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1904]
238
Altogether 46 samples of alcoholic beverages were examined, and, with
the exception of 10, the brandies were returned as genuine.
Brandy.—There were 19 samples analysed of which 10, or 52.6 per cent.
were returned as containing spirit other than that made from the wine of the
grape, in other words, that they contained rectified or "silent" spirit. The
reports of the Public Analyst resulted in summonses being issued against the
offenders.
These prosecutions were not lightly undertaken, for it was felt that as the
interests involved were so great, a most stubborn resistance would be made by
the spirit trade. The subject had, however, been considered in all its bearings
during the preceding twelve months by the Public Analyst and the Medical
Officer of Health, as well as by the Council's Solicitor, so that when the cases
came on for hearing the prosecution was well fortified with facts and figures to
support their contentions. The prosecutions were looked on as of so great
importance to "the trade," that the association which supplied the sinews of
war for the defence spent nearly £1,000 in providing legal assistance and in
obtaining evidence.
The adulteration of brandy in England with silent spirit is of comparatively
recent date, for it was not until after phylloxera vestatrix attacked the
French grape vine that the practice was adopted, in order to make up
for the shortage in the brandy caused by the diminished output of the wines from
which it was distilled. The result, of course, was that an article was sent into
this country which could not comply with the definition of the word "brandy"
generally recognised here, namely "a spirit distilled in a pot still from wine."
The defence had to admit that the sample about which the test case was
fought did contain rectified or silent spirit, but held that, as this spirit was
itself distilled from wine, therefore, brandy mixed with it was a genuine article.
Now rectified or silent spirit, whether made from wine, or from molasses, or
from grain, or, indeed from anything else, does not contain those so-called
"impurities," that is to say, those ethers and other matters, which give to
brandy its peculiar value, particularly as a medicine, and, therefore, it could
in no sense of the word be brandy; and, as it were, the defendants asked the
magistrate to believe that an article which is not brandy when it is distilled
becomes brandy when it is mixed with that spirit—a proposition which it
was impossible to accept.
When the cases were called on, the Council was requested to select one
of them as a test case which should settle the decision in the remaining cases.