The country in which it is Practised.

Excuse for the Indian tribes and Chinese.

ation, and alike insensible to their own interests and the enormity of the crime of which they are guilty, in making this havoc of the land and its produce, for the indulgence of a vitiated taste.

As we have quite omitted, so far, to mention the name of this economical nation, perhaps the reader may feel a degree of curiosity on that point, and as it would be uncharitable not to gratify any curiosity we may have excited, we will tell him, that should he be an Englishman, it is his own enlightened country. One million acres of the richest land of England and Wales alone, are annually devoted to the growth of barley, for the purpose of malting, and fifty thousand acres more to the rearing of the pernicious hop, in addition to what is wasted for the production of cider; while foreign grain is constantly being shipped from America and the continent, to supply us with the necessary quantity of wheat for bread, to those who can afford to buy it! We need not, in truth, wonder at, and cannot blame, either the untutored savage, or the benighted inhabitant of China, for the bad judgment that the one manifests in his pursuit of husbandry, and the recklessness of the other in the gratification of his propensity for stimulus, when the vaunting people of England, priding themselves on an unprecedented degree of knowledge and unequalled intelligence, thus madly sacrifice the very means of subsistence for the manufacture of various beverages, ale, beer, porter, gin, &c., the use of which destroys the effects of the best efforts of the wise and good, and retards the progress of society.

Malting.

SECTION II.

Process of Barley intended for malting, is steeped in water for about forty-eight hours, by which time it becomes thoroughly soaked. It is then taken out, and laid upon a flag-floor in heaps, that it may germinate, which it does, just as though it were sown in the earth. When germination has proceeded to a certain extent, it is checked by removing the grain to the hot floor of the malt kiln, upon which it is spread out in a layer of about six inches in thickness, and every portion of it subjected to a uniform degree of heat, by constant raking and turning during a period of eight or nine days. By this process, the grain is made to undergo an almost complete

Malt not

Barley.

chemical change; for of the six simple compounds, gluten, starch, sugar, gum, resin, and hordein, which it contained, only one (resin) is now found in the same proportion which prevailed in the natural state of barley.

Excess of Sugar in malt

tion to form alcohol.

of malt for

Porter.

The saccharine principle, or sugar, which existed previously, in the proportion of five to ninety-five of other its destrucelements, is increased to fifteen. This principle, when abstracted from the malt by the process of brewing, and subjected to fermentation, undergoes another chemical change, and the ultimate elements of which it is composed, by a different combination, form the subtle spirit known as alcohol,* which is the only substance besides the hop, in pure ale or beer, that possesses the power of intoxication. In ale of fair quality, alcohol exists in the ratio of about eight per cent. Porter, according to Dr. Thomson, differed formerly from Preparation ale, in being prepared from malt dried at a higher temperature than that designed for ale, by which it acquired a brownish color, and a bitterish taste, of which the liquor of course partook. Subsequently, however, he says, the same effects were found to result from the admixture of certain drugs; which was the more profitable practice, as a greater quantity of stronger liquor could be made from the malt, when not over dried. This liquor originally was termed strong beer, but received its present appellation from the partiality manifested for it by the porters of London. According to Professor Brande, London porter contains four per cent. of alcohol.

Another of the fermented liquors in use in most countries, as well as in England, is "Wine," of which there are numerous species, or descriptions. Some of these are British preparations, such, for instance, as elderberry wine, goose berry wine, cowslip wine, &c., which being first fermented, and afterwards receiving an addition of brandy, are each made to have an intoxicating quality; but by far the most numerous class of wines, and the most generally used, are imported from the southern states of Europe; where they

* The elements, or materials, of which Sugar and Alcohol are composed are exactly alike-oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen-the difference in nature arising from the difference in the relative proportion of each element. Thus, in Sugar, oxygen exists in the proportion of about 50.63, carbon 42.47, hydrogen 6.90, total 100.00. In Alcohol oxygen is found in the proportion of about 34.79, carbon 52.17, hydrogen 13.04, total 100.00.

Wines.

Constituents of Sugar

of Alcohol.

Port wine.

are manufactured from the juice of the grape, which, while in its natural state, is as free from alcohol and all intoxicating qualities as pure water. The grape contains a greater amount of sugar than barley, or malt, and, consequently, its juice, when fermented, produces a greater amount of spirit.

The celebrated port wine is made in the province of Upper Douro, in Portugal; where it is said, by a very recent traveller, that the must, or fresh unfermented juice, is expressed from the grape by being trodden under the feet of men, who are accustomed to go habitually without either shoes or stockings, and are an exceedingly filthy and dirty race; as may be judged, when he states, that their children and pigs are to be seen lying together in the mire—the one being equally as clean, decent, and christian-like in appearance, as the other. No trouble, whatever, is taken to cleanse Preparation. the feet and legs, previous to entering the press; which is, no doubt, considered altogether unnecessary, seeing that all the dirt that has been adhering to them since the preceding vintage, must be effectually washed off in the first process of making this delectable beverage.

Delightful

ness of its

The strength

of wine increased by the

addition of

Brandy.

Cider.

Distilled
Spirits.

