of the Common Council contain a certificate from the Lord Mayor to the lords of the council, stating that the wines of a certain "Peter Van Payne" had been drawn off in his presence, and that in eight of the pipes had been found bundles of weeds, in four others some quantities of sulphur, in another a piece of match, and in all of them a kind of gravel mixture sticking to the casks; that they were conceived to be unwholesome and of a nature similar to others formerly condemned and destroyed.*. In "The Search after Claret," by Richard Ames, a thin quarto, the last leaf is occupied by the following advertisement: "If any vintuer, wine-cooper, &c., between Whitechapel and Westminster Abbey, have some tuns or hogsheads of old rich unadulterated claret, and will sell it as the law directs for sixpence a quart, this is to give notice, that he shall have more customers than half his profession, and his house be as full from morning to night as a conventicle or Westminster Hall the first day of term."+

Later, the vintners became more scientific in their operations. Addison (in the Tatler, No. 131, 1710) alluded to a certain fraternity of chemical operators who wrought underground in holes, caverns, and dark retirements to conceal their mysteries from the eyes and observations of mankind. "These subtle philosophers are daily employed in the transmutation of liquors, and by the power of magical drugs and incantations raise under the streets of London the choicest products of the hills and valleys of France; they squeeze Bordeaux out of the sloe, and draw Champagne from an apple."

SPICES-DRUGS.

§ 6. The London pepperers, or spicers, formed a separate guild, and were under special ordinances. The ordinance, A.D. 1316, in Norman-French, has the following regulations :"No one of the trade or other person in his name for him, shall mix any manner of wares, that is to say, shall put old things with new, or new things with old, by reason whereof the good thing may be impaired by the old, nor yet things of one price, or of one sort, with other things of another sort; also, that no man shall dub any manner of wares, that is to say, by putting in a thing that was in another bale, and then dressing the bale up

* Remembrancia, viii., 12th July, 1635.

"The Search after Claret, or a Visitation of the Vintners." A poem in Two Cantos. 2nd Ed., London, 1697. 4to.

again in another manner than the former in which it was first bought, so as to make the ends of the bale contain better things than the remainder within the bale, by reason whereof the buyer may be deceived, and so lose his goods. Also, that no man shall moisten any manner of merchandise, such as saffron, alum, ginger, cloves, and such manner of things as may admit of being moistened; that is to say, by steeping the ginger, or turning the saffron out of the sack and then anointing it, or bathing it in water; by reason whereof any manner of weight may, or any deterioration arise to the merchandise."*

In England the trades of the druggist and the grocer were combined. Drugs and groceries were sold in the same shop, and they were under the same regulations until 1617, when the apothecaries separated themselves from the grocers. Very soon after they had become a distinct body, they began to complain of the frauds and artifices of the grocers, from whom they continued to be supplied with many drugs; and, therefore, established a dispensary for the purpose of compounding the more important preparations themselves. In 1540 the physicians were empowered to search, view, and see the apothecary-wares and stuffs, and to destroy such as they found unfit for use. In 1553 very extensive powers were conferred on the College of Physicians for this purpose. "The four censors, or any three of them, shall have authority to examine, survey or govern, correct and punish all and singular physicians and practisers in the faculty of physic, apothecaries, druggists, distillers, and sellers of waters and oils, and preparers of chemical medicines, according to the nature of his or their offences." The great power of the censors was on more than one occasion abused. In 1724, for example, they burnt the drugs of one "Goodwin," the drugs not having been examined, and the history of the whole affair showing that the act was merely a gratification of private spite. Goodwin petitioned Parliament, and ultimately, it is said, obtained £600 compensation.

The College of Physicians compiled the first Pharmacopoeia, and published it in 1613. Subsequent editions bear the dates of 1621, 1632, 1650, &c. As may be expected, the early editions contain lists of very absurd and superstitious remedies, and have no pretensions to a scientific character.†

Riley's "Memorials of London," p. 120.

+ See "Historical Sketch of the History of Pharmacy." By Jacob Bell. Lond., 1861.

§ 7. In France, from very early times, the general supervision of provisions, as to purity and quality, and the inspection of weights and measures, were under the "police des commissaires,"* and various special statutes were enacted from time to time. Thus, an ancient statute (1292) of the Paris brewers forbade the adulteration of beer; "whoever put into beer baye, pimento or 'poix resine' was to be fined 20 francs, and his brassins were to be confiscated, for such things are neither good nor loyal to put in beer, for they are bad for the head and for the body, for the healthy and the sick." A later statute, dated March 16, 1630, among various sanitary provisions, forbade the use of buckwheat, "yvtoye or other bad matters under a penalty of 40 Parisian pounds." Judges were also to examine the materials before use, in order to see that there was nothing in them impure, heated, mouldy or spoiled. If such were found, the materials were to be cast into the river.†

§8. Flour and Bread.-There were various special regulations as to flour and bread; by an Ordonnance of the Provost of Paris, October 11, 1382, the miller was to grind the corn without mixing it, to increase his fee, with bran, pease, beans, or anything else save that which had been given him to grind. Later, by a decree, dated July 13, 1420, the bakers were forbidden to be millers, it being thought that if they ground the wheat as well as made it into bread, there would be facilities for fraudulent dealing. The punishment of bakers for false bread-whether the falseness were admixture of foreign substances, the use of damaged flour, or simply light weight-was very similar to that of English bakers, except that it partook more of the character of a religious penance. Thus, in 1525, a baker convicted of "false

* "La police des commissaires il est de leurs soins de faire punir le débit des vivres corrumpus, alterez, falsifiez, les faux poids et les faux mesures. Traité de la Police de la Mare. Tom. i. liv. i. titre xi., chap. vi.

