: 
os 
REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. Fe eos 
This table shows admirably the rapid increase, especially in the 
last ten years, of the consumption of malt liquors, and the relative 
decrease in the consumption of the stronger alcoholic beverages. 
- Thus it will be seer that in 1840 the amount of malt liquor consumed 
per capita was a little over one-half the amount of distilled lquor 
consumed; while in 1886 it was nine times as much. The amount 
of distilled liquor consumed per capita has diminished during the 
twenty-six years to one-half, while the amount of malt liquor con- 
sumed has increased very nearly seven times; or, in other words, the 
malt liquors have been driving out the distilled at the rate of about 
.05 gallons per capita each year, and supplanting it at the rate of 
about .38 gallons per capita. 
The average quantity consumed annually for the last three years 
was 609,705,367 gallons, of which 2,100,370 gallons were imported. 
Taking this as a basis, Mr. F. N. Barrett, in the publication above 
mentioned, estimates the amount expended for beer per annum at 
$304,852,683, placing the cost to the consumer at 50 cents per gallon. 
The cost to the consumer of the total quantity of liquors per annum 
he places at $700,000,000. 
It is hardly necessary, after the above showing, to dwell upon the 
importance of this article of daily consumption, or the necessity of 
a thorough acquaintance with its manufacture, composition, and the 
nature and extent of its adulterations. There is no beverage that 
compares with it in the amount consumed by the people except water, 
and possibly milk. But little supervision has been exercised over its 
manufacture and sale, except the rigorous enforcement by the Gov- 
ernment of its demands for a share in the profits of its manufacture. 
THE PROCESS OF BREWING. 
Brewing, or the art of preparing an alcoholic drink from starchy 
grains by fermentation, is of very ancient origin. It was practiced 
by the Egyptians, and the Greeks and Romans learned the art from 
them. Herodotus speaks of the Egyptians making wine from corn, 
and it was undoubtedly practiced by the Greeks in the fifth century 
before Christ, as the use of malt beverages is mentioned in the writ- 
ings of Alschylus and Sophocles, poets of that period. It is also 
mentioned by Xenophon, 400 B. C. The Romans are also supposed 
to have derived a knowledge of the art from the Egyptians, and 
Pliny and Tacitus both speak of its use among the Gauls and Ger- 
- mans of Spain and France. 
It is supposed that the art was introduced into Britain by the Ro- 
mans and acquired from the natives by the Saxons. According to 
Verstigan, “‘this excellent and healthsome liquor, beere, anciently 
called ale, as of the Danes it yet is, was of the Germans invented 
and brought into use.” Ale-houses are mentioned in the laws of 
eee of Wessex, A. D. 680. Ale-booths were regulated by law 
ee LAO. 
- The art of producing an alcoholic drink from starchy seeds seems 
to have been nearly as extensively known and _ practiced among the 
various nations of the earth as the less complex operation of: pre- 
paring a fermented liquor from the juice of fruits and plants con- 
‘taining sugar. Thus the Kaffre races of South Africa are said to 
have prepared for many years a malt liquor from the seeds of the mil- 
let (Sorghum vulgare), going through all the processes of germinating 
the seed, extracting the malt, and fermenting the wort. Inthe north 
