has been made against the admixture of anything to beer
after it has been manufactured, and excise prosecutions of
publicans for watering beer are not infrequent. Formerly
there was a restriction on the amount of salt that might be
present in beer; this no longer exists. On the other hand it
cannot be said that any injurious materials are being used by
brewers, the brewing industry being, broadly speaking, most
efficiently supervised and controlled by scientifically trained
men. The addition to beer of bisulphate of lime, which is
almost universally practised in England, is not an adulteration
in the ordinary acceptation of the term. The thin beer which
has taken the place of the strong ales of the past generation
contains an insufficiency of alcohol to ensure keeping qualities,
and it is difficult to see how modern English beers could
be sold without the addition of some sort of preservative.
Non-Alcoholic Drinks.---The same remark applies to a good
many of so-called temperance beverages. Of these again it is
hardly proper to speak as liable to adulteration. So-called
sodawater is very often devoid of soda and is only carbonated
water, but the term ``soda-water'' is a survival from the times
when this was a medicinal beverage and when soda was prescribed
to be present in definite amount by the pharmacopoeia. Potash
and especially lithia waters very frequently contain only
mere traces of the substances from which they derive their
names. The sweetness of ginger-beer and often of lemonade is no
longer due to sugar, as used to be the case, but to saccharine
(the toluol derivative), which is possessed of sweetness but
not of nourishment; and since, as an antiseptic, it may affect
the digestion, its use in these beverages is to be deprecated.
Vinegar ought to be the product obtained by the successive
alcoholic and acetous fermentation of a sugary liquor. When
this is obtained from malt or from malt admixed with other grain
the vinegar is called a malt vinegar. Often, however, acid
liquors pass under that name which have been made by the action
of a mineral acid upon any starchy material such as maize or
tapioca, with or without the addition of neat sugar. Dilute
acetic acid, obtained from wood, is very frequently used as
an adulterant of vinegar. When properly purified such acid
is unobjectionable physiologically, but it is improper to sell
it as vinegar. Adulteration of vinegar by sulphuric or other
acids, formerly a common practice, is now exceedingly rare.
Spirits.---By the Sale of Food and Drugs Act Amendment Act,
whisky, brandy and rum must not be sold of a less alcoholic
strength than 25 under proof (corresponding to 43% of alcohol
by volume), and gin 35 under proof (37% alcohol). For many
years the only form of adulteration recorded by public analysts
related to the alcoholic strength, the undue dilution of
spirits with water being, of course, a profitable form of
fraud. No addition of any injurious matters to commercial
spirits has been observed. It was, however, well known that
a very considerable proportion of so-called brandies was not
the product of the grape, but that spirits of other origin
were frequently admixed with grape brandy. A report which
appeared in 1902 in the Lancet on ``Brandy, its production
at Cognac and the supply of genuine brandy to this country,''
served as a stimulus to public analysts to analyse commercial
brandies, and convictions of retailers for selling so-called
brandy followed. It was shown that genuine brandy made
in the orthodox style from wine in pot-stills contained a
considerable proportion of substances other than alcohol to
which the flavour and character of brandy is due; among these
flavouring materials combinations of a variety of organic
acids with alcohols (chemically described as ``esters'')
predominate. For the present a brandy is not considered
genuine unless it contains in 100,000 parts (calculated free
from water) at least 60 parts of ``esters.', As a consequence
a trade has sprung up in artificially produced esters, sold
for the purpose of adding them to any spirit to fraudulently
convert it into a liquor passing as ``brandy.'' The inquiries
into the nature of brandy led to investigations into
whisky. Formerly whisky was made from grain only and obtained
by pot-still distillation, that form of ``still'' yielding
a product containing a comparatively large proportion of
volatile matters other than alcohol. For many years past,
however, improved stills--so-called patent stills--have been
adopted, enabling manufacturers to obtain a purer and far
stronger product, saving carriage and storage. Attempts were
made in England in 1905-1907 to restrict the term ``whisky''
solely to the pot-still product. But the question was referred
in 1908 to a Royal Commission which reported against such a
restriction. A common form of adulteration of whisky is the
addition to it of spirit made on the Continent mainly from
potatoes. This spirit is almost pure alcohol and is quite devoid
of the injurious properties which are popularly but falsely
attributed to it. The substitution of this--a very cheap and
quite flavourless material---for one which owes its value more to
its flavour than to its alcoholic contents, is clearly fraudulent.
