ALE AND BEER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
2
494 this war the military despatches, as well as the report of the Commission on the medical service and Mr. Bordett- Ooutts’s comments, require to be studied-a long and some- what formidable task. The situation set forth in Earl Roberts’s despatches was an altogether exceptional one. He had to undertake and carry out a very rapid plan of campaign and in order to do this successfully he had to incur certain risks by setting aside for a time the ordinary rules and pre- cautions of war, and it was at this time and under these conditions that there occurred a very severe outbreak of enteric fever. The question is how far was it possible for anyone to foresee, and having foreseen it to prevent, the sad sequel. -- THE ERITH DISTRICT COUNCIL AND THE MEDICAL OFFICER TO THE ERITH SANATORIUM. MR. JOHN ELLIOT, medical officer to, and also founder of, the Erith Sanatorium, has been called on to resign his post by a majority of one at a meeting of the Erith District Council, and. according to a report of the pro- ceedings in the Erith Times of Feb. 8th, it was on informa- tion verbally supplied by a subordinate nurse belonging to the establishment that this measure was decided upon. Needless to say that should such really prove to have been the case the intervention of higher authority is urgently called for and will no doubt be forthcoming. It is worthy of note that among the councillors who opposed Mr. Elliot there should be the mover of an amendment objecting to the forwarding of a vote of condolence to the Royal Family upon recent events. ____ AN ANOMALOUS CASE OF WORD-BLINDNESS WITHOUT APHEMIA OR AGRAPHIA. PROFESSOR BRISSAUD of the Salpetriere has made an interesting communication on the above subject, an account of which has appeared in the Are7ives de Neu’I’olo.qie for .January. The case is one of word-blindness where the question arose as to whether the cerebral lesion was situated in the parietal (angular) region or in the occipital (calcarine) region and whether it was cortical or subcortical in position. The case was that of a man, aged 57 years, who was admitted to hospital for a severe attack of enteritis. His friends stated that he had lately failed to recognise ordinary objects and was inclined to oddities of conduct. The patient seemed to be well behaved on admission and after some effort and difficulty he succeeded in giving the following history. For a certain length of time prior to admission he found himself quite unable to read although he was, and still appeared to be, capable of writing. He continued in the extraordinary condition of being absolutely unable to read his name and address which he had just written with his own hand. He only saw the black lines of the writing on the white background of the paper, but they conveyed to him no significance visually. Hemiopia was also found to be present, but without hemiplegia. He continued in a febrile condition, passed into coma, and died the same day. At the necropsy the following pathological changes were discovered-viz., an old cortical softening involving the inferior fourofifths of the cuneus and the whole of the calcarine fissure as well as almost the whole of the lingual lobule on the left side ; a secondary degeneration of the tapetum and of the optic radiations on the same side, but without lesion of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus or parietal cortex or any other subcortical region. The degeneration of the tapetum could be traced into the splenium of the corpus callosum and thus into the right hemisphere where it seemed to terminate in the tapetum and calcarine region of that side without affecting the optic radiations or the white substance subjacent to the calcarine cortex. The clinical and pathological interest of the case lay in the fact that owing to the intact condition of the auditory and visual word centres-the superior temporal and angular gyri-these centres could incite their respective kinsesthetic centres of word-utterance and word-writing to activity and thus both writing and speaking were possible, but the local destruction of the calcarine and adjacent cortex on the left side (primary visual cortical centre) pro- duced not only hemiopia but also sufficient defect and disturbance in the secondary visual centre (visual word centre) of the same hemisphere to prevent the visual recognition of written or printed words. ALE AND BEER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. THE composition of ale and beer has always been of interest to members of the medical profession. Dr. Andrewe Boorde, who lived in the reign of Henry VIIL, gives a full account of the composition of most of the beverages which were in use in his own time. He considered that water was not " holsome sole by it selfe for an Englyssheman " because it was " colde, slowe, and slacke of dygestyon." Ale, he said, for an Englishman was the natural drink. It was in his time made of malt and water fermented by yeast. It had, in his opinion, to be fresh and clear, not ropy or smoky. It appears to have been drunk very shortly after it was made, for he says that it ought not to be drunk under five days old, and that new ale was unwholesome for all men. He observed also that sour ale was good for no man, an observa- tion which has been confirmed by subsequent experience. Contrary to the opinion of some modern brewers, he con- sidered that barley malt made the best ale. He confessed, however, that in spite of its good qualities the beverage engendered gross humours, but he added that it made a man strong. In his description of the composition of ale no reference is made to hops and it appears that they were not used in the drink which he called ale for he looked upon other ingredients except those which he men- tioned as being adulterations. The composition of beer was different. It was made of malt, hops, and water, and was, he observed, the natural drink for a Dutchman. Of late days it had indeed been used in England but unfortunately with detriment to many Englishmen, and it was especially harmful to those who suffered from colic, "for the drynke is a colde drynke," he observed. Yet he said it made a man fat-a point on which the observer could satisfy himself by examining the faces and other parts of the persons of Dutchmen. The beverage had, however, one good point, which was that if it were well served in good condition and not new it qualified the heat of the liver. Dr. Boorde was a great traveller and amongst other things he especially noticed the condition of the food and the drink in all the places which he visited. Of the ale of Cornwall he formed a very low estimate ; it looked white and thick, .. as’ if pygges had wrastled " in it, and he gives some unsavoury particulars as to the intellects of drinking this beverage into which, perhaps, it is hardly necessary to follow him. In Boorde’s time it does not appear that Scotland was celebrated for good ale as a general rule. Although fish and flesh were to be had there in plenty, the ale, he says, was evil, with the sole exception of that brewed at Leith. Dr. Boorde was extremely severe in the punishments which he thought should be meted out to brewers of bad ale and to those who gave short measure. He gave it as his opinion that they ought to be placed in the Thames up to their chins and three inches above, and suggested that when they came out they would have to shake their ears as a spaniel that verily came out of the water. Dr. Boorde devotes one chapter of his book to soups, stews, and other articles of diet which would now be classified under the general heading of invalid food.
