic stimulants until brought into contact with the traders of Christian nations. In the portions of In the portions of the continent conquered by the Mohammedans, and ruled by them for centuries, the advent of new institutions was not attended by a systematic introduction of the drink habit, although the Moslem peoples of Africa gradually yielded to the alcohol vice and (especially in Tunis, Tripoli and other parts of the Mediterranean coast) became free drinkers. During the pre-Mohammedan era of civilization in Africa, however, intemperance was prevalent from the remotest ages.

MEDITERRANEAN COAST COUNTRIES.

Egypt.-It is believed that the ancient Egyptians were the earliest brewers, and

it is known that they had establishments for the manufacture of intoxicating beverages several centuries before Christ. The Egyptian monuments picture the wine-press and vineyard, and the various aspects of intoxication. Mohammedan dominion in Egypt began in the year 640 A. D., and continued without serious interruption until Bonaparte's invasion in 1798. The country then began to lose its purely oriental character, and none of the Western innovations were regarded with greater solicitude by the inhabitants than the wine and spirit shops established by the French. Since then, enterprising tradesmen from all European nations have overrun Egypt; and in every city, most of the large towns and many of the smallest villages, there are places devoted to the sale of liquors, in connection with other merchandise. Probably a majority of the liquor traders in Egypt at present are Greeks. In Cairo, at the beginning of 1890, there were 1,320 cafes, of which 180 were kept by Europeans, and in every one of these European shops liquors were for sale; while of the 1,140 cafes kept by The values of wines, spirits and beer imnatives, only 287 had liquors in stock. ported into the country for ten years are given as follows: 1877, $700,570; 1878, $821,565; 1879, $861,125; 1880, $921,720; 1881, $1,163,830; 1882, $1,299,095; 1883, $1,721,615; 1884, $1,733,605; $1,951,405; 1886, $1,815,605. figures are only approximate, the exact the Custom House officials. In 1884, 787 quantities imported not being known to the Custom House officials. In 1884, 787 cases and 8,223 barrels of beer, valued at £20,215, were sent by the British Government for the use of the Army of Occupation, and in addition to these quantities, a great deal of liquor was furnished to the army by contractors and others. the drinks of native manufacture, araka is the chief, taking its name from a word that means "to sweat." It is distilled

1885, These

Of

from grapes or dates, and the proportion of alcohol contained in it varies from 10 to 30 per cent. Another common drink, used by the lower classes and Nile

boatmen, is booza, a sort of beer brewed from wheat, barley or bread. The worst intoxicant in Egypt is hasheesh, obtained from the leaves and capsules of hemp, and consumed by smoking. It is estimated that about two-thirds of the insanity of the country is due to hasheesh. The

importation of the drug is prohibited, but it is smuggled through the Custom House and introduced in ingenious ways. There is as yet no Government complicity with the liquor traffic in Egypt, and no organized "liquor power," the sale being practically free. But with the increase of the foreign-born population, and the growing acceptance of Western ideas and customs by the Copts and Mohammedans, the liquor drinking habit is spreading. Several temperance societies have been established in connection with the work of the American missionaries, but aside from them there are no organized agencies for counteracting the evil.1

Algeria, etc.-In the other countries of Northern Africa bordering on the Mediterranean, the injunctions of the Koran against the use of intoxicants are treated with small respect by the Mohammedans, and the constantly growing influence of the French and other Europeans is uniformly exercised for extending the liquor trade in all its branches. The common beverage is the palm wine, obtained from the date palm by means of incisions made at the base of the trunk. This drink is intoxicating, and being so easily procured is used by well-nigh everybody and works sad havoc among the people. The Jews in Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco are extensively engaged in the drink traffic and in wine production. Formerly the Algerian farmers were content to use their lands for cultivating food staples, but discovering from the experience of the planters of Tunis that viniculture was much more profitable, they

have devoted themselves to it in recent years, so that large vineyards have been laid out in both countries, and the growing of grapes for wine is rapidly becoming the chief occupation of the peasantry. The Mohammedans do not scruple to participate in this industry. The vineyards of the Jews of Jerba Island, Tunis, produce wines which connoisseurs are said to compare with "those of Samos and Santorin," while the wine manufactured in Algeria has been for years more or less famous. Large companies have been formed in Algeria to clear land and plant vineyards thousands of acres in area. The estimates of the wine-yield of Algeria are conflicting. M. Tisserand, in

1 For the particulars about Fgypt the editor is indebted to Rev. J. O. Ashenhurst, an American missionary at Cairo.

1885, in the Journal of the Statistical Society (London), placed it at 22,000,000 imperial gallons for the year 1884. In the latest edition of Mulhall (1886) it is stated that the Algerian vintage at the time of that publication was only 9,000,000 gallons. The United States Consul at Marseilles (France), in a report dated Feb. 27, 1889, placed the vintage of 1888 in Algeria at 72,072,788 gallons, ranking that country after Italy, France, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Austria and Russia among the wine-producing nations of the globe. It is probable that the larger estimates are nearer the truth-at least that they represent more reliably than the smaller figures the quantities of stuff produced and sold as wine in Algeria. That country is now fully controlled by the French, whose ingenuity is increasingly taxed to supply the world's demand for French wines, and who are taking advantage to the utmost of the capabilities of their African provinces.

