240 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



coction of hops, when drunk, opens the 

 stoppings of the Ever, the spleen or milt, 

 and purgeth the blood from all corrupt 

 humours, principally by urine ; it is therefore 

 good for those of gross scorbutic habits." 

 He adds, " that the young shoots, eaten as 

 salad in the month of March, have the same 

 virtues, and that the juice of hops is a great 

 purifier of the blood." 



Haller, from Isidorus, says, that the first 

 experiment of putting hops into beer, was 

 made in Italy. It does not appear that they 

 were used by the English, in the composition 

 of malt liquor, until after Henry the Eighth's 

 expedition against Tournay, about the year 

 1524. We therefore conclude, that the art 

 was learnt during that enterprise. In the 

 following reign, hops are first mentioned in 

 our statute book, viz. in the year 1552 (5 

 and 6 Edward the Sixth, cap. 5.), and by an 

 Act of Parliament of 1603, the first year of 

 James the First (cap. 18), it appears, that 

 hops were then produced in considerable 

 quantity in England. But this vegetable- 

 bitter has been subject to caprice, as well as 

 other plants ; for, an opinion prevailing that 

 hops possessed deleterious qualities, the City 

 of London petitioned Parliament, to prevent 



