A RETIRED wholesale liquor-dealer recently said to an interviewer from the N. Y. Times: "More than two-thirds of the stuff sold for brandy in this country is the meanest kind of poison. It is manufactured from an oil of cognac. In most of the gin sold there will be found oil of vitriol, oil of turpentine, oil of almonds, sulphuric ether, and extract of grains of paradise. You can purchase oils and essences from which 'whisky of any age' can be procured. This style of whisky when tested will show sulphuric acid, caustic potassa, benzine, and nux vomica, and other poisons. This is the sort of stuff that bores into the coatings of the stomach and creates ulcers. In porter you will find opium, henbane, capsicum, cocculus indicus, copperas, tobacco, and sulphuric acid. In beer,—alum, opium, nux vomica, green copperas, vitriol, sub carbonate of potash, and jalap are used. Cocculus indicus is used largely in cheap beer. Three grains will produce nausea and prostration: ten grains will throw a strong dog into convulsions. Fox-glove and henbane are used for about the same purposes as cocculus indicus. Oil of vitriol is used to increase the heating qualities of liquor, wormwood is used for its bitter and stimulating qualities, green copperas gives porter a frothy 'head.'" "In astringent wines you find alum, Brazil wood, oak sawdust, lead, and copperas. Sugar of lead and arsenic are also used in wine. In pale sherry, sulphuric acid, prussic acid, and alum are among the 'harmless' ingredients used to give color and the appearance of age."—Christian Instructor