| Description Of Item | Reports on an article by the British Medical Journal, originally published 10 April 1869, about the probable adulteration of beer with cocculus indicus in England, as apparently evidenced by large quantities of cocculus indicus imported into the country. In 1857, the quantity was only ’68 hundredweight’ (3,400 kg, or 7,616 lb), and increased to ‘689 hundredweight’ (34,450 kg, or 77,168 lb) in 1867 and ‘1064 hundredweight’ (53,200 kg, or 119,168 lb) in 1868; enough to adulterate between one to three fifths of the beer consumed in the United Kingdom. The active principle, picrotoxin, is poisonous, but was used to make beer more intoxicating, despite low alcoholic content. The article notes that such a practice was found in Russia (specifically St Petersburg), and in Germany.
From the collection of Thomas Laycock. |