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DRINKS.
199
numerous.
Some
of
them
will
be
considered
later
on
in
detail.
There
are,
however,
only
three
principal
types
of
fabrication,
—
the
Belgian,
Bavarian,
and
Eng-
lish.
The
beers
of
England,
as
of
France,
and
for
the
most
part
of
Germany,
become
sour
by
the
contact
of
air.
This
defect
is
absent
from
Bavarian
beers.
So
favourite
a
drink
has,
of
course,
been
largely
adulterated.
Taste,
colour,
and
smell
are
frequently
due
to
unscrupulous
falsifications.
Bitterness
is
pro-
duced
by
strychnine,
aloes,
nux
vomica,
gentian,
quassia,
centaury,
pyrethrum,
absinthe,
and
many
other
ingredients.
Colour
is
obtained
by
liquorice,
chicory,
and
caramel
;
and
flavour
by
other
additions,
which
perhaps
it
is
better
not
to
particularize.
Water,
of
course,
is
added
to
beer,
as
to
most
drinks,
to
enlarge
the
quantity
and
therefore
the
price.
Pota-
toes
are
frequently
a
substitute
for
grain.
Potash
is
introduced
to
give
the
much-desired
'"head"
chalk
to
diminish
acidity,
and
chloride
of
sodium,
or
common
salt,
for
the
sake
of
what
is
called
a
piquant
flavour.
It
were
well
if
these
little
eccentricities
of
the
beer
vendors
had
here
their
confine
;
but
the
sacred
hunger
for
gold
has
added,
alas
!
to
these,
virulent
and
narco-
tic
poisons,^
such
as
belladonna
and
opium,
henbane
and
picric
or
carbazotic
acid.
In
the
city
of
London
this
kind
of
adulteration
was
formerly,
it
was
fondly
imagined,
to
some
extent
prevented
by
some
ancient
1
The
world
has
little
altered
since
the
time
of
Martial
(i.
19).
"
scelus
estjugulare
Falernum^
Et
dare
Campano
toxica
sava
mero'^