Transactions. ‘ iN 
If, in one direction more than another, the ingenuity of 
mankind has been exercised in seeking out many inventions, it is 
in that of beverages, even more than in foods. Their name is 
legion. Chemists tell us that we may make whisky out of an 
old shirt, and, short of that, almost every vegetable substance 
has been utilised in the manufacture of drink. The fermented 
juice of the grape is the most ancient as well as, when containing 
no more alcohol than the natural product of fermentation, the 
most wholesome and the safest of all. Other fruits—the apple, 
pear, cherry, orange, &c.—furnish savoury and more or less 
stimulating beverages. Leaving out of view tea, coffee, 
cocoa, maté, and other simple vegetable infusions, with 
ginger ale and the other depressing beverages of its class, 
we find the South American Indians making a _ highly 
intoxicating drink from the juice of a species of aloe, the 
Kast Indians an alcoholic liquor from the sap of the palm, and the 
nations of Northern Europe another from that of the white 
birch. Brandy is distilled from the grape, rum from 
molasses, and mead, ‘‘ the pure beverage of the bee,” the nectar 
of the heroes of the Valhalla, is brewed from honey. The South 
Sea Islanders prepare ava or cava from the large rhizomes of 
Macropiper methysticum, a species of pepper, inapeculiarly repulsive 
way. The old women sit round a tub—the cava bowl—there is 
one at Kew as big as a canoe, chewing the root and spitting it 
into the tub. When enough has been masticated water is added, 
and the mixture well stirred. It is then handed round to the 
guests. The Kamschatdales intoxicate themselves with a very 
poisonous fungus, a variety of Amanita muscaria, an infusion of 
which in milk is used in this country for killing flies. The usual 
way of taking it is to roll it up like a bolus and swallow it with- 
out chewing. One large or two small fungi will, we are told, 
produce a pleasant intoxication for a whole day, particularly if 
water be taken after it, the desired effect coming from one to two 
‘hours after swallowing the fungus. Steeped in the juice of 
vaccinium uliginosum, also a British plant, its effects are like 
those of strong wine. Wood betany, a rare plant in Scotland, 
but found sparingly in this district, is, when chewed, slightly 
intoxicating. It was formerly much used in medicine, but it is 
discarded from modern practice. Notwithstanding this neglect, 
it is, Withering says, not destitute of virtues, among which he 
instances that of being intoxicating when fresh. 
