May. But the heat and rough usage of the journey proved fatal to the greater number, and the English superintendent has stated that only about 15,000 were alive when taken out of the sacks. These have been planted with great care, and a large percentage of them gives promise of survival, to repay the very heavy cost already incurred in the experiment. Other experiments are being carried on by Mr. Beck, the local agent for the company, in other parts of Cashmere, by which thousands of plants will be ready for transplanting early next spring.

Hops are as yet but of small importance as an article of import, though they are steadily increasing in demand. The value of the imports of the last four years, as given in the official returns for India, were as follows:

Beer of fair quality is now made in some Indian hill stations, and is coming into extended use among civil residents and the troops in the hills. On the plains, the cost of carriage from the hills prevents this beer competing with imported beer. This country beer is all made of imported hops, attempts to grow hops in the neighbourhood of Simla and other parts of the hills having as yet been unsuccessful.

Hops would seem even to be grown in the Chinese empire, for in 1874, 550 piculs (133 lbs.) were shipped from the port of Chefoo.

CHAPTER IX.

HOP SUBSTITUTES- -IMPORTS AND PRICES OF FOREIGN HOPS-BEER STATISTICS AND MALT CONSUMPTION.

THE superiority of the hop as an ingredient in our malt liquors depends upon the fact of its containing within itself several distinct and independent elements of activity, which the bitter herbs that have at different times been employed as a substitute do not possess.

Professor Dragendorff, the eminent toxicologist of the University of Dorpat, has published in the Archiv der Pharmacie of Jena' for 1874, a most valuable paper on his researches into the nature of the bitter substances used in the brewing of beer. This has been translated from the German into French, by our mutual friend Dr. Jules Morel, Professor of Chemistry at Ghent, under the title of 'Sur la Recherche des Substances amères dans la Bière,'* 60 pages; but I am not aware that it has yet appeared in English. It gives practical and complete tests, from large experience, for determining the various adulterants that may possibly be used by the brewer.

The use of hops for beer does not date very far back, as Bazile Valentin is the first author of the middle ages who notices their use; and it was in 1524 that the cultivation was first commenced in Flanders. From that country they were transported to England in the reign of Henry VIII., and soon spread over the counties of Kent, Essex, and Sussex. English hops well prepared, and especially well * Bruxelles: Jules Combes, 1874.

packed, soon acquired a high reputation. Then Germany and Austria took up the culture, and by careful selection obtained pure and delicate flavoured plants.

Now there are many principal varieties, as has already been indicated.

Among the bitter and tonic substances which have been used as substitutes for hops are the bark of some species of pine and willow, cascarilla bark, quassia, gentian, colocynth, walnut leaf, wormwood bitter, cloves, extract of aloes, cocculus indicus berries, colocynth seeds, capsicum, belladonna, nux vomica, Ledum palustre, box leaves, Menyanthes trifoliata, Cnicus benedictus, Erythræa Centaurium, ground ivy, Daphne Mezereum, &c.; recently picric acid has been employed. Although all these substances impart a bitter taste to beer, they are inferior to hops. Many of them contain the same constituents, namely, tannic acid, a resin, a bitter extractive, and an essential oil,

Cascarilla bark, used as a tonic, has very wholesome qualities, a pleasant and strong bitterness, and was for some time held in considerable repute among the faculty. About half a century ago large shipments were made from the Bahamas. It was found upon adulteration with hops to reduce the cost of that article, and for the encouragement of the hop growers a prohibitory import duty was laid upon it by the Home Government; consequently it became an unsaleable product. The list of the principal adulterants, with their scientific names, would seem to be as follows:

Seeds of Nux vomica

Cascarilla bark

Roots of

Hyoscyamus niger.

Strychnos Nu tomica.

Croton Cascarilla, and C. eleuteria.
Caryophyllata (Geum) lutea.

Grains of Paradise, seeds of Amomum Grana Paradisa.

In the United States, Gentiana quinqueflora, under the names of Indian quinine and ague weed, and G. saponaria, are esteemed fully equal to the imported gentian. Sabbatea angularis, the American Centaury, Sab. stellaris, and S. gracilis possess properties similar to the former.

This genus of North American plants is closely allied to Erythræa, of which several species, E. Chilensis, Centaurium, linarifolia, &c., are still employed in different countries as tonics.

Stanislaus Martin states that there are met with occasionally in French commerce hops deprived of the principal part of their lupuline by means of sifting, thus keeping back the active principle, the inert cones being sold to pharmaciens and herbalists.*

A year or two ago an important and influential meeting of

* 'Houblon Officinal, son altération.' Bull. de Therap., t. xlvii. p. 288.

gentlemen connected with the hop trade was held at Maidstone, to take into consideration what steps should be taken to check the use of deleterious articles as substitutes for hops in the manufacture of beer. The result of the meeting was that a large and influential committee, consisting of the chief hop growers in the county of Kent, and many hop merchants and factors of the Borough, was appointed, with instructions to form a deputation to wait upon the President of the Board of Trade, or take any other steps which might be deemed necessary with a view to prevent the use of deleterious mixtures as a substitute for hops in the manufacture of beer.

For the reference of those who desire to investigate the subject of hops more fully and minutely than it has been here treated, I may state that there will be found in the volumes of the 'Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England' various analyses, as, for instance, by J. C. Nisbet, on the mineral ingredients of the hop, and on the composition of the Golding and yellow Grape hops, vol. vii. p. 210-15; on the analysis of the flower, ix. p. 144, and xiii. p. 474, by Way and Ogsten, xi. p. 514; and of brewers' spent hops, xiii. p. 498. Mr. S. Rutley has also a prize essay on the best mode of managing a hop plantation, vol. ix. p. 532.

Finally, I bring this work to a conclusion with some statistics which may be found useful for reference.

A few figures regarding the highest and lowest scale of duties for a series of years may not be uninteresting, or without use.

From 1712 to 1750 the duty varied from 6,5267. in 1725 to 91,8807. in 1746