A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customes of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors : with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East, as substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood.

  • Morewood, Samuel.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customes of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors : with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East, as substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    intoxicating quality, and keeps but a short time—Such of the grain as they distil, is put into a vessel carefully covered, and, after being allowed to run into a slight state of acetous fermentation, it is put into the still and drawn off at a good strength, under the usual name of arrack. The Turkestans have various beverages, among which is an excel- lent cooling drink obtained from melons. This fruit is of the finest description, and so large as to be from three to four feet in circum- ference ; every part of it, except the rind and seed, is equally good for eating and of a most agreeable flavour. The melons are fre- quently sent to a great distance, even so far as St. Petersburg: those of Khorassan are sent to Ispahan, the capital of Persia, for the use of the monarch, a journey of thirty days ; and melons are conveyed from Agra to Surat, a distance of nearly 700 miles, by pedestrians, in baskets hung at the extremities of a pole carried on the shoulders, at the rate of seven or eight leagues a day. The emperor Babas says, that he shed tears over a melon of Turkestan, which he cut up in India, after his conquest, its flavour having brought his native country and other tender associations to his recollection. The value of this fruit was in such high estimation, that it is related of Aly Sultan, that he caused a soldier, who had taken two melons from the field of a planter, to be hanged on the spot where he committed the theft. Before quitting the subject of Tartary, it may be proper to observe that the Mantchoos who conquered China, and whose descendants still hold the sovereignty of that empire, prepare a wine of a very peculiar nature from the flesh of lambs, either by fermenting it, reduced to a kind of paste, with the milk of their domestic animals, or bruising it to a pulpy substance with rice. When properly matured, it is put into jars, and then drawn off as occasion requires. It has the character of being strong and nourishing, and it is said that their most voluptuous orgies consist in getting drunk with it. Whatever remains, after the supply of domestic wants, is exported into China or Corea, under the name oi'lamb wine* Gei'billon says, that the rich Mongols leave mutton to ferment with their sour milk before they distil it. This explains the mystery of the spirit said to be made from the flesh of sheep by the Tartars in China, of which it has been said the emperors have been so fond. During the.sojourn of Michailow among the Kiwenses, he saw them prepare a drink called bursa from a description of berries termed psak, which much resembled dates. This liquor was made The Natural and Civil Hist, of Tonqiiin, bj the Abbe Rickard.