substance,
from circumstances which happened in my business as a tavern keeper, but
which are unnecessary to be detailed here; and it was this that induced
me to make inquiry concerning the compounding of the suspected articles.

"The catsup being prepared by boiling in a copper, as is usually
practised, the outer green shell of walnuts, after having been suffered
to turn black on exposure to air, in combination with common salt, with
a portion of pimento and pepper-dust, in common vinegar, strengthened
with some vinegar extract, left behind as residue in the still of
vinegar manufacturers; I therefore suspected that the catsup might be
impregnated with some copper. To convince myself of this opinion. I
boiled down to dryness a quart of it in a stone pipkin, which yielded
to me a dark brown mass. I put this mass into a crucible, and kept it in
a coal fire, red-hot, till it became reduced to a porous black charcoal;
on urging the heat with a pair of bellows, and stirring the mass in the
crucible with the stem of a tobacco-pipe, it became, after two hours'
exposure to an intense heat, converted into a greyish-white ash; but no
metal could be discriminated amongst it. I now poured upon it some aqua
fortis, which dissolved nearly the whole of it, with an effervescence;
and produced, after having been suffered to stand, to let the insoluble
portion subside, a bright grass-green solution, of a strong metallic
taste; after immersing into this solution the blade of a knife, it
became instantly covered with a bright coat of copper.

"The walnut catsup was therefore evidently strongly impregnated with
copper. On informing the manufacturer of this fact, he assured me that
the same method of preparing the liquor was generally pursued, and that
he had manufactured the article in a like manner for upwards of twenty
years.

"Such is the statement I wish to communicate; and if you will allow it a
place in your Literary Chronicle, it may perhaps tend to put the unwary
on their guard against the practice of preparing this sauce by boiling
it in a copper, which certainly may contaminate the liquor, and render
it poisonous."

FOOTNOTES:

[111] Literary Chronicle, No. 24, p. 379.

_Poisonous Custard._

The leaves of the cherry laurel, _prunus lauro-cerasus_, a poisonous
plant, have a nutty flavour, resembling that of the kernels of
peach-stones, or of bitter almonds, which to most palates is grateful.
These leaves have fo