MEANS OP PREPARING WHOLESOME DRINKS. 279 



variety of drinks more healthy, more agreeable, and better 

 adapted for quenching thirst, than the weak and imperfectly 

 fermented wines made from green grapes. 



I have limited myself in this work to pointing out the 

 simplest methods in which such articles as are within the 

 reach of every peasant may be made use of; if such 

 liquors as are more spirituous be wished for, they can be 

 procured by dissolving from 4 to 6 lbs. of the coarsest kind 

 of sugar, in from 5^ to 10;^ gallons of warm water, and 

 throwing the solution upon the mash when the cask is filled 

 with it.* To this may be added any number of pounds of 

 raisins. 



Liquors suitable for drinking may likewise be manufac- 

 tured from the sap of several kinds of trees. In Germany, 

 Holland, and some parts of Russia, as soon as the returning 

 warmth of spring begins to cause the ascent of the sap, holes 

 two or three inches deep are bored with a gimlet in the 

 trunks of the birch trees ; through the straws which are in- 

 troduced into the gimlet holes there flows out a clear, sweet 

 juice, which, after having been fermented for a few days, be- 

 comes a sprightly liquor, that is drunk by the inhabitants of 

 those countries with much pleasure ; it is thought by them 

 to be very serviceable in counteracting affections of the kid- 

 neys, stomach, &c. A single tree will furnish a quantity of 

 drink sufficient to last three or four persons a week. The 

 natives of the Coromandel coast fabricate their calou from 

 the sap of the cocoa-nut tree. The savages of America 

 prepare their chica from the juice of the maize ; and the 

 drink of the negroes of Congo is made from the juice of the 

 palm-tree. 



It cannot be doubted that the sap of all those trees which 

 afford a saccharine substance can be made to yield a spirit- 

 uous liquor, but I mention only these few as instances, be- 

 cause our own wants may be abundantly supplied from our 

 fruits and grains. 



The fermentation of rye and barley has afforded from 

 time immemorial a liquor, which has supplied the place of 

 wine for the use of the common people in nearly all those 

 countries in which the vine cannot be made to flourish : 

 in those where wine is made abundantly, the use of beer i« 

 still very extensive, both on account of the nutritive quali- 

 ty which it possesses in a high degree, and its power of 

 quenching thirst. Though beer may be brewed upon so 



* Supposing the cask to contain 66 gallons. 



