FACTS FOR SOCIAL ECONOMISTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4299, 31 December 1874, Page 3

FACTS FOR SOCIAL ECONOMISTS.

“ Coffee as in Pams.”—Paris tourists who luxuriate in cafe noir or au lait should read the 'folio-wing startling revelations from the Prefect of Police regarding the composition of some coffees in the French capital :—Composition 1, grilled bread and coffee husks; 2, chicory powder, sand, pounded brick, and red ochre; 3, roasted chicory powder, softened with rancid butter, and colored with Prussian red; 4, toasted cabbage-stalks and roasted horse-liver. Soda-Water.—The Sanitary Itecwd says that a case rather interesting, legally and socially, will presently come up for decision to the superior courts. A soda-water manufacturer was summoned recently at the Longton police-court for selling as “soda-water” an artificially [crated water, which was found on analysis not to contain a particle of the alkali from which it was named, and further depriving his customer of the antacid ingredient of which he was entitled to expect the benefit. The county analyst certified that the “ sodawater” contained no alkali, and, in fact, was just [erated pump-water. The stipendiary held that here there was a deprivation and not an addition of an essential substance, and therefore no offence under the Adulteration Act. A case for appeal was asked for and granted. Poisoning by Soda-Water. —Of all the improbable sources of poisoning that could be imagined, death in a soda-water bottle would be usually considered the most unlikely. That the habitual use of so innocuous a beverage as aerated water should result in a pronounced case of lead-poisoning is a fact as novel as it is unpleasant. Yet such a case is reported from Lennoxtown, says the Qlasgow News , on good authority, and accompanied by proofs which place the matter beyond the possibility of doubt. A lady in delicate health was ordered to drink freely of soda-water. She did so, and shortly afterwards manifested all the symptoms that could attach to a patient suffering from the effects of poison. Suspicion eventually fell on the soda-water. A bottle was sent for analysis to Dr. Wallace, Glasgow, -with the result that the aerated liquid was found to contain lead in the proportion of nine-tenths of a grain in a gallon. The effect of that is stated in the following sentence of Dr. Wallace’s report : “ Ordinary drinking water is considered dangerous if it contains one-tenth of a grain of lead per gallon, and some authorities consider even one-twentieth of a grain deleterious to health if the water is used continuously for a series of weeks or months.” In the case referred to the patient drank this soda-water to the extent of six or seven bottles daily—swallowing in the same time no less thon threeeights of a grain of lead. This is a serious business, and Dr. Wilson has performed a public duty in making it known, AT searching investigation into the circumstances should follow, for it is out of the question that our population should be poisoned with non-in-toxicants or more avowedly dangerous liquids.