which
they all inhaled. It consisted of pouring vinegar over a red-hot brick,
whereby the aromatic fumes given off had the desired effect when
inspired. Malt vinegar was used for this purpose, as got by the acetous
fermentation of wort. Vinegar is remarkably antiseptic ; it is used as
such in preparing pickles, though nevertheless making the vegetable
albumen thereof hard, and difficult of digestion.
C. S. Calverley (Verses and Translations, 1894) concludes an Ode to Beer thus :—
" But what is coffee but a noxious berry,
Born to keep used-up Londoners awake ?
What is Falernian, what is Port, or Sherry,
But vile concoctions, to make dull heads ache ?
Nay, Stout itself (though good with oysters, very !)
Is not a thing your reading man should take.
He that would shine, and petrify his tutor,
Should drink draught Allsopp, in its native pewter."
The
metal Pewter thus particularised is, or was until lately, an alloy of
Tin and Lead, the latter forming a considerable percentage thereof.
This being so, a dangerous risk has attended the standing of malt
liquor (especially if at all hard), in a pewter pot, because of the
poisonous acetate (or Sugar) of Lead which would become presently
produced in the liquor. But now-a-days Pewter consists mainly of Tin,
hardened by a trifle of Copper ; being sometimes called " tin and
temper." In France the percentage of Lead is restricted by law to 16'5,
as securing an alloy found to be proof against the action of sour
(acetic) wine. Less confidence is to be placed in the pewter pots in
which malt drinks are still served at our English public-houses,
inasmuch as these pots have hitherto been made of " triple pewter," an
inferior metal.
