The art was known and practised by the Egyptians many hundred years before the Christian era, and afterwards by the Greeks, Romans, and ancient Gauls, from whom it has been handed down to us. All countries, whether civilized or savage, have, in every age, prepared an intoxicating drink of some kind. In the second book of Herodotus, written about 450 b.c., we are told that the Egyptians, being without vines, made wine from corn; but as the grape is mentioned so frequently in Scripture and elsewhere as being most abundant there, and no record exists as to the vine having been destroyed, we must conclude that the historian was only partially acquainted with the productions of that most fertile country. Pliny (Natural History, xxii. 82) informs us that the Egyptians made wine from corn, and gives it the name of zythτιm, which in the Greek would mean drink from barley; and Hellanicus, telling of the introduction of wine at Plinthium, a city of Egypt, states: “Hence the Egyptians are thought to derive their love and use of this liquor, which they thought so necessary for human bodies, that they invented a wine made from barley.” The Greeks, who derived the greater part of their civilization from the Egyptians, obtained from them also the knowledge of artificial fermentation, the art of brewing in fact, and at a very early period. We find it mentioned, for example, in the writings of Archilochus, the Parian poet and satirist, who flourished about 700 b.c., that the Greeks of his day were already acquainted with the art.

Again, we learn from Aeschylus (470 b.c. ), from Sophocles (420 b.c.), and Theophrastus (300 b.c.), that the Greeks employed barley wine or beer (their zythos) in their daily life as well as in their festive meetings. There is, in fact, little doubt that the discovery of beer and its use as an exhilarating drink were nearly as early as those of the grape itself. Xenophon, in his account of the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, written 400 yeare b.c., mentions that the inhabitants of Armenia used a fermented drink made from barley. Diodorus Siculus states that the Galatians prepared a fermented beverage from barley, calling it zythos, like the Egyptians. By Sophocles and other Greek writers it is styled βpυτov. Dioscorides mentione two kinds of beer, one he calls ζvθo<s and the other κονρμ.1., but he does not describe them sufficiently to enable us to distinguish them. Both, he says, were made from barley, and similar liquors were made in Spain and Britain from wheat. In the time of Tacitus (whose treatise on the manners and customs of the Germans was written in the 1st century of the Christian era), beer was their usual beverage, and from his description, imperfect as it is, there can be no doubt that they understood the method of converting barley into malt. Pliny mentions its use in Spain (Nat. Hist., xxii. 82) under the name of celia and ceria, and in Gaul under that of cerevisia or cervisia; and elsewhere (xiv. 29) he says—“The natives who inhabit the west of Europe have a liquor with which they intoxicate themselves, made from corn and water. The manner of making this liquid is somewhat different in Gaul, Spain, and other countries; and it is called by different names, but its nature and properties are everywhere the same. The people of Spain in particular brew this liquor so well that it will keep good a long time. So exquisite is the cunning of mankind in gratifying their vicious appetites, that they have thus invented a method to make water itself produce intoxication.”

The cervisia of Pliny evidently takes its name from Ceres, the goddess of corn. Plautue calls it Cerealis liquor, that is, liquor used at the solemn festival of that goddess. The art of malting and use of beer are supposed to have been introduced into Britain by the Romans. That barley was known to the latter is evident from Virgil, who uses it in the plural form, hordea, as we do the word oats; and Pliny tells of the hordearii gladiatores, a kind of fencers, whose sustenance was barley. Beer and vinegar were the ordinary beverages of the soldiers under Julius Caesar. The latter was made very strong, and was drunk diluted with water when on the march. Beer being so suitable to the climate, and so easily made by an agricultural people with plenty of corn, it was gladly welcomed, and soon became the national beverage. Previous to this, the usual drinks of the ancient Britons were water, milk, and mead (an intoxicating drink made from honey). After the expulsion of the Romans from Britain, the Saxons subdued the natives and learned from them the art of brewing.