Drugs.---To the adulteration of drugs but very brief reference
can here be made. It is satisfactory to record that but very
few of the great number of drugs included in the pharmacopoeias
are liable to serious adulteration, and there are very few
cases on record during recent years where real fraudulent
adulteration was involved. The numerous preparations used
by druggists are mostly prepared in factories under competent
and careful supervision, and the standards laid down in the
British Pharmacopoeia are, broadly speaking, carefully adhered
to. The occurrence of unlooked-for impurities, such as that
of arsenic in sodium-phosphate or in various iron preparations,
can hardly be included in the list of adulterations. In the
making up of prescriptions, however, a good deal of laxity
is displayed; thus, the Local Government Board report of the
years 1904-1905 refers to an instance of a quinine mixture
containing 23 grains of quinine-sulphate instead of 240
grains. A certain latitude in the making up of physicians'
prescriptions must necessarily be allowed, but much too frequently
the reasonable limit of a 10% error over or under the amount
of drug prescribed is exceeded. Certain perishable drugs,
such as sweet spirits of nitre, or others liable to contain
from their mode of manufacture metallic impurities, form the
subjects of frequent prosecutions. The element of intentional
fraud which characterizes many forms of food adulteration
is happily generally absent in the case of drugs. (O. H.*)
ADULTERY (from Lat. adultorium), the sexual intercourse of
a married person with another than the offender's husband or
wife. Among the Greeks, and in the earlier period of Roman
law, it was not adultery unless a married woman was the
offender. The foundation of the later Roman law with regard
to adultery was the lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis
passed by Augustus about 17 B.C. (See Dig. 48. 5; Paul.
Rec. Sent. ii. 26; Brisson, dit Leg. Jul. de Adult.)
In Great Britain it was reckoned a spiritual offence, that
is, cognizable by the spiritual courts only. The common
law took no further notice of it than to allow the party
aggrieved an action of damages. In England, however, the
action for ``criminal conversation,'' as it was called, was
nominally abolished by the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857; but
by the 33rd section of the same act, the husband may claim
damages from one who has committed adultery with his wife in
a petition for dissolution of the marriage, or for judicial
separation. In Ireland the action for criminal conversation is
still retained. In Scotland damages may be recovered against
an adulterer in an ordinary action of damages in the civil
court, and the latter may be found liable for the expenses
of an action of divorce if joined with the guilty spouse as a
co-defender. Adultery on the part of the wife is, by the
law of England, a ground for divorce, but on the part of the
husband must be either incestuous or bigamous, or coupled with
cruelty or desertion for two or more years. In the United
States adultery is everywhere ground of divorce, and there
is commonly no prohibition against marrying the paramour or
other re-marriage by the guilty party. Even if there be such a
prohibition, it would be unavailing out of the state.in which
the divorce was granted; marriage being a contract which, if
valid where executed, is generally treated as valid everywhere.
Adultery gives a cause of action for damages to the wronged
husband. It is in some states a criminal offence on the
part of each party to the act, for which imprisonment in the
penitentiary or state prison for a term of years may be awarded.
In England, a complete divorce or dissolution of the
marriage could, until the creation of the Court of Probate
and Divorce, be obtained only by an act of parliament.
This procedure is still pursued in the case of Irish
divorces. In Scotland a complete divorce may be effected by
proceedings in the Court of Session, as succeeding to the old
ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the commissioners. A person
divorced for adultery is, by the law of Scotland, prohibited
from intermarrying with the paramour. In France, Germany,
Austria and other countries in Europe, as well as in some
of the states of the United States, adultery is a criminal
offence, punishable by imprisonment or fine. (See DIVORCE.)
AD VALOREM (Lat. for ``according to value''), the term
given in commerce to a duty which is levied by customs
authorities on goods or commodities in proportion to their
value. An ad valorem duty is the opposite of a specific
duty, which is chargeable on the measure or weight of
goods. The United States is the one important country which
has adopted in its tariff an extensive system of ad valorem
duties, though it has not altogether disregarded specific
duties; in some cases, indeed, the two are combined. Ad
valorem duties, in the United States, are levied according
to the saleable value of the goods in the country of their
origin, and it is usual to require at the port of entry the
production of an invoice with full particulars as to the
place where, time when, and person from whom the goods were
purchased, and the actual cost of the goods and the charges on
them. Such an invoice is countersigned by the consul of
the country for which the goods are intended. On arrival
at the port of consignment the invoice is sworn to by the
importer. The goods are then valued by an appraiser, and
if the valuation of the appraiser exceeds that which appears
on the invoice, double duty is levied, subject to appeal
to a general appraiser and to boards of general appraisers.
It has been argued that, theoretically, an ad valorem duty is
preferable to a specific duty, inasmuch as it falls in proper
proportion alike on the high-priced and low-priced grades of a
commodity, and, no matter how the value of any article fluctuates,
the rate of taxation automatically adjusts itself to the new
value. In practice, however, ad valorem duties lead to great
inequalities, and are very difficult to levy; while the relative
value of two commodities may remain apparently unchanged under
an ad valorem duty, yet owing to the difference in the cost of
production, or through the different proportions of fixed and
circulating capital employed in their manufacture, an ad valorem
