ALCOHOL. 23 
like that. vast. American. tribe of which it.is said the only extant 
remnants are a chief, a tomahawk, and six gallons of whisky.” 
It is remarkable that the common Acorn, as produced by our 
English Oak tree, has a property which will serve to antidote 
the effects of alcohol. A distilled spirit should be made from 
acorns, as the “ spiritus glandium quercus,” which will materially 
help to control an abnormal craving for intoxicating liquors ; 
also, if taken in doses of from five to ten drops two or three times 
a day, this spirit will prove of immense aid in subduing morbid 
symptoms resulting from abuse of alcoholic drinks. 
With our forefathers an old-fashioned, capacious wine-bottle 
was in vogue, known as a Jeroboam, being so called after the 
King who made Israel to sin. There was so much wine in such 
a big bottle that the topers were made drunk thereby, seeing 
that when once the cork was drawn the bottle could not be 
closed again. A Jeroboam is the largest bottle known. Rubaiyat, 
of Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet, so eloquently and faithfully 
translated by Edward Fitzgerald, glows with fervour about 
good liquor :— 
‘‘ Here, with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, 
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse,—and thou 
Beside me singing in the Wilderness, 
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.’’ 
Beer, as mentioned by Herodotus, was brewed in Egypt 2,000 
years ago. Sir Cuthbert Quilter has found at Luxor, on a 
monolith, the bas-relief of a tankard. Before the time of 
Elizabeth beer was drunk new in England, but in her day the 
farmers had become particular as to maturing their beer, and very 
choice in their ale ; they named their best October-brewing “ Mad 
dog,” or “ Angels’ food,” or ‘ Dragons’ milk,” “ Merry-go- 
round,” and other endearing, or facetious appellations. Ladies 
during the eighteenth century, who were accustomed to drink 
ale, or small beer, or broth at breakfast, did not take kindly to 
tea when it was first introduced as a beverage. We read that 
the family of John Wesley drank small beer at every meal. 
They “ bless’d their stars, and called it luxury.” The addition 
of hops first (1524) converted our English ale into beer. 
Sound beer should be only acid enough to slightly redden 
test-paper of litmus when dipped therein. As Dr. Chambers 
admonishes, ‘‘ the first thing to be guarded against in malt liquor 
is sourness, or, as it is technically termed, hardness. All beer 
