1853 



THE NARCOTICS WE INDULGE IN. 



57 



pervades it, and to love and worship its Creator. It is for sci- 

 ence, as it leads to this contemplation of nature, and to a stronger 

 sense ot the beauties which God has spread around us, that I 

 would claim your deeper reverence. Let us cultivate science for 

 its own sake, as well as for the practical advantages which flow 

 from it. Nor let it bo feared lest this cultivation of what I may 

 term contemplative science, if prosecuted in a really philosophic 

 spirit, should inspire us with vain and presumptuous thoughts, or 

 disqualify us for the due appreciation of moral evidence on the 

 most sacred and important subjects which can occupy our minds. 

 There is far more vanity and presumption in ignorance than in 

 sound knowledge; and the spirit of true philosophy, be it ever 

 remembered, is a patient, modest, and a humble spirit. 



The Klarcotks we indulge in.' 



II. The Hop which may now be called the English narcotic, 

 was brought from the Low Countries, and is not known to have 

 been used in malt liquor in this country till after the year 152±, 

 in the Keign of Henry VIII. In 1850 the quantity of hops 

 grown in England was 21,668 tons, paying a duty of £'270,000. 

 This is supposed to be a larger quantity than is grown in all the 

 world besides. Only OS tons were exported in that year; while, 

 on the other hand, 320 tons were imported, so that the home 

 consumption amounted to 21,886 tons, or 49 millions of pounds; 

 being two thirds more than the weight of the tobacco which we 

 yearly consume. It is the narcotic substance, therefore, of which 

 England not only grows more and consumes more than all the 

 world besides, but of which Englishmen consume more than 

 they do of any other substance of the same class. 



And who that has visited the hop grounds of Kent and Surrey 

 in the flowering season, will ever forget the beauty and grace of 

 this charming plant? Climbing the tall poles and circling them 

 with the clasping tendrils, it hides the formality and stitfness of 

 the tree that supports it among the exuberant profusion of its 

 clustering flowers. Waving and drooping in easy motion with 

 every tiny breath that stirs them, and hanging in curved wreaths 

 from pole to pole, the hopvines dance and glitter beneath the 

 bright English vineyard, which neither the Rhine nor the Rhone 

 can equal, and only Italy, where her vines climb the freest, can 

 surpass. 



The hop "joyeth in a fat and fruitful ground," as old Gerard 

 hath it (1596). "It, prospereth the better by manuring." And 

 few spots surpass, either in natural fertility or in artificial rich- 

 ness, the hop lands of Surrey, which lie along the out-crop of 

 the green sand measures in the neighbourhood of Farnham. — 

 Naturally rich to an extraordinary degree in the mineral food of 

 plants, the soils in this locality have been famed for centuries for 

 the growth of hops; and with a view to this culture alone, at the 

 present day, the best portions sell as high as X50 an acre. And 

 the highest Scotch farmer — the most liberal of manure — will 

 find himself outdone by the hop-growers of Kent and Surrey. 

 An average of ten pounds an acre for manure over a hundred 

 acres of hops, make this branch of farming the most liberal, the 

 most remaikable, and the most expensive of any in England. 



This mode of managing the hop, and the peculiar value and 

 rarity of hop land, were known very early. They form parts of 

 its history which were probably imported with the plant itself. 

 Tusser, who lived in Henry VIII's time, and in the reign of his 

 three children, in his Points of Husbandry thus speaks of the 

 hop : — - 



Continued from paga 22 



" Choose soil for the hop of the rottenaat mould, 

 Well doonged and wrought as a garden-plot should: 

 Nut far from the water (but not overfloune,) 

 This lesson well noted, is meet to be knowne. 



The sun in the south, or else SDUthlie and west, 

 Is joy to the hop as welcommed ghesi; 

 But wind in the north, or else northerly eas , 

 To hop is aa ill as fray in a feast. 



Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as ie told, 

 Make thereof account, as of jewel of gnld; 

 Now dig it and leave it, the sun for to burue. 

 And afterwards feDse it, to eerve for that turne. 



The hop for his profit, I tl.ua do exall ; 

 It atrengtheneth drink, and favourelh ir.all; 

 And being well brewed, long kep it will last, 

 And drawing abide, if je draw not too last."" 



The hops of commerce consist of the female flowers and seeds 

 of the humulus lupulus, or common hop plant. Their principal 

 consumption is in the manufacture of beer, to which they give 

 a pleasant, bitter, aromatic flavour, and tonic properties. ' Part 

 of the soporific quality of beer also is ascribed to the hops, and 

 they are supposed by their chemical properties to check the ten- 

 dency to become sour. The active principles in the hop consist 

 of a volatile oil, and a peculiar bitter principle to which the 

 name of lupulin is given. 



When the hop flowers are distilled with water, they yield as 

 much as eight per cent of their weight of volatile oil, which has 

 a brownish yellow colour, a strong smell of hops, and a slightly 

 bitter taste. In this " oil of hops" it has hitherto been supposed 

 that a portion of the narcotic influence of the flowers resided, 

 but recent experiments render this opinion doubtful. It is prob- 

 able that in the case both of tobacco and of the hop, a volatile 

 substance distils over in small quantity along with the oil, which 

 has not hitherto been examined separately, and in which the 

 narcotic virtue resides. This is rendered probable by the fac 

 that the rectified hop oil is not possessed of narcotic properties 



The hop has long been celebrated for its sleep giving qualities 

 To the weary and wakeful, the hop-pillow has often given re- 

 freshing rest, when every other sleep-producer had failed. It is 

 to the escape, in minute quantities, of the volatile narcotic sub 

 stances we have spoken of, that this soporific effect of the flowers 

 is most probably to be ascribed. 



Besides the oil and other volatile matter which distil from 

 them, the hop flowers, and especially the fine powdery grains or 

 dust, which by rubbing, can be separated from them, yield to 

 alcohol a bitter principle (lupulin) aud a resinous substance, both 

 in considerable proportions. In a common tincture of hops these 

 substances are contained. They are aromatic and tonic, and 

 impart their own qnalities to our beer. They are also soothing, 

 tranquilising, and in a slight degree sedative and soporific, in 

 which properties we 1-hopped beer also resembles them. It is 

 certain that hops possess narcotic virtue which beer derives from 

 them;* but in what part of the female flower, or in what pecu- 

 liar chemical compouud this narcotic property chiefly resides, is 

 still a matter of doubt. 



* Five Hundred Puints of Guod Husbandry. London eJilion of 1312, 

 P- 167. t 



• Ate was the name given lu unhopped mall-liquor before the u*e of hops 

 was introduced. When hups were added, it was called beer, by way ot* 

 distinction, I suppose, because we imported llie custom tioiu the Low 

 Countries* where ihe word beer was, and is still, in common u;-e. Ground 

 ivy (G/ec/ioma kederacea) called also alehool and tnnhoui, was geneiall 

 en plowed tor preserving ale belnre the use of hops was known. ** Tli 

 manii'ld virtues in hops," says Gerard, in I59t>, "*do manileslly argue ih 

 hoksomeness oi beere above «/c, lor the hops rather make it physical! diiu 

 to keep the body in health, than an ordinary drink tor the queuchuiy of a 

 thirst." 



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