The history of drink : A review, social, scientific, and political by Samuelson
"The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria" by of Alexandria Hero is a scientific treatise written in the 1st century AD. It sets out the principles and marvels of air, steam, and water pressure through practical devices such as siphons, automata, temple mechanisms, fountains, and the aeolipile, blending theory with hands-on craft. Readers can expect systematic descriptions of experiments and apparatus designed to demonstrate pneumatic laws and to entertain and instruct. The opening
of the book you provided presents an 1870s essay that surveys the social, scientific, and political history of intoxicating drinks, with the author positioning it as a concise, popular outline rather than an exhaustive study and acknowledging Morewood’s earlier work. The preface declares a temperance-leaning but “impartial” aim, sketches a global plan from prehistoric traces through ancient China, India, Persia, Hebrews, Egypt, Greece, and Rome to Germany, England, Sweden, and America, and signals later debates on causes, remedies, and legislation. Chapter I disputes the claim that there is no instinct for alcohol, citing children, animals (notably monkeys), natural fermentation, and indigenous intoxicants among “savages” worldwide; it contrasts interior African drunkenness with relative coastal sobriety, labels drunkenness a “savage vice,” and notes prehistoric European lake-dwellers had grapes and cereals implying early fermentation. Chapter II uses Chinese classics to show ritual and social drinking was once widespread (including an imperial edict against excess), while Buddhism later encouraged abstinence among clergy; modern China features rice spirits, “wine clubs,” and some imports, with opium more prevalent and poverty limiting drink. Chapter III details Vedic soma rites that sacralized intoxication (especially with Indra), the later Brahmanic backlash in Manu’s severe penalties, the persistence of many liquors and imports, and a modern India largely temperate except among lower castes and festival saturnalia (arrack, toddy, bhang). Chapter IV outlines Zoroastrian homa, strictures against drunkenness, Persian wine culture ancient and modern despite Islam’s ban, and notes that Bombay Parsees are reputable yet significantly involved in the liquor trade. Chapter V opens a scriptural debate on Hebrew terms for wine, arguing against overreading total-abstinence proof texts. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.html.images | 734 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.epub3.images | 438 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.epub.images | 438 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.epub.noimages | 337 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.kf8.images | 624 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.kindle.images | 563 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418.txt.utf-8 | 530 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77418/pg77418-h.zip | 366 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Samuelson, James, 1829-1919 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 15010471 |
| Title | The history of drink : A review, social, scientific, and political |
| Original Publication | London: Trübner & co., 1878. |
| Credits | Tim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | HV: Social sciences: Social pathology, Social and Public Welfare |
| Subject | Temperance -- History |
| Subject | Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- History |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77418 |
| Release Date | Dec 7, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 2758 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |