UMFAMILIAR INTOXICANTS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 4 June 1901, Page 4

UMFAMILIAR INTOXICANTS.

It ie probable that the first vice which primal man acquired was drunkenness. Scientists tell us that man and a certain microbe are the only organisms that take naturaliy to alcohol. Ot course there arc exceptions. Individual domestic animals —dogs, donkeys, horses, and elephants—will occasionally acquire a taste for intoxicants 1 but, as a rule, animals will not touch them. But, as Byron says, Man, behig reasonable, must get drunk. The word reasonable here should be reasoning, for without a more or less highlydeveloped power ot reasoning neither man nor any other animal can get drunk, for the simple reason that intoxicants do not grow, but have to be made, The alcoholic liquors with which we in England are familiar are not very many. In fact, the lower classes as a rule only indulge in beer, gin, rum, brandy, and whiskey. Ot port and other wines they know little more than the names, if'they know these. But there are many intoxicants made in this country which are hardly even seen outside the localities where they are manufactured. For example, there is the grand old drink of the Vikings—mead. It is made from honey, fermented, and though it docs not taste as if were of any particular strength, it”* B stronger than the oldest ale, and the unsuspecting imbiber will find himself quite suddenly laid out after a couple of ordinary glasses. This liquor is made plentifully in Huntingdonshire and in some parts of Wales, as weli as in other countries. But the Londoner knows it not. He even believes that it is a drink like sack, which nobody knows how to make. Yet, baring its intoxicating effects to those not used to it, it is one of the most wholesome and palatable alcoholic beverages in existence.

Another drink not much known in England, but common in the United Slates, which conceals the most intoxicating qualities beneath a mild taste, name and appearance, is what in the States is known as hard cider. One gets it, though rarely in Somersetshire. A glass ot it would upset a strong man who is not used to it. In some parts of the country a fiery and potent spirit is made from plums. It is manufactured and sold surreptitiously and can bo made either from ordinary cultivated plums or from the wild greengage, which in Huntingdonshire is called a “ crack.” This spirit is water-white,, and the taste for it is an acquired one, for to the uninitiated it resembles methylated spirit, There are many varieties of beer made in England, where it is only known and appreciated. Heather beer is one of these. It is getting uncommon now, as the older people who knew the recipe are gradually dying out, and the younger generation are content with the ordinary beer at the village inn, arsenicatcd or otherwise.

Many of tho old English drinks survive in out-of-the-way villages. They are unattainable to tho ordinary traveller, one reason for ttiis being that, unless he be a pedestrian tourist, he will never probably strike tho places where these old brews arc made, and oven if ho should,'tlrey are not sold at inns, though they may be made there for private consumption only. Their chief manufacturers arc old housekeepers to small farmers and cottagers, so that it is only by living in a village and knowing the inhabitants that one may get to know of these drinks. “Koorow,” an old liquor, practically obsolete these 300 years, is still made in certain villages of Derbyshire. It is a species of air, exceedingly smooth, and flavoured with spices. Another old English beer is “braket,’, which is made from ale, pepper and honey. This is a drink which was exceedingly popular in tho fourtcens hundreds. It can bo got in certain parts of Hampshire and Dorsetshire. “Aleborry” is still another which may yet bo found: though seldom. Its necessary ingredients are old beer, spices, sugar, and bread. But old beer has now become a rarity. Some terribly potent liquors can bo distilled from tho innocent-looking banana. Also from the milk of tho cocoanut. They arc fond of tho latter in tho West Indies, though, of course, the chief drink there is rum. The <l:inks of tho Old World are as many and as varied as those of the New. The J .pana.-o make an excellent one from the plums and from the flowers of the motherwort and the peach. The Chinese produce several qualities of spirit from rice and pulse, all of them intoxicating, besides which they can make an alcoholic drink from mutton, The Russians run them close in a curious preparation of an animal nature. This is their qwass, a drink which to tho uninitiated tastes like soap and water, and which is made from milk. Cocoanut is used in the Old World as in the New. One method of preparing an intoxicating drink from it obtains in the Marquesas, and would probably not recommend itself to the European who was at all fastidious in his tastes. Briefly, tho process is as follows :—A number of hoys who are for the time being unemployed, arc set to work to chew up chips' of cocoanut, and to spit out the result into a bowl. The contents of the vessels are then emptied into a vat.

Water is added, together with a little sugar and palm wine, and the compound is allowed to ferment, when it makes a drink which is greatly appreciated amongst the islanders, if not by their white visitors. A popular drink in Persia and Bcluehistan is made from barley, rice, and the root of a certain plant, dried and ground, and then caked together with a small quantity of yeast and water. If a drink is wanted, a small piece is broken off tke lump and thrown into water, when it is ready for use in a few minutes, and is slightly intoxicating.— London Evening Express.

SANDER A SONS’ EUCALYPTI EX TRACT-—Under the distinguished patronage of His Majesty the King of Italy, as per communication made by the Minister forfForeign Affairs, through the Consul-General or Italy at Melbourne, March IT, 1878. Awarded diploma at the Amsterdam Exhibition, 1893Acknowledgotl by Mdical Clinics and Universities all over the Globe.

There arc imitations of Eucalypti Extract in the market, products of simple distillation, forming crude, resinous oils. In order- that these crude oils may not be taken for our pursolatile Eucalypti Extract, which is recognise by the Medical Division of the Prussian Goevnment to be of perfectly pure origin, as per nforraation forwarded to us through the Consul at Melbourne, March 2, 1878, we vtato: —

It is proved by tests made by the Medical Clinics of the Universities of Bonn and Grietswald (Prussia), and reported toby Dr Schultz Professor of Pharmacology at Bonn, and Professor Dr Moss'er, Director of the Medical Clines at Gricfswald, that only products that are saturated with oxygen and freed of acids resinous and other substances rdherent to primary distillation, will develop the sanative qualifies proper to the plant. All crude oils or so-called Eucalypti Extracts, are to be classed according to the named authorii' is, among the turpentines, which are abandoned long since as an internal medicament. T 1 cse crude oil, or so-called Eucalypti Extracts, are discernible:

1. By their deficiency in pungent od ir (which our product, the only genuine Eu”\ lypti Extract, develops most freely througn ts surplus oxygen.) 2. By their alcoholic, thin, and mobile appearance, being reduced to specific density through the presence of acids. - 3. By thoir taste, the result of contract ‘ing tendency of resins and tanats. If these crude oils, or so-called Eucalypti Extracts, arc applied by mistake in cases of croup, bronchitis, dipthcria, internal inflammation, dysentry, etc., the consequences are most appalling. For safety’s sake ask always or Sander and Sons’ Eucalypti Extract. — Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia.—SANDEß & SONS.