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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    with an assurance that he would drink it with great moderation, his request was granted. On being presented with the bottle, he seized it with great eagerness, and placing it under his cloak, with much pre- caution, he disappeared amidst the windings of the building, in an instant, highly delighted, and muttering thanks as he retired.* Some of the principal officers of state are so fond of spirits, that they procure it at any expense, and convey it home, without the knowledge of then* servants, carrying it in small leathern bottles, or in tubes of the same material twisted round the body. In this manner it is brought into the most secret recesses of the Seraglio, even at the risk of life; and we are assured by Madden, who had access to the harems of many of the Turkish nobles, that the ladies consume consi- derable quantities of wine under the name of an Italian cordial, called Rosolio ; whereas, if the wine were offered under its true denomina- tion, it would be rejected with scorn. Carne saw this exemplified in a rich Islamitic merchant, who, when asked to drink wine, expressed high indignation, but when the same liquor was presented to him under the name of Rosolio, he took off a large bumper with great cheerful- ness/j—Excuses of a very trivial nature are taken advantage of. Some affirm, that because the term rum is not in the Koran, the use of it was not forbidden by the Prophet. Captain Trant, in his Journey through Greece, relates, that while on a visit with the Bey, he got a peep into one of his store-rooms, in which he saw a number of bottles, labelled with the word Rhum, to which the proprietor had frequent recourse.^—The Greeks subject to the Turkish yoke, are often as much afraid of being seen by their masters when taking wine, as one Mussulman is afraid of being observed using it by another. Carne was witness to a circumstance of this kind, in the vicinity of Constan- tinople. When at a meal with some Grecians, who were regaling themselves with white wine, the approach of a body of Turkish cavalry so affrighted the poor fellows, that they immediately concealed the wine, and substituted water. In a private visit which Doctor Clarke was permitted to make at the Sultan's Seraglio, he observed, in the secret chambers, labels, bearing Turkish inscriptions, with the word Rosolio, golden water, and water of life,—a proof that neither the Sultan nor Ms ladies were insensible to the pleasures of intoxication. The same traveller tells us, that throughout Turkey, the dervises, during the Ramadan, would, when alone, eat pork and drink wine, and laugh at the absurdity of considering such things as forbidden.§ * Letters of a Prussian Traveller, 2 vols. 8vo. vol. i. p. 206. f Carrie's Letters from the East, 8vo. p. 203. % Journey, 1830, 8vo. p. 277. § Clarke's Travels, vol. viii. p. 86,