THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL. 



379 



formulae, that the Carthusian and Benedictine monks used to dis- 

 till hundreds of years ago to give to the sick and feeble at their 

 convent doors, or sell to the wealthy invalid who sought their 

 treatment. 



But the curious part of it is not that it should have been used 

 as a. medicine, but that it should have been used as a medicine 

 exclusively. There seems to have been little or no idea of its 

 intoxicating power. In Shakespeare, for instance, there is abun- 

 dant mention of drinking and drunkenness. But Cassio, and fat 

 Sir John, and the rest got tipsy on 

 sack, and canary, and sherry, or, if 

 of lower rank, on ale and beer, but 

 never on spirits. Indeed, the only 

 mention of distilled liquors in all 

 his plays is in Romeo and Juliet, 

 where the old nurse sighs, " Oh, for 

 some strong waters from Venice ! " 

 to restore her energies. As an ex- 

 ample of how long this state of 

 affairs continued I may mention a 

 well-known book, The Countrie 

 Farme, published in England in 

 1616. This large and important 

 work discusses in great detail all 

 the varied occupations of a large 

 country place. It describes care- 

 fully the wine industry, the culture 

 of the vines and grapes, the prepa- 

 ration and the varieties of wine, and, while highly praising good 

 pure wine as a beverage, the author is extremely careful to de- 

 scribe fully and with much emphasis the many evil effects which 

 come from intoxication, and from constant as well as from over- 

 much winebibbing. 



A few chapters further on the author describes the art of dis- 

 tillation. He explains that a still room was a necessary adjunct 

 to a well-equipped country house, and shows curious illustrations 

 of stills, some of them with sixty or eighty retorts on one oven. 

 He mentions the great variety of vegetable and animal substances 

 from which extracts could be and should be distilled, but spends 

 most of his time upon the distillate from wine. " For," says he, 

 " the virtues of aqua vitce, are infinite. It keepeth off fits of apo- 

 plexie it driveth away venime. ... In wet and malarial climates 

 every one should take a teaspoonful, with sugar, before breakfast, 

 to keepe off the ague," and so on. Not one word about intoxica- 

 tion purely as a medicine. 



It is not to be supposed from this, however, that the English 



HOUSEHOLD STILL, COUNTRIE FARME. 



