348 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 
The German custom of “zuirinken” as well as the English-Am- 
erican custom of treating, if abused, are liable to become a 
serious danger and detriment to the life of a nation. It is 
against this nuisance that the Nuremberg city ordinance of 1526 
is directed. 
The English expression “Dutch treat” or ante-treat explains 
very well that the laws enacted against this harmful custom 
centuries ago have indeed been effective in Germany as far as 
the general public is concerned. The practice is unknown in 
Germany nowadays except in the German Universities where 
this old custom of drinking to another’s health in utter disregard 
of his health, is still alive and is at times carried “ad dbsur- 
dum.” 
Uext to the custom of tattooing the face of a student who is 
too much impressed by his *own importance, in the most 
friendly, although not always in the most artistic manner with 
a rapier or sword, it is considered the most effective means of 
correcting the neglected education of an unruly member of a 
fraternity who finds it hard at times to submit to rules and 
regulations, that to his mind interfere with his rights as an 
individual. 
The Nuremberg ordinance refers to a law passed in 1512 by 
the German Diet at its session in Cologne. 
This diet is known as the Trier-cologne diet, since it had its 
first session in Trier and its concluding Session in Cologne. 
This imperial law, issued for the whole realm, reads as follows: 
(I quote from Willy Scheel, Johann von Schwarzenb erg’s Das 
Buchlein von Zutrinken. Halle 1900.) 
“Although at former diets the custom of treating has been for¬ 
bidden more than once in the most emphatic way, the law has 
not been obeyed, nor duly enforced and carried out. Therefore 
and especially, since treating is conducive to drunkenness, and 
drunkenness leads to blasphemy, manslaughter and a great 
many other vices, because those that indulge in this habit en¬ 
danger their honor, their souls, their mind, their body and their 
property—the authorities, high and low, lav and ecclesiastical in 
all the territories of the realm, shall do away amongst them- 
