136 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Kent and Sussex are the counties where hops are mostly grown, but large quantities 
are raised in Hampshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire; whilst the finest kinds 
come from a small district around Farnham in Surrey. 
Hops serve three important purposes in brewing :— 
lst. They impart an agreeable flavour to the beer. 
Qnd. They check acetous fermentation, and thus render the beer capable of being 
kept. 
3rd. Their tannin helps to clarify the beer by precipitating the albumen of the 
barley. 
Their active qualities reside chiefly in the golden yellow grains of lupulite with 
which they are covered. According to Payen, the lupulinic grains contain 2 per cent. 
of volatile oil, 10°30 of bitter principle, and 50 to 55 of resin; the scales also contain 
tannin. The volatile oil is acrid, its odour that of hops, and its colour yellowish: it 
is said to act on the system as a narcotic. Lupuline, or the bitter principle of hops, 
is neutral, uncrystallisable, yellowish white, very bitter, and destitute of the narcotic 
property of the oil. 
In the manufacture of beer the tannic acid is of great service, as before explained. 
All genuine beer contains tannic acid. The resin is of a golden yellow colour, and 
is soluble in alcohol. It appears to be the oil changed into resin by oxidisation. 
Recently some fine beer has been manufactured by the use of lupuline extracted from 
hops without the actual addition of the hops themselves, but we doubt the ultimate 
success of the experiment, from the absence of the other constituents which we have 
mentioned beside the lupuline, in the hop. The odorous emanations of hops possess 
narcotic properties, hence the benefit of a pillow of hops for inducing sleep. It 
is a popular remedy in hop countries, and the benefit which is said to have been 
obtained from it by George IIL, for whom it was prescribed by Dr. Willis, in 1787, 
brought it into general use. Hops are given internally in the form of tincture and 
extract, to relieve restlessness consequent on exhaustion and fatigue, and to induce 
sleep in the wakefulness of mania and other maladies, to calm nervous irritation, and 
to relieve pain in gout and arthretic rheumatism. Dr. Farre tells us he finds the 
tincture and extract both very useful in gouty spasm of the stomach. The preparation 
still holds a place in the British Pharmacopeia. The yellow powder, lupuline, is 
administered sometimes in the form of powder or pills. They are aromatic and tonic, 
Tincture of hops has an advantage over opium, in not producing constipation, and in 
not disordering the stomach. Magendie, however, alleges that he never could observe 
any effect on animals, even from preparations of lupuline, and many medical men 
have denied any soporific power in the preparations of hops. Dr. Christison does 
not place much reliance on the efficacy of any of these substances, and says, “‘ Various 
reasons favour the conjecture that whatever hypnotic virtue may be possessed by 
hops, it resides in the volatile oil; and if it be so, the ordinary officinal preparations 
must be inert, and the only good form is either lupuline prepared from hops not too 
ripe and not too long kept, or a tincture made from it before it is injured by age, such 
as the Tinctura Lupuli of the Edinburgh College.” 
The young shoots of the hop, when blanched, by covering them with earth, form an 
excellent substitute for asparagus, and are frequently eaten in the hop district, where 
it is often necessary to remove some of the suckers. The stems of the plant contain 
a large quantity of strong fibre, which may be used for cordage or textile fabrics ; 
but, though rewards have been offered by the Society of Arts for bringing it into use, 
it has hitherto been little employed, jute and hemp being much cheaper and superi 
