HOPS. 



CHAPTEK I. 



HISTOBY, BOTANY, ECONOMIC USES, AND CHEMISTRY OF HOPS. 



THE hop, so extensively cultivated here and in other countries 

 for the use of the brewer, and so well known to every house- 

 keeper for culinary use, was not unknown to the ancients, 

 being mentioned by the Arabian physician Mesue, who lived 

 about 845. Hops were apparently first used for beer in 

 Germany and in the Dutch breweries about the year 1400, 

 their properties and uses being well understood. It was 

 introduced into England from Flanders in 1524, but its 

 strobiles were not used to preserve English beer, until about 

 the year 1600. Henry VIII., in 1530, forbade the breweries 

 to mix hops in their beer, and somewhat later Parliament 

 was petitioned by Londoners to prohibit their use, " as they 

 would spoil the taste of the drink, and endanger the people." 

 Beckmann ('Hist, of Inv.,' vol. iv. p. 386) states that 

 plantations of hops had begun to be formed in England A.D. 

 1552. They are first mentioned in the English Statute-book 

 in that year, viz. in the 5th and 6th Edward VI., c. 5 

 (repealed 5 Eliz., c. 2), an Act directing that land formerly 

 in tillage should again be so cultivated, but excepting, 



