The anatomy of drunkenness / By Robert Macnish.

  • Robert Macnish
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of drunkenness / By Robert Macnish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/278 (page 17)
    It is a common belief that wine was the only inebri- ating liquor known to antiquity; but this is a mistake. Tacitus mentions the use of ale or beer as common among the Germans of his time. By the Egyptians, likewise, whose country was ill adapted to the cultiva- tion of the grape, it was employed as a substitute fox- wine. Ale was common in the middle ages; and Mr. Park states that vexy good beer is made, by the usual process of brewing and malting, iix the interior of Africa. The favourite drink of our Saxon ancestors was ale or mead. Those worshippers of Odin were so notoriously addicted to drunkenness, that it was re- garded as honom-able rather than othenvise; and the man who could withstand the greatest quantity was looked upon with admiration and respect: whence the drunken songs of the Scandinavian scalds; whence the gloi-ies of Valhalla, the fancied happiness of whose in- habitants consisted in quaffing draughts from the skulls of their enemies slain in battle. Even ardent spirit, which is generally supposed to be a modem discovery, existed from a veiy early pei-iod. It is said to have been first made by the Arabians in the middle ages, and in all likelihood may lay claim to a still remoter origin. Alcohol was known to the alchymists as early as the middle of the twelfth century, although the process of preparing it was by them, at that time, kept a profound