If I recall correctly from my tour of Pompeii, there were stores that
offered hot wine during the winter months. The wine was warmed in big lead
casks. The big treat was to get the last swig from the cask, which contained
a slurry of lead salts that had precipitated out of the wine when it was
warmed in the lead casks. MMM mmmm good.

Daniel Snow
PhD Student
UC Berkeley

'82 Vanagon Diesel
'78 Puch Maxi Luxe Moped
'72 Motobecane Mobylette Moped
'01 Xootr Scooter

>From: Hector Zapata <hector.zapata@XRXGSN.COM>
>Reply-To: Hector Zapata <hector.zapata@XRXGSN.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: interesting TRUE facts
>Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 07:47:58 -0700
>
>
>  Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid
>  content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
>  poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so, for
>  Bread was divided, according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom
>  of the loaf, the family got the middle, head of the house, his
>  eldest son and guests got the top, or, "upper crust."
>
>  Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would,
>  sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along
>  the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp