PETROLEUM AS A BEVERAGE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1318, 19 January 1887, Page 6

PETROLEUM AS A BEVERAGE.

A man has been discovered in San Francisco who habitually indulges in petroleum, and from his own account is very partial to the beverage.

Mr Lee, the gentleman in question, can, we are creditably informed, be found in his usual haunt in one of the side streets of the city at any hour of the day and a fair proportion of the night. Tbe drink and the manner of taking it is thus described : ' The barman, in answer to his request to " give me a little of the usual," drew a mug half full of beer and then set out a tin can with a spout to it, such as are used to fill lamps with, and which contained petroleum. Lee poured about two ounces of the kerosene into the half-glais of beer, and then with a careless " Here's luck," poured tbe contents down his throat. Lee was shortly afterwards asked to have another drink, and, in response, called for a " cocktail," which was made up of peppermint bitters, a few drops of gin, and about half the quantity of petroleum. No -water was added to the compound, which Lee drank off with evident gusto.' Lee is a man of about forty- five years of age, and appears to enjoy excellent health. When started on his favourite hobby — petroleum as a beverage — he will, we are told, talk for hours of his twelve years' experience of it.

He says that it is an infallible cure for all lung diseases, for the reason that it clears those organs of the clogging phlegm and other matter that is at the root of all their disorders.

' The trouble with the doctors,' said Lee, " is that they are always trying to build a lung up, instead of cleaning it out. When your watch gets dirty the jeweller doesn't make a new one ; he just cleans it well. That's what ought to be done with a bad lung. When a man gets to wheezing with bronchitis or asthma, or any of these things, just pump a good dose of petroleum oil into him. The first time he takes it the chances are ten to one he'll retch, but the fumes will get to his lungs, and in a little time he's as good as ever.' Iv answer to a question as to the effect of sawdust, which he also prescribes, Lee said that it was rich in turpentine, and 'some people with weak stomachs can take it when they couldn't get petroleum far enough down to have any effect.' Lee says he discovered the medi-

cinal properties of sawdust by accident. ' When I was in the army there was an officer in my company with weak lungs, and when we got into the mountains he was everlastingly chewing the gum and pitch out of fir and pine trees. Then he was always free from coughing, which he never was in tbe plains. 1 Afterwards I was in the navy, and one night I was ashore with one of tny chums, who suffered fearfully from asthma. We turned in together, and in the night he started a fit of coughing. He shouted for water, and tbe only thing I could find was a bottle in the sink outside. The bottle, though I didn't know it at the time, had petroleum iv it. I filled it with water from the tap, the oil, of course, com- j ing to the top, and gave him the bottle. He took a good drink before j he found out what it was. My chum j nearly died vomiting ; but after it i was over be went to sleep as peacefully as a child, and tbe next day was better than he had been for years. llt struck me like a flash, and after softening the oil with some liquor I got him to try it again. He kept on with it, and from that day to this he has never been troubled with asthma/ ' You wouldn't think that my lungs were weak ?' be asked, sounding the lowest note of his basso-profundo. 'Well, they are naturally so; but petroleum keeps them in working order. 1