Glossary · History
Devonshire colic
Definition
An epidemic of lead poisoning in the eighteenth-century West Country, traced to lead used in cider mills, presses and vessels, and identified as such by the physician George Baker in 1767.
- Subject
- History
In more detail
Baker’s work is a landmark in occupational and food-borne toxicology: he connected a regional pattern of illness to the lead lining of presses and to lead shot and glazes used in cider handling, against considerable local resistance. The identification led to lead being removed from cider equipment.
It is the strongest historical reason to be sceptical of the romance of old equipment. Traditional practice was not automatically benign, and some of it was actively harmful.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Faults
Metallic taint
A metallic or inky taste and, in some cases, a haze, caused by iron or copper picked up from unsuitable equipment. Both metals also catalyse oxidation.
History
Truck system
The practice of paying farm labourers partly in cider rather than wholly in money. It was widespread in the West Country and the three counties and was progressively outlawed by the Truck Acts of the nineteenth century.
History
Pound house
The farm building in which apples were pounded, pressed and fermented — the West Country name for the cider house, from the old verb to pound, meaning to mill.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
Somerset Rural Life Museum — cider collections
South West Heritage Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24