Desultory notes on the origin, uses, and effects of ardent spirit / by a physician.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Desultory notes on the origin, uses, and effects of ardent spirit / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    In some of the South Sea Islands Captain Cooke found the natives using a wine made from the palm tree, which intoxicated very power- fully. The Scriptures mention the planting of the vine as one of the Jirst agricultural processes after the flood, which, according to our calcu- lation, was 4181 years from the present time. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. Andhedrankofthewine, and was drunken. Genesis, ix. 20,21. The promised inheritance was described to the Hebrews in the de- sert, as a land of cot n and toine. Deut. xxxiii. 28. And the Mosaic law is very particular to enjoin a means by which the poorest and most destitute might partake of the fruits :— When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shah not glean it afterward : it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the •widow. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing. Deut. xxiv. 21, 22. When the Hebrew servant was about to leave hi3 employer at the end of the sixth year of his servitude, the law commanded : Thou shalt not let him go away empty :—thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him :—And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman ! Deut. xv. 13, 14, 15. It was denounced also as a punishment for neglect of the laws.— Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them ; but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes : for the worms shall eat them.'''' Deut. xxxiii. 39. Dr. Marshman, in his account of the Elements of the Chinese Grammar, printed at Serampore in 1814, gives a specimen of Chi- nese poetry, in which wine is mentioned. This writing is attributed to the great Yu, who founded the Hya dynasty, and lived to be about one hundred years old. His epoch is stated to have closed 2142 years before the Christian era, or 3975 years from the present date. He is called in the Chinese record, The repairer of the effects of the deluge, which is referred in Chinese History to the year 2230 B. C, or 4063 years from the present time. Wine, says the Chi- nese Chronicle, according to Dr. Marshman, was made by E-teih. Yu drank it, and delighted in it, but, apprehensive of its consequences in succeeding ages, procured its prohibition.'] In A View of China, by the Rev. R. Morrison, printed at Macao in 1817, it is related, that Chow or Chousin, (the last king of the dynasty Yin, about 1480 years B. C.) and his wife Ta-ke, are Mountains, ii. 194. Researches, antiquarian and philosophical, concerning the Aboriginal History of America. By J. H. M'Culloch, Jr. M. D. 1829. t The four precepts of the Chinese divinity Fo, who lived 1100 years B. C. were : 1.. To kill no living creature. 2. To take nothing belonging to ano- ther. 3. To utter no falsehood. 4. To drink no wine. Godania, the deity of the Burmans, who lived about 600 years B. C, gave five commands: 1. Not to kill any thing. 2. Not to steal. 3. Not to commit adultery. 4. Not to speak falsehoods. 5. Not to drink any thing intoxicating.— Sir R. Phillips. 6