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205
of excellent quality; crystalline, of course, from keeping,
but otherwise as described.
Of two Arrowroots, one was very good indeed.
Three Lards and three Pickles were of good
quality, except that Pickled Onions No. 111 contained
a trace of copper.
And now as to Alcoholic Drinks. The one
sample of Gin, No. 123, was of good quality and
free from lead.
I may venture to remind you that, in former
reports, I have mentioned the presence of minute
traces of lead in Gin. A very interesting illustration
of the power of minute traces of lead in seriously
affecting the human frame, I can now give:— A man
was brought into one of our metropolitan hospitals
afflicted with one of the worst symptoms of lead
paralysis. For some time the physician in attendance
could not in any way account for the man's illness, as
he was not connected with painters' or any other work
in which lead was employed. At length it came out
that the man, in going to his daily work, stopped every
morning early at the same public house, and had a
draught of "dog's-nose," a mixture of ale and gin.