In other instances, a pressing machine is employed in separating the juice from the grape; which, as it is thus released, flows from an aperture at the bottom of the press, into a receptacle, in which it undergoes the process of fermentation. This last process being completed, and a certain quantity of additional spirit added to it, in the form of bad brandy, it is put into pipes, or barrels, for exportation, or for home use. Port contains from nineteen to twenty-five per cent., and upwards, of alcohol, which is equal to from thirtyeight to fifty per cent. of proof spirit.

Cider is a fermented liquor consumed to a great extent in certain districts in England and America. It is made from an inferior species of the apple, which being crushed in a mill, the juice and pulp are fermented; resulting in the product of a liquor, combining acidity (or tartness) with sweetness in unequal proportions; the former having the ascendancy.

Another description of intoxicating beverages in common use in this country, America, and the north of Europe, and more or less in every part of the world, are the distilled liquors, brandy, geneva, (or gin), rum, whisky, &c.: the fundamental principle of each of which is alcohol. The use of

Origin of distillation.

Etymology of
Alcohol.

these liquors, as beverages, is comparatively of very recent date, the discovery of the art of separating the spirit from fermented liquors, by distillation, not being made earlier than the ninth or tenth century; when it is said to have been revealed by an accident, though its origin is involved in much obscurity. The Arabian chemists, however, having discovered it, gave it the name of al-kohol, by which it is known at present. The two last syllables of this term (kohol,) the preposition of which (al) signifies "the," was applied to an impalpable powder with which it was the custom to blacken their eyebrows, for the purpose of giving a better expression to the countenance, and is supposed to have been applied to the newly discovered spirit of wine, in consequence of its subtlety. But another conjecture has been offered respecting the etymology of alcohol, by the author of "Nuces Philosophica," and quoted and contained in the "History of Alcohol," which seems more entitled to general acceptance than the sition respectabove, as "it unites both sense and sound."*

Novel and more plausible suppo

ing it.

Scriptural its support.

evidence in

It is founded upon the eastern superstition of the earth's being infested with wicked spirits, which are supposed to roam about, in various assumed shapes, plotting mischief for the living; "and sometimes even entering the body, and possessing it, as it were, with a devil." Hence, the scriptural expression, relative to the maniac: "One that was possessed of a demon." These they called gouls, spelt, occasionally, ghoul and ghole; and when anything fearful was heard, or seen, which was imagined to be supernatural, they would exclaim: "Al ghole, al ghole!" The evil ghost, the evil ghost! And it is quite natural, as Dr. E. Johnson contends, that upon witnessing the first effects of their newly discovered alcohol upon the human constitution, they would imagine the person to be possessed of a devil, which had either assumed of the people the form of the liquid, or entered the body along with it, in which case, they would naturally enough exclaim, in their fright, "Al ghôle, al ghôle !" "And it seems very probable," he remarks, "that a fluid, capable of producing such extraordinary effects, should continue for some time to be supposed to be an evil spirit in disguise, as it were; and when this notion was laid aside, the great evil which this liquid devil was observed to work among men, would still be likely to cause it to retain its name of AL-GHÔLE, or the evil spirit.

* Vide Dr. Lees' "Illustrated History of Alcohol,” pp. 1, 2.

Superstition

in favor of it.

tion from the

Easy transi- Our manner of spelling it, is no objection to this etymology; original to the for alghôle, might easily be corrupted into alkohol; thus— alghole, alghol, algohol, alkohol."

present term.

of Alcohol as

It is not improbable, considering its stimulating power, that this superstitious belief had something to do with the fact, that it was so little made use of for the space of four Application hundred years; when it was at last introduced to the medicine a medicine. chest, by a physician in the south of Europe, named Arnoldus De Villa, who wrote in favour of its medical virtues. By the joint efforts of De Villa and his disciple Raymond De Lully, a native of Majorca (born in 1234), it was quickly adopted, as a medicine, by the faculty of all the most enlightened states of Europe, under the name of aqua-vitæ, (water of life), so called, from observing its stimulating effects after being taken into the system, which they mistook for reinvigoration. That it continued to be used with the frugality of a medicine for a great length of time, is apparent from the writings of later authors, whose experience of the properties of alcohol, seems not to have been so extensive as to expel the delusive notion of its health-renewing virtues. Thus, in the sixteenth century, one, writing under the name of Theoricus, in praise of its sanative qualities, gives the following Extravagant enumeration of its remedial powers:-"It sloweth age, it respecting its strengtheneth youth, it helpeth digestion, it cutteth flegm, it tues. abateth melancholy, it relisheth the heart, it lighteneth the mind, it quickeneth the spirits, it cureth the dropsy, it healeth the strangury, it pounceth the stone, it expelleth gravel, it puffeth away ventosity, it keepeth and preserveth the head from whirling, the eyes from dizzling, the tongue from lisping, the mouth from snaffling, the teeth from chattering, and the throat from rattling; it keepeth the weason from stifling, the stomach from wambling, and the heart from swelling; it keepeth the hand from shivering, the sinews from shrinking, the veins from crumbling, the bones from aching, and the marrow from soaking." How little this extravagant eulogium was merited, says Dr. Henderson, is shown by the experience of these later times. Another writer, of the above class, adduces a most singular proof of A remarkable its remarkably congenial properties; for he says: "It will burn, being kindled.”*

notions

medical vir

whim.

From such exaggerated panegyrics, as the above, it was

* Vide Northern Counties Journal, New Series, No. 1.