Bitters as a Temperance Drink.
By Editor
The following extract from Good Health will, we think, be of interest to our readers. It is part of a lecture delivered by the editor of the above mentioned journal, at the Lake Bluff Temperance Convention, Aug. 18, 1882:— I have here a test for alcohol: If you drop a little of this fluid into any substance containing alcohol, there will appear a very marked greenish color. Here is a glass vessel containing alcohol. I place a little of the test into it, and there is at once a perceptible change of color. Here is a vessel containing brandy. I need not tell you that it contains alcohol, for you see that the application of the test shows it at once. In the same way I will test the liquid contained in these other vessels which are whisky, ale, gin, and hard cider. You see that the green color is very deep in each one. Here is some beer. I drop in a little of the test, and you see at once a green tinge spreading through the foam that rises up in the tube, and also gathering in the bottom. This is conclusive proof that there is alcohol in beer. I have some other things here that I propose to test. There are a number of good people in the world who would not think of touching a drop of gin or whisky, who do not have the slightest objection to taking a glass of "bitters" every morning. They will recommend you to take a little bitters for your stomach's sake. Here is a bottle of Hostetter's Stomach Bitters. I pour a little of it into this tube and apply the test. You see how green it turns. It has almost as much alcohol in it as Scotch Whisky. Look at this sample of Jamaica Ginger. I put in only a few drops of the test, and it turns as green as the gin. It has just enough ginger in it to flavor the alcohol. Here we have a bottle of "Temperance Bitters," or at least it is advertised as such. This is Dr. Walker's California Vinegar Bitters. The proprietor is taking an active part in the temperance work on the Pacific Coast. He is one of the most zealous advocates of temperance in California, and publishes a temperance almanac to advertise his "bitters" which he declares contain no alcohol. Let me read to you what is printed on the paper that goes around the bottle; "Dr. J. Walker's California Vegetable Vinegar Bitters, The great Blood Purifier and Life-giving Principle. A remedy for Dyspepsia, Indigestion, Consumption, sore eyes, stomach-ache, fits, palpitation of the heart, biliousness, &c., &c., tape, pin, and other worms. No Alcohol enters into the composition of Vinegar Bitters. That curse is not offered for medicine. Nothing but invigorating and purifying herbs give them their wonderful powers to cure." In order to determine the amount of alcohol contained in a bottle of the bitters, I add half a bottle distilled by a chemist, and in this flask you see the product of distillation. By means of the alcoholometer it has been found to contain 20 per cent of alcohol. Now we will apply the test. There is as beautiful a green as you could desire to see. I will guarantee this bottle of bitters to contain five per cent. of alcohol.