A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customs of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East. As substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood.
- Morewood, Samuel
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customs of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East. As substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![G to receive in this life. The same ceremony is still kept up at Ham- burgh by a religious society of females, called the Blue Sisters. In the case of a capital condemnation, the culprit, who is obliged to pass their convent, while going to the fatal spot, is presented by those pious ladies with a glass of white wine, which, when he has drank, is dashed on the ground by the executioner, that no one may use it ever after; and also to signify regret on the occasion which brought theunhappy mortal to drink of the accursed beverage.* The foun- dation of this custom may have been laid in the injunction of Solomon, as delivered in Proverbs xxxi. 6, “ Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy heart.” In Jeremiah xxv: 16, allusion seems to be made to this practice where the prophet foretels the destruction of Babylon in these words: “ And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them,”—perhaps of a similar nature, was the bowl of wine, called nepenthe, which, Homer tells us, Helen presented to the guests of Menelaus, when oppressed with grief, to raise their spirits and banish care. The composition of this, it is said, she had learned from the Egyptians, and is thus beautifully described by the poet :— ~ ‘Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul, Bright Helen mixed a mirth-inspiring bow] ; Tempered with drugs of sovereign use t’ asstiagé The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage ; Charm’d with that virtuous draught the exalted mind All sense of woe delivers to the wind.” The practice, so prevalent among the Hebrews of mixing their wine with a portion of drugs or bitter herbs, was always with a view to make it stronger and more inebriating, by the addition of more powerful ingredients. The prophets have, in numerous instances, reprobated this practice ; but, the Jews, like the tipplers of modern days, appreciated the pleasures of the bottle by the strength of its . contents. In Habakkuk ii. 15, it is written, “woe to him who maketh his neighbour drunk, who putteth his flaggon to him and maketh him drunken.” In this the prophet is supposed to allude to the conduct of Pharaoh towards king Zedekiah, who made him drunk that he might insult over his weakness. The Rabbins relate that one day Nebuchadnezzar, at an entertainment, sent for Zedekiah, and gave him an intoxicating liquor to drink, purposely to expose him to ridicule. x vache fee ? Get - . * . ~ Wilson's Trav. in Russia, &c. vol. i, p. 23.—-Neal’s Tray. in Germany, &c. p. 25.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33486864_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