Transcript of ALE AND BEER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
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this war the military despatches, as well as the report ofthe Commission on the medical service and Mr. Bordett-Ooutts’s comments, require to be studied-a long and some-what formidable task. The situation set forth in Earl
Roberts’s despatches was an altogether exceptional one. Hehad to undertake and carry out a very rapid plan of campaignand in order to do this successfully he had to incur certainrisks by setting aside for a time the ordinary rules and pre-cautions of war, and it was at this time and under theseconditions that there occurred a very severe outbreak of
enteric fever. The question is how far was it possible foranyone to foresee, and having foreseen it to prevent, the
sad sequel. -
--
THE ERITH DISTRICT COUNCIL AND THEMEDICAL OFFICER TO THE ERITH
SANATORIUM.
MR. JOHN ELLIOT, medical officer to, and also founderof, the Erith Sanatorium, has been called on to resignhis post by a majority of one at a meeting of the ErithDistrict Council, and. according to a report of the pro-
ceedings in the Erith Times of Feb. 8th, it was on informa-tion verbally supplied by a subordinate nurse belonging tothe establishment that this measure was decided upon.Needless to say that should such really prove to have beenthe case the intervention of higher authority is urgentlycalled for and will no doubt be forthcoming. It is worthyof note that among the councillors who opposed Mr. Elliotthere should be the mover of an amendment objecting to theforwarding of a vote of condolence to the Royal Family uponrecent events.
____
AN ANOMALOUS CASE OF WORD-BLINDNESSWITHOUT APHEMIA OR AGRAPHIA.
PROFESSOR BRISSAUD of the Salpetriere has made aninteresting communication on the above subject, an accountof which has appeared in the Are7ives de Neu’I’olo.qie for.January. The case is one of word-blindness where the
question arose as to whether the cerebral lesion was situatedin the parietal (angular) region or in the occipital (calcarine)region and whether it was cortical or subcortical in
position. The case was that of a man, aged 57 years, who wasadmitted to hospital for a severe attack of enteritis. His
friends stated that he had lately failed to recognise ordinaryobjects and was inclined to oddities of conduct. The patientseemed to be well behaved on admission and after someeffort and difficulty he succeeded in giving the followinghistory. For a certain length of time prior to admission hefound himself quite unable to read although he was, and stillappeared to be, capable of writing. He continued in
the extraordinary condition of being absolutely unable toread his name and address which he had just written withhis own hand. He only saw the black lines of the writingon the white background of the paper, but they conveyedto him no significance visually. Hemiopia was also foundto be present, but without hemiplegia. He continued ina febrile condition, passed into coma, and died the same
day. At the necropsy the following pathological changeswere discovered-viz., an old cortical softening involvingthe inferior fourofifths of the cuneus and the whole of thecalcarine fissure as well as almost the whole of the linguallobule on the left side ; a secondary degeneration of the
tapetum and of the optic radiations on the same side, butwithout lesion of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus or
parietal cortex or any other subcortical region. The
degeneration of the tapetum could be traced into the
splenium of the corpus callosum and thus into the righthemisphere where it seemed to terminate in the tapetum andcalcarine region of that side without affecting the opticradiations or the white substance subjacent to the calcarine
cortex. The clinical and pathological interest of the caselay in the fact that owing to the intact condition of theauditory and visual word centres-the superior temporaland angular gyri-these centres could incite their respectivekinsesthetic centres of word-utterance and word-writing toactivity and thus both writing and speaking were possible,but the local destruction of the calcarine and adjacentcortex on the left side (primary visual cortical centre) pro-duced not only hemiopia but also sufficient defect and
disturbance in the secondary visual centre (visual wordcentre) of the same hemisphere to prevent the visual
recognition of written or printed words.
