Lethal Lozenges and Tainted Tea: John Postgate and the Crusade for Safe Food
by John Postgate, Brewin Books, £11.95, ISBN 1858581788
LEST you imagine that microbiologist John Postgate has penned a tribute to
his own work, this book is actually about his great-grandfather and namesake,
who campaigned for Britain’s 19th-century Food and Drug Adulteration Acts. The
latterday Postgate embellishes Lethal Lozenges and Tainted Tea with
vivid descriptions of adulteration from wilful substitutions and accidental
contaminations to illicit practices that later became orthodox (hops in beer,
chicory in coffee).
Postgate’s Victorian forebear was an austere, self-assured doctor and
academic who…