MADEIRA, THE CANARIES AND AZORES.

Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores, the important islands off the west coast of Africa, are celebrated for their wines. In the 16th century the principal industry of the Madeira Islands was sugar-cane cultivation, but this gradually gave way to viniculture, the grape-vine having been introduced from Candia in the 15th century. The finer grades of wines produced, known as dry Madeira and malvoisie, soon acquired a reputation, and in 1820, when the prosperity of the Madeira winemakers was at its height, the total yield was 2,650,000 gallons, valued at about $2,500,000. In 1852 the odium attacked the vineyards and did great injury, and ten or twelve years later the phylloxera made its appearance, and again the vines

were wasted. But Madeira continues to export wine, or wine blended with the ordinary white wine of Portugal, or with cider or alcohol, or even the juice of the sugar-cane.

The quantity exported in about $640,000. The islanders of the 1884 was 353,000 gallons, valued at Canaries formerly made large shipments of excellent sugar to Europe, but like their Madeira neighbors they turned have been ravaged by insects within the their attention to wines. Their vineyards have been ravaged by insects within the last thirty years. There have been simi

The Earth and Its Inhabitants, vol. 8, p. 503.

lar vicissitudes in the Azores, where, up to the middle of the present century, a white wine of indifferent quality was abundant. In the Azores orange groves have replaced the ruined vineyards, but the distilling business is attaining importance, sweet potatoes and yams being used.

EAST AFRICAN COUNTRIES.

Abyssinia, etc.-Along the Upper Nile and in the lake regions the natives have had but little intercourse with the commercial representatives of Christian civilization, and have not yet experienced the horrors of the "white man's drink." Nearly every tribe brews a rude beer, or prepares a beverage of some sort, but these inland people have lacked opportunities for reducing themselves to the depths of degradation by means of the most potent stimulants. In Kaffaland the common cereals, wheat, barley and haricots, are not in general use as aliments for man, but are fed to cattle and converted into beer. In Abyssinia beer is brewed from dakussa, the most widely distributed grain, although in some parts of this country (especially among the Harrari) an intoxicant is prepared from a mixture of bark and dried leaves. In former years the vine (probably transplanted from Europe) was extensively cultivated in Middle Abyssinia. Some of the wines obtained (notably those of Ifag and Koarata) were from plants brought in by the Portuguese, and were highly esteemed.

But these vines were nearly all destroyed by the odium. It is said by some travelers that King Theodore co-operated with this insect in its work, uprooting the vineyards on the ground that wine ought to be reserved for beings superior

to mortals.

In the countries of the east coast the practices of the people in reference to intoxicants differ widely. Throughout the Somali territory (excepting in the Ogaden country, in Central Somali, where a fermented drink is prepared from camel's milk) the use of alcoholic drinks is prohibited. In the country of the Masai, south-west of Somali and west of Zanzibar, where "the physical type is one of the finest and noblest in the whole of Africa," the natives have learned by experience that intoxicating liquors and

1 The Earth and Its Inhabitants, vol. 4, p. 364.

tobacco tend to debase man physically and morally; and there is a rigid prohibition against them. The African Lake Society, founded in 1878 and trading in the region of Lake Nyassa, is forbidden by the terms of its charter to furnish any intoxicants to the natives.

Madagascar. By royal decree and recent enactments, prohibition of the trade in spirits is also the law in the province of Imerina in the island of Madagascar, this province being inhabited by the Hovas, the most powerful of the Madagascar natives. Before the introduction of Christianity into Madagascar by the London Missionary Society, there was much intoxication among the people, who consumed a fermented drink made from the sweet sap of trees. The first sovereign who became a Christian ordered that all the trees yielding this sap should be cut down, and this radical action put an end to drunkenness until the Governments of Great Britian and France, at the demand of a few sugarplanters in Mauritius, who distilled rum from the refuse of their mills and sought a convenient market for the stuff, compelled Madagascar to consent to the importation of liquors. Ten per cent. of the liquors imported from abroad belongs to the reigning sovereign of the Hovas, but Queen Ranavalona II. steadfastly refused to derive a revenue from the demoralization of her people, and always had her share poured out upon the ground at the landing-place at Tamatave. The present queen, Ranavalona III., also objects to the liquor traffic within her dominions, and is solicitous for a modification of the treaty stipulations; but both France and Great Britain have so far refused to grant relief, and upon these nations rests the responsibility for the resulting degradation.

2

The editor is indebted to Mrs. Mary Clement Leavitt for the facts about Madagascar.

We quote the following from Archdeacon Farrar, based, in part, upon information given in the report of a recent British and Colonial Temperance Congress:

"In 1800 the Malagasy were a nation of idolaters; now, thanks in great measure to the London Missionary Society, they are a nation of Christians. They loved, they almost adored the English who had done so much for them. Unhappily, however, Mauritius became a sugar-producing colony, and rum was made from the refuse of the sugarmills. What was to be done with it? It was not good enough for European markets, and Madagascar 'was made the receptacle for the damaged spirit of the colony!' They received the curse in their simplicity, and it produced frightful havoc. The crime of the island rose in one short year by leaps and bounds to a height too fearful to record. The native Government was seized with consternation, and the able and courageous King, Radama I., paid