1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

234

an essence or fluid extract procured by boiling the shoots, tops, bark and cones of the Scotch fir [pinus

Spruce beer is supposed to be of much

sylvestris).

medicinal value as an antiscorbutic. Samuel More- wood presents us with a gratifying reflection on this matter. While, he says, Spruce is beneficial to the health of man, it has not, by its " consequence depre- ciated his character, or lowered him in his moral dignity." Tartary. The beer to be met with in Tartary is for the most part of an indifferent quality. That brewed from barley and millet by the Turkestans, termed baksoum, more resembles water boiled with rice than beer. They, however, admire it, and affirm that it is an in- valuable remedy for dysentery. The reader will have already perceived that it is a cosmopolitan practice to pamper the appetite under the pretence of preserving the health. Baksouju is acid in taste, of no scent, a feeble intoxicant, and cannot be kept for any length of time.