"La police des commissaires visitoient les Marchez, et il estoit de leurs soins d'y procurer l'abondance des vivres et des autres provisions nécessaires à la subsistance des citoyens, ils empechoient qu'il ne s'y commist aucune fraude, soit en la qualité ou au prix, soit au poids ou en la mesure, ils estoient principalement chargés de se donner tous les soins a l'égard des grains, du pain, de la viande, et du vin." Loc. cit.

"Que nul meusnier ne soit si osé ne si hardy sur quanque il se peut mefaire envers le roy, en corps, et en biens, de mesler, mettre ou fair mettre en aucune manière es farines des blez qu'ils moudront aucune mixtion ou meslee, pour rendre plus grande mouture, comme de bran, d'orge, de pois, de fèves, ou autres choses quelconques, qui ne soit du blé qui leur sera baillé." Traité de la Police, t. ij. liv. v. titre ix.

bread" was condemned by the court to be taken from the Chatelet prison to the cross before the " Eglise des Carmes," and thence to the gate of Notre Dame and to other public places in Paris, in his shirt, having the head and feet bare, with small loaves hung from his neck, and holding a large wax candle lighted, and in each of the places enumerated he was to make "amende honorable," and ask mercy and pardon of God, the king, and of justice for his fault.* False weights were also often punished by corporal punishment. In 1491 the case of three bakers is recorded, who, having been convicted of selling loaves "too small," were stripped and beaten with rods through the streets of Paris, and were admonished for the future to sell the three kinds of bread ordered by the law, of the weight and quality they ought to be. † In still later times, we find the practice of the courts remarkably severe. In 1699, a baker named Pasquier, was convicted of converting into bread bad and unwholesome flour. Sacks filled with good flour and others filled with bad, had been found on his premises, and it was affirmed that he had mixed the two together. He was fined 500 livres, his oven demolished, and his shop closed for six months with a placard upon it stating the crime and the punishment. ‡

§ 9. Wine. A curious decree of the Provost of Paris, in 1371, compelled the tavern-keepers to permit any one who purchased wine, whether to be drunk on the premises or taken away, himself to see the wine drawn from the cask. The penalty was, for neglect or disobedience to this law, four Parisian pounds, onefourth of which went to any informer.

An Ordonnance of January 30, 1330, forbade the mixing of two wines together; no wine-seller was to give a false name to a wine, or to give a wrong description of its age; the penalty was confiscation of the wine and a fine. Similar edicts were promulgated in 1415, 1635, and 1672. Still the evil did not diminish, and in 1708 two hundred inspectors of wine and drinks were appointed in Paris.

The "Baillie" of Bergheim, in 1718, had condemned to a month's imprisonment one André, who had falsified his wine with some poisonous plant (probably belladonna), and his wife, who had sold the wine, to a month's imprisonment, and a fine of 130 livres. This wine caused the death of one person, and the illness of several who had partaken of it. The sentence having been annulled on the appeal of the condemned to the Superior Council of Alsace, André and his wife were ultimately ordered to be led * Traité de la Police, tome ii. livre v. titre xii.

† Op. cit., tome ii. livre v. titre xii.

Op. cit., t. i. livre iv. titre iv., p. 570.

by two sergeants for one day through the streets of Bergheim, carrying placards both before and behind, with "frelateurs de vin" printed thereon. They had also to pay 30 livres fine, "pour faire prier Dieu pour le repos de l'ane du défunt," and the fine of 130 livres, pronounced by the first judge. council promulgated a very severe decree directed against such practices.

The

It was also forbidden to adulterate wine with litharge, Indian wood, isinglass, "raisin de bois," or other drugs, or mixtures capable of injuring the health of those who drank the wine, under a penalty of 500 livres and corporal punishment. Even the possession of matters likely to be used for adulteration was an offence. So late as 1710, one Denys Porcher and his wife were convicted of conveying barrels of "vin de raisin de bois" into Paris. They were fined 30 livres, the four barrels of wine were spilt on the pavement, and the sentence placarded in Paris and various places around.

*

§ 10. Butter.-An Ordonnance of the Provost of Paris, dated November 25, 1396, forbade the colouring of butter with " 'soucy flowers," other flowers, herbs, or drugs. Old butter, likewise, was not to be mixed with new, but the sale was to be separate, under penalty of confiscation and fine.

The ancient laws of the merchant butter-sellers and fruiterers, confirmed in 1412, reiterated the above, and also forbade the sale of butter in the same shop in which fish was sold. The retail or sale of butter by spicers, chandlers, apothecaries, and generally by all carrying on offensive trades, was made illegal. A subsequent enactment in 1519 confirmed this law.

§ 11. Drugs. The Drug-sellers were also under regulation, and without doubt their practices, with regard to sophistication, were quite on a par with those of other trades. Gargantua in Paris is made to visit the shops of druggists, herbalists, and apothecaries, where he "diligently considered the fruits, roots, leaves, gums, seeds, the grease and ointment of some foreign parts, as also how they did adulterate them-i.e., all the said drugs."+

In the Middle Ages the French apothecaries were at first confounded and amalgamated, as in England, with the merchant spicers; but in 1777 the two trades were separated, and they formed a definite body. In the fifteenth century the shops were little more than open booths, as may be seen from a miniature in "Le Régime des Princes," a manuscript of the fifteenth century, preserved in the Arsenal Library, Paris.

Philip VI., as early as 1336, issued a regulation by which no * Traité de la Police, tome i. livre iv. titre ix.

+ "Rabelais," exxiv., p. 53.