58 



TOUR FROM MONTREAL TO PORTLAND AND THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 



[1853 



To tlio general reader it may appear remarkable, that the 

 chemistry of a vegetable production, in such extensive use as the 

 hop, should still be so imperfect — our knowledge of its nature 

 and composition so unsatisfactory. But tho -well-read chemist, 

 who knows how wide the field of chemical research is, and how 

 rapidly our knowledge of it, as a whole, is progressing, will feel 

 no surprise, He may wish to see all such obscurities and diffi- 

 culties cleared away, but he will feel inclined rather to thank 

 and praise the many ardent and devoted men, now labouring in 

 this department, for what they are doing, than to blame them 

 for being obliged to leave a part of the extensive field for the 

 present uncultivated. 



Among largely used narcotics, therefore, especially in England, 

 tho hop is to be placed. It differs, however, from all others we 

 have mentioned, in being rarely employed alone, except medici- 

 nally. It its added to infusions like that of malt, to impart fla- 

 vour, taste, and narcotic virtues. Used in this way, it is 

 unquestionably one of the sources of pleasing excitement 

 and healthy tonic action, which well-hopped beer is known 

 to produce upon those who drink it. Other common vege- 

 table productions will give the bitter flavour to malt liquor. 

 Horehound, wormwood, and gentian, and quassia, and strichnia, 

 and the grains of paradise, and chicory,, and various other plants, 

 have been been used to replace or supplant the hop. But none 

 are known to approach it in imparting those peculiar qualities "which 

 have given the bitter beer of the present day so well merited a 

 reputation. 



Among ( ;ir working classes, it is true, in the porters and hum- 

 bler beers, they consume and prefer, the Cocculus indicus finds 

 a degree of favour which has caused it, to a considerable degree, 

 to take the place of the hop. This singular berry possesses an 

 intoxicating property, and not only replaces the hop by its bit- 

 terness, but to a certain extent also supplies tho deficiency of 

 malt. To weak extracts of malt it gives a richness and 

 fulness in the mouth, which usually imply the presence of 

 much malt, with a bitterness which enables the brewer to 

 withhold one-third of his hops, and a colour which aids him in 

 "the darkening of his porter. The middle-classes in England 

 prefer the thin wine-like bitter beer. The skilled labourers in 

 the manufacturing districts prefer what is rich, full, and substan- 

 tial in the mouth. With a view to their taste, it is too often 

 drugged with the Cocculus indicus by disreputable brewers ; and 

 much of the very beastty intoxication which the consumption of 

 malt liquor in England produces, is probably due to this per- 

 nicious admixture. So powerful is tho effect of this berry on the 

 apparent richness of beer, that a single pound produces an equal 

 effect with a bag of malt. The temptation to use it, therefore, is 

 very strong. The quantity imported in 1850 was 2359 cwt, 

 equal to a hundred and twelve times as many bags of malt; and 

 although we cannot strictly class it among the narcotics we 

 voluntarily indulge in, it may certainly be described as one in 

 which thousands of the humbler classes are compelled to indulge. 



It is interesting to observe how men carry with them their 

 early tastes to whatever new climate or region they go. The 

 love of beer and hops has been planted by Englishmen in Ame- 

 rica. It has accompanied them to their new empires in Australia, 

 New Zealand and the Cape. In the hot East their home taste 

 remains unquenched, and the pale ale of England follows them 

 to remotest India. Who can tell to what extent the use of the 

 hop may become naturalised, through their means, in these far-off 

 regions ? Who can predict that, inoculated into its milder in- 

 fluence, the devotees of opium and the intoxicating hemp may 

 not hereafter be induced to abandon their hereditary drugs, and 

 to substitute the foreign hop in their place? From such a 



change in one article of consumption, how great a change in tho 

 character of the people might we not anticipate? 



This leads us to remark, that wo cannot as yet very well ex- 

 plain in what way and to what extent the use of prevailing nar- 

 cotics is connected, as cause or effect, with peculiarities in national 

 character. But there can no longer be any doubt that the 

 soothers and exciters we indulge in, in some measure as the luxu- 

 ries of life, though sought for at first merely to gratify a natural 

 craving, do afterwards gradually but sensibly modify the indi- 

 vidual character. And where the use is general and extended) 

 the influence of course affects in time the whole people. It is a 

 problem of interest to the legislator, not less than to the physi- 

 ologist and psychologist, to ascertain how far and in what 

 direction such a reaction can go — how much of the actual tastes, 

 habits, and character of existing nations has been created by the 

 prolonged consumption of the fashionable and prevailing forms 

 of narcotics in use among them respectively, and how far tastes 

 and habits have been modified by the changes in these forms 

 wdiich have been introduced and adopted within historic times. 

 The reader will readily perceive that this inquiry basin it a valid 

 importance, quite distinct from that which attaches itself to the 

 supposed influence of the different varieties of intoxicating fer- 

 mented drinks in use in different countries. The latter, as we 

 have said, all contain the same intoxicating principle, and so far, 

 therefore, exercise a common influence upon all who consume 

 them. But the narcotics now in use owe their effects to sub- 

 stances which in each, so far as is known, are chemically different 

 from those which are contained in every one of the others. They 

 must exercise, therefore, each a different physiological effect upon 

 the system, and if their influence, as we suppose, extends so far, 

 must each in a special way modify also the constitution, the 

 habits, and the character. 



Our space does not permit us, in the present number, to speak 

 of the use of opium and .hemp ; we shall return to these exten- 

 sively consumed drugs on a future occasion. 



Notes of a Short Tour from Montreal to Portland and the 

 White mountains* 



Although we perceive by a paragraph in the International 

 Journal, that the White Mountain Tour is over, water having, 

 on the night of the 15th ultimo, frozen an inch thick at the Glen 

 House, at the foot of Mount Washington, we have much pleasure 

 in laying before our readers the following Notes of a visit to that 

 quarter by a Member of the Institute, in the hope of its being 

 instrumental in inducing many a Canadian tourist to direct his 

 steps to the same interesting region next season. 



Having a short time ago paid a hasty visit, per rail, to the 

 finely situated and beautiful city of Portland, and had the gratifi- 

 cation of snuffing the exhilirating sea-breeze at Cape Elizabeth, 

 and having also, on my way back, made a detour from Gorham 

 to the lofty summit of the noted Mount Washington, the monarch 

 of the New Hampshire mountains, I would fain recommend to a 

 few of your readers to follow my example, while the season is 

 favourable, as sure to lead to much enjoyment ; so accept, if you 

 please, the following rambling memorandum of my tour. 



For particulars respecting the different places passed en route 

 to Portlan/1, it would be as well to refer to one of the Guide 

 Books* But lest our touiist should not be provided with so 



* The Portland, While Miun.ain, and Montreal Railroad Guide, published 

 at Portland, and to be had at Mr. Armour's, in Great Si. James Street, is 

 recommended, as having been or considerable use to ourselves, in noting 

 down distances, nnd directing our attention to many interesting objects and 

 facts. 