ALE AND BEER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
THE composition of ale and beer has always been ofinterest to members of the medical profession. Dr. Andrewe
Boorde, who lived in the reign of Henry VIIL, gives a fullaccount of the composition of most of the beverages whichwere in use in his own time. He considered that water wasnot " holsome sole by it selfe for an Englyssheman
" becauseit was " colde, slowe, and slacke of dygestyon." Ale, hesaid, for an Englishman was the natural drink. It was in histime made of malt and water fermented by yeast. It had,in his opinion, to be fresh and clear, not ropy or smoky.It appears to have been drunk very shortly after it was made,for he says that it ought not to be drunk under five days old,and that new ale was unwholesome for all men. Heobserved also that sour ale was good for no man, an observa-tion which has been confirmed by subsequent experience.Contrary to the opinion of some modern brewers, he con-sidered that barley malt made the best ale. He confessed,however, that in spite of its good qualities the beverageengendered gross humours, but he added that it made a manstrong. In his description of the composition of ale no
reference is made to hops and it appears that they werenot used in the drink which he called ale for he lookedupon other ingredients except those which he men-
tioned as being adulterations. The composition of beerwas different. It was made of malt, hops, and water,and was, he observed, the natural drink for a Dutchman.Of late days it had indeed been used in Englandbut unfortunately with detriment to many Englishmen, andit was especially harmful to those who suffered from colic,"for the drynke is a colde drynke," he observed. Yet hesaid it made a man fat-a point on which the observer
could satisfy himself by examining the faces and otherparts of the persons of Dutchmen. The beverage had,however, one good point, which was that if it were wellserved in good condition and not new it qualified the heatof the liver. Dr. Boorde was a great traveller and amongstother things he especially noticed the condition of the foodand the drink in all the places which he visited. Of the ale ofCornwall he formed a very low estimate ; it looked white and
thick, .. as’ if pygges had wrastled " in it, and he givessome unsavoury particulars as to the intellects of
drinking this beverage into which, perhaps, it is hardlynecessary to follow him. In Boorde’s time it does not
appear that Scotland was celebrated for good ale as a
general rule. Although fish and flesh were to be had therein plenty, the ale, he says, was evil, with the sole exceptionof that brewed at Leith. Dr. Boorde was extremelysevere in the punishments which he thought should bemeted out to brewers of bad ale and to those who gaveshort measure. He gave it as his opinion that they ought tobe placed in the Thames up to their chins and three inchesabove, and suggested that when they came out they wouldhave to shake their ears as a spaniel that verily came out ofthe water. Dr. Boorde devotes one chapter of his book tosoups, stews, and other articles of diet which would now beclassified under the general heading of invalid food.
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Amongst his recipes he recommended ale brews and caudlesfor weak men who could not eat solid meat. In many
country districts these old-fashioned compositions are still
used and sometimes perhaps with satisfactory results.
THE TRAFFIC IN OLD HORSES.
IN our issue of Dec. 3rd, 1898, p. 1492, in an annotationunder the above heading, we called attention to the factthat an Order had been issued by the Board of Agricultureunder which it should from Jan. lst, 1899, be unlawful toconvey from any port in the British Isles to any place out-side the British Isles " any horse which, owing to age,infirmity, illness, fatigue, or any other reason, cannot be soconveyed without cruelty during the intended passage andupon landing." Offences under this Order were to be dealtwith as under the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894. OnJan. 8th, two men, Ernest Ellis and Charles Wilson,were charged at the Thames Police-court with cruelty to 13horses by leading them when unfit to travel. One horse wasso weak and lame that it fell down in the road and the footof another was partly destroyed. The horses were going toRotterdam and had come from Stratford. Inspector Rogerssaid that there was no Government inspector to look aftersuch horses. The wharf from which they were to be shippedbelonged to the London and India Joint Docks Committee.They had an inspector, but he never interfered. Mr. Dickin-son said that the defendants were only the agents of someoneelse and fined them .65 and .S3 2s. costs each. We should be
glad to know why such cases are not dealt with under theOrder of the Board of Agriculture and the Diseases ofAnimals Act. If the accused, whose delinquency we havejust described, had been thus proceeded against it seemsthat they could have been fined (apparently, underSection 51) a sum of E5 for each animal, or 965in all. As we have said upon previous occasions, this
infamous traffic ought to be stopped altogether. Not onlydoes it give rise to gross cruelty, but it must be rememberedthat the flesh of these wretched animals is used for humanfood. Possibly it returns here in the shape of " delicacies,"but even if it does not it is not fitting that we should assistin poisoning our neighbours on the other side of theNorth Sea.
