GIN. 337 
Mayerne (1645) cured patients deplorably afflicted with epilepsy, 
when every other tried remedy had failed. His dictum was 
“let the patient carry a bag of these berries about with him, 
and eat from ten to twenty of them every morning for a month, 
or more, before breakfast. The berries should be well masticated, 
and the husks either rejected, or swallowed. In France the 
Geniévre (Anglice ‘ Geneva”), from which we derive our word 
“Gin,” is made from these berries. But at present English 
Gin is more cheaply manufactured by leaving them out altogether, 
and giving the spirit their flavour by distilling it with a portion 
of oil of turpentine, which somewhat resembles the Juniper 
berries in taste. Again, much so-called Gin is fabricated out 
of silent spirit tinctured with Juniper, salt and turpentine. The 
“ Gin fizz” of Philadelphia is a drink composed of Gin, lemon- 
juice, and effervescing water, with, or without sugar. Gin 
applied externally is destructive to parasites. Carlyle was 
eruelly severe on Charles Lamb, against whom he attributed 
“an insuperable proclivity to Gin.” ‘Poor old Lamb’s talk 
is contemptibly small, and usually ill-mannered to a degree, 
a ghastly make-believe of wit! A Cockney to the marrow.” 
The famous Dr. Samuel Johnson, though often rough, and surly 
as a bear, had in reality a tender heart, and his charity was 
unbounded, though he was never rich. He would fill his pockets 
with small cash, which he distributed to beggars, in defiance 
of political economy. When told that the recipients of his 
money only laid it out upon Gin and tobacco, he replied that 
it was savage to deny them the few coarse pleasures which the 
richer folk disdained. Because of its diuretic action in pro- 
moting a free flow of urine, whether by reason of its admixture 
with Juniper, or through its containing turpentine, Gin is of 
signal use for helping to relieve some forms of dropsy ; which 
affection is not of itself a disease, but symptomatic of obstructed 
circulation in the liver, the heart, or the kidneys. This being 
the case, any remedial treatment must of course be directed to 
the particular organ at fault in every case, whether one of those 
already named, or the brain, the pleura, or the abdominal 
peritoneum. Certain signs serve in a measure to indicate the 
kind of dropsy which is present; that of the kidneys declares 
itself by swelling at first in the face, and the upper extremities, 
with puffiness of the loose tissues about the eyelids ; that of the 
heart begins with swelling of the feet, and ankles, which gradually 
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