494 THE DISTILLING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 



THE DISTILLING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 



The Distilling Industry has now reached enormous dimensions in the 

 United Kingdom, but it is only in comparatively recent 

 The Early History times that distilling has attained to the important 

 of Distilling. position which it now occupies. The art of separating 

 alcoholic spirit from fermented liquors appears, how- 

 ever to have been known in the Far East from the most remote antiquity. 

 It is thought to have been first known to, and practised by, the Chinese ; 

 gradually, a knowledge of the art travelled westward, and the word 

 alcohol is supposed to indicate that a knowledge of the method of preparing 

 alcoholic spirit came to Western Europe, like much other chemical learning, 

 through the Arabs. The art of distilling does not seem to have been known 

 to either the Greeks or the Romans, as nowhere in their writmgs, which 

 have survived, is any reference made to alcohol or any distilled spirit, nor 

 have the discoveries of ancient cities and monuments during the last 

 hundred years revealed anything to indicate the existence of a knowledge 

 of distilled alcohol in Rome or Greece. Arnauld de Villeneuve, a physician 

 of the thirteenth century, is the first author who speaks explicitly of an 

 intoxicating spirit obtained by the distillation of wine. He mentions it as a 

 recent discovery, and considers it to be the universal panacea so long sought 

 after in vain. His disciple, Raymond Lully of Majorca, declares the 

 essence of wine to be an element newly revealed to man, but hid from 

 antiquity because the human race was then too young to need this beverage, 

 which, he declared, was destined to revive the energies of modern decrepi- 

 tude. 



France was for some time the seat of the distilling industry of Europe, 

 as her grapes afforded a constant supply of material for the distilla- 

 tion of brandy, but as grain became more plentiful the industry of distilling 

 spirits from corn developed in Northern Europe. 



It seems to be generally admitted that distilhng was practised in Ireland 

 at an earlier period than in Great Britain. When 

 T»* +*ir rf • T 1 A Henr}^ II. in the twelfth century invaded Ireland, the 

 Distilling in Ireland, inhabitants were observed to be in the habit of 

 making and using an alcoholic liquor called Usque- 

 baugh (Uisge-beatha, water of life), a term which is consequently synony- 

 mous with the classical aqua vitae. A description of the virtues of Usque- 

 baugh, and a recipe for making it are contained in the Red Book of Ossory, 

 and it is known that the Irish were in the habit of distilling spirits from 

 malt. The word Whiskey is a somewhat modern corruption of Usquebaugh. 

 Johnson, in his famous dictionary, states that this word is " an Irish or Erse 

 word v/hich signifies the waters of life. It is a compounded distilled spirit 

 being drawn of aromatiks, and the Irish sort is particularly distinguished 

 for its pleasant and mild flavour. The Highland sort is somewhat heavier, 

 : and by corruption in Scotch they call it Whiskey." 