___
ARSENIC IN ARTIFICIAL MANURES.
IN an annotation in THE LANCET of Dec. 22nd, 1900,p. 1828, we reported the presence of arsenic in artificial
manures, and the question arises as to whether the quantityof arsenic thus present would be absorbed by plants and thusafford a possible explanation of the presence of arsenic inmalt and hops. Our observations have given rise to muchdiscussion amongst agriculturists, and especially amongstthe manufacturers of superphosphate. The opinionseems to be generally held by agricultural chemists thatthe quantity of arsenic present in superphosphates mightsafely be neglected as it is so minute. In a communicationsent to us by a firm of artificial manure manufacturersDr. Stutzer (the professor of agricultural chemistry at theUniversity of Königsberg) arrives at the conclusion that thepercentage of arsenic in the soil after 49 years of experi-ments, as at Rothamsted, would have risen to 00002. Of
course, from these figures it would appear that we have todeal with such very minute quantities that there cannotbe any question whatever of poisoning the plants througharsenic. We may point out, however, that this calcula-tion is based upon the assumption that the quantity ofarsenic in sulphuric acid is generally from 0’05 up to0’10. Now according to the analysis of the sulphuric acidconcerned in the beer-poisoning epidemic, as given inTHE LANCET of Dec. lst, 1900, page 1602, Professor Stutzer
will find that the amount of arsenic exceeded 1’4 perscent.In view of this fact his calculations are of no valuewhatever. Professor Stutzer, however, points out that
plants, especially in the state of germination, are just assensitive to arsenic as men and’animals and no ill effects
have, as a matter of fact, followed the use of superphosphateas a fertiliser. On the contrary, the crops increase under theinfluence of superphosphate.
THE ALLEGED DRYNESS OF AIR IN ROOMSWARMED BY GAS FIRES.
COMPLAINT is frequently made as to the drying effect ofgas fires on the air of the room, so that any information on
the subject calculated to lead to this effect being avoided iswelcome. According to Mr. Thomas Fletcher, F.C.S.,a well-known gas-stove maker, the feeling of dryneis is
not due to the reduction of the moisture in the air but tosome of the products of combustion escaping into the room.He regards the unpleasant feeling of dryness in the throatand nostrils as being caused by a trace of sulphurin the products of combustion escaping, a statement
which would appear to be verified by the fact that a
strip of wet blue litmus paper exposed to the air quicklyreddens, pointing to the conclusion that the alleged fault ofgas fires is caused entirely by defective fiues. According tohygrometric measurements he shows that the percentage ofmoisture maintained in a room was much the same witha gas fire as with a coal fire. The results are much the samewhether the stove has an air-warming arrangement or not,apart from the radiant heat it produces. The percentage-amount of moisture was arrived at by using a wet and a drybulb thermometer. The difference in degrees between the twothermometers was multiplied by six and the product deductedfrom 100, which was regarded to give approximately the per-centage of moisture, taking complete saturation as 100. Mr.Fletcher states that this method is perfectly reliable for com--parative observations between the effect of gas fires and coalfires at the same temperatures. It is concluded that in aninhabited room from 58 per cent. to 72 per cent. of moisture at.about 62° F. will be pleasant, and this is easily obtained witheither a coal fire or incandescent gas fire except when the outerair is completely saturated with moisture. Apart from theobservation on the discomfort caused by sulphur compoundsescaping in the products of combustion the feeling of
comfort and warmth depends, as we should have supposed-although the point has not had sufficient attention paid to itin regard to the management of sick rooms and hospitals-rather on the amount of moisture in the air than on theactual temperature as shown by a thermometer.
BRAIN INJURY FOLLOWED BY WHISTLINGSPELLS.
DR. WILLIAM KRAUSS has recorded in the Januarynumber of the Journal of Ne’l’vo’us and -31ental Disease an
interesting case of brain injury with consequent periods ofwhistling, which attracted much attention at the time andalso possessed considerable clinical interest. The case was
that of a man, aged 27 years, of Polish descent, by occupa-tion a herdsman in the East Baffalo stockyards. He was a
man of powerful build and physique, about six feet in heightand weighing nearly 230 lb. Some months prior to theaccident which brought on his present illness he had had astroke of left sided hemiplegia from which he was recovering.He slowly regained the use of the left arm and leg and wasable to resume his occupation. On the morning of Dec. 30th,1898, he was found unconscious and lying along a railwayline with three scalp wounds, having probably been struckby a passing train during the night. On examination therewas a depressed fracture of the skull three inches above and,
