ALCOHOL; ITS HISTORY, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON SOCIETY.
By W. H. Riley, M.D.
By W. H. Riley, M.D., Superintendent of Colorado Sanitarium, Boulder, Colo.
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History of the Use of Alcohol.
(Continued.)
FOR some hundreds of years after its discovery, alcohol was distinctly the most valuable product of chemistry. The old alchemists went wild over it. They wondered at its power in dissolving oils and resins and balsams, calling it oleum vini and balsam universalis, and making with it varnishes and perfumes and cosmetics, by the sale of which they replenished their not overfilled purses. They admired the clear, colorless, smokeless flame with which it burned, and named it sulphur coeleste, in contradistinction to the ordinary or earthly sulphur, which burns by no means so pleasantly. They used it as a preservative; they used it for the preparation of their chemicals; and, above all, they used it as a medicine.
Under the name of aqua vitæ, or "water of life," alcohol was considered the best medicine known in those times. It was the great remedy for every malady to which human flesh was heir. We have this interesting testimonial as to its esteemed value: "The virtues of aqua vitæ are infinite. It keepeth off fits of apoplexie. It driveth away vermin. . . . In wet and malarial climates every one should take a teaspoonful, with sugar, before breakfast, to keepe off the ague, etc." Prof. Arnoldus Villanova, in the fourteenth century, made a panacea of the "water of life," which was said to have the virtue of "giving sweet breath, fortifying the memory, besides being good for sore eyes, the toothache, gout, etc."
In the seventeenth century, however, people learned that alcohol was an intoxicant, easily and cheaply manufactured, and it ceased to be used solely as a medicine. Hitherto alcohol had been made from wine, and was therefore expensive; now it was found that beer would serve the same purpose, and barley being cheaper and more plentiful than grapes, alcohol was now obtainable by all. Great distilleries arose in different places, especially at Schiedam, in Holland, and great quantities of cheap and fiery spirits were soon being poured out. This industry was encouraged in England, on the ground that it encouraged agriculture, and by the year 1700 England was flooded with liquor at very low prices.
"The results were most disastrous. London streets abounded with gin-shops, and one could actually find placards on them reading, 'Drunk for a penny; dead drunk for twopence; clean straw for nothing.' The effects on the common people were so marked that all thoughtful persons were alarmed by it. In the wet, temperate climate of England, people might drink heavily of beer or wine, and still retain in fair measure their health and their capacity for work; but under the reign of gin, vice and misery and disease increased so fearfully that Parliament finally passed a law practically prohibiting its use. This famous 'Gin law,' passed in 1736, is interesting as the earliest severe blow at liquor-dealing among civilized nations. It levied a tax of twenty shillings a gallon on spirits, and a license of fifty pounds for any one selling or dealing in it. And, being in advance of public opinion, it failed, much as other more stringent laws have failed in our own day.
"To evade the law, apothecaries sold it in vials and small packages, sometimes colored and disguised, generally under false labels, such as 'Colic Water,' 'Make Shift,' 'Ladies' Delight.' There were printed directions on some of these packages—e.g., 'Take two or three spoonfuls three or four times a day, or as often as the fit takes you.' Informers were very prominent and exceedingly offensive, inventing snares to catch lawbreakers for the heavy rewards, and spying and sneaking around in a way particularly distasteful to the English mind. In consequence, they suffered in their turn. The mere cry, 'Liquor spy,' was enough to raise a mob in the London streets; and the informer was lucky if he escaped with a sound thrashing and a ducking in the Thames or the nearest horse-pond. Indeed, such an outcry was made about the matter that the ministry became very unpopular, and the law was not enforced after two or three years, and was largely modified in 1743, after seven years' trial."