WHAT WE EAT, DRINK, AND WEAR.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 834, 6 July 1871, Page 3

WHAT WE EAT, DRINK, AND WEAR.

Under the above heading the " Australian Journal' this month gives the first of a series of articles upon frauds in food, medicine, and clothing, which promit-es to yield some useful information. The present article gives some analyses, by Mr Cosmo Newberry, of several articles amongst teetotal cordials and patent medicines. With regard to these teetotal cordials the article states —" The majority of cordials so called, which are drunk with the greatest complacency by the unsuspecting people who have vowed to drink no alcohol, we find to consist almost wholly of proof spirit. Twejityseven samples, selected without prejudice, give an average of 22.40 per cent. That is to say, in broad and familiar terms, in an average 100 glasses of teetotal cordial there will be twenty-two glasses of proof spirit. If judged by single samples, the delusion perpetrated becomes more apparent. For instance, in a sample of orange bitters, bottled by a well known firm, we find 37.5, or a little more than thirty-seven glasses of proof spirit in every hundred glasses of cordial, while stomach bitters (a teetotal drink) shows on the same reckoning more than thirty-nine glasses. Iu other words, ten totalled, each imbibing in the course of the day ten glasses of the bitters, would by dinner-time have each drunk within a teaspooniul of four glasses of proof spirit, equal at least to eight glasses of undiluted brandy."