Dr H. J. Mann tells us that the Kaffre races of South Africa have made for ages, and still make, a fermented drink of beer from the seed of the millet (Sorghum, vulgare}, which is first subjected to a malting process in all essential particulars identical with our own, The seed is first induced to germinate by covering it in a warm place with moistened mats of grass, and the sprouting is then stopped by the application of heat. After simmering for some time in hot w ater, the malted grain is set aside to ferment in the sun— fragments of a dried succulent plant having been stirred in to play the part of yeast and start the fermentation. The scum which rises to the surface during the fermentation is skimmed away from time to time by ladles made of grass stems spread out and loosely woven together at the bowl. When the fermentation is complete the beer is poured through a mat strainer, shaped and tasselled very much like an inverted night-cap, into the store vessel, which is made of thickly and firmly woven grase. The natives of Nubia, Abyssinia, and other parts of Africa also make an intoxicating drink of great power called bousa, from the flour of the teff (Poa abyssinica), and from the durrha or millet (Sorghum vulgare), much esteemed by the natives, and perferred by many to palm or date wine, the common intoxicating drink in tropical countries. According to Mungo Park, the natives of Africa also make a beverage from the seed of the spiked or eared soft-grass (Holcus spicatus). The Russian drink kvass or quass, a thick, sour beverage, not unlike bousa, is made of barley and rye flour, mixed with water and fermented. Formerly, the spruce-fir, birch, maple, and ash trees were tapped, and their juice used in England,—the first two, indeed, till within the last fifty years. Koumiss, the drink of the Tatar race, is the fermented milk of their mares. The Chinese beverage, sam-shee, is made from rice. This is not only intoxicating, but, like absinthe, peculiarly mischievous in its permanent effects. In South America a favourite drink is palque, the fermented juice of the Amercian aloe (Agave americana). Guarapo is the juice of the sugar-cane, which, when fermented, forms the common drink of the negro races, who also prepare a drink from rice and honey. Where beer has once been introduced, however, it has generally become the national beverage, and is now in universal use in the northern and temperate parts of Europe and Asia.

Beer used formerly to be made in England from wheat; but this beverage was not so well flavoured as if prepared from barley-malt, nor did it keep long. It was esteemed in Germany and Denmark, and was called by the Germans Mumme, and by the Danes mom. The German Weiss-bier is made from wheat-malt, with a small portion of barleymalt added.

We are informed by William of Malmesbury that, in the reign of Henry II., the English were greatly addicted to drinking. The monasteries were remarkable for the strength and purity of their ales, brewed from malt prepared by the monks with great care and skill. The waters of Burton-on-Trent began to be famous in the 13th century. The secret of their being so especially adapted for brewing was first discovered by some monks, who held land in the adjacent neighbourhood of Wetmore. There is a document still extant, dated 1295, in which it is stated that Matilda, daughter of Nicholas de Shoben, had re-leased to the abbot and convent of Burton-on-Trent certain tenements within and without the town; for which re-lease they granted her, daily for life, two white loaves from the monastery, two gallons of conventual beer, and one penny, besides seven gallons of beer for the men. The abbots of Burton must also have made their own malt, for it was a common covenant in leases of mills belonging to the abbey, that the malt of the lords of the manor, both spiritual and temporal, should be ground free of charge. Mary Queen of Scots, in the midst of her troubles, seems not to have been altogether insensible to the attractions of English beer, for when she was confined in Tutbury Castle, Walsingham her secretary asked, “At what place near Tutbury beer may be provided for her majestie’s use 1 ” to which Sir Ralph Sadler, governor of the castle, made reply, “Beer may be had at Burton, three miles off.” Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, written 200 years ago, refers to the peculiar properties possessed by the Burton waters, from which, he says, “by an art well known in this country good ale is made, in the management of which they Eave a knack of fining it in three days to that degree that it shall not only be potable, but is clear and palatable as one could desire any drink of this kind to be.” In 1630 Burton beer began to be known in London, being sold at “ye Peacocke,” in Gray’s Inn Lane, and, according to the Spectator, was in great demand amongst the visitors at Vauxhall. In 1585 Stow relates that there were 26 brewers in the city of London, the suburbs, and Westminster,—13 being English and 13 foreigners,—who brewed 648,960 barrels of beer, of which they exported 26,400 barrels to Embden, the Low Countries, and Dieppe. In 1643 the first excise was imposed on beer. In William III.’s reign, the brewer sold his nut-brown ale at 16s. per barrel, and his small beer from the same grains for 6s. per barrel.

At the present day the brewing trade has reached vast proportions in Great Britain. It would appear that its extent has now attained the maximum; the quantity produced for export is likely to decline, as most of the colonies are beginning to make their own. The best colonial beer is made in Tasmania, whence it is shipped in frozen blocks to Australia and India. In Calcutta, on the hottest day, the residents now suck (not sip) their frozen pale ale. According to the report to Messrs Bass by Professor Leone Levi, the number of persons employed in and depending on the liquor trade is 1,500,000, and the capital invested in it amounts to £117,000,000. There are 5000 maltsters, 34,000 licensed brewers, 6000 dealers in ales, and 139,000 publicans. These pay nearly £8,000,000 a year for permission to make and sell the popular drink. The quantity of beer brewed in 1869 was 25,542,664 barrels, of which 521,272 barrels were exported; whilst in 1874 the exports were 573,957 barrels, of the declared value of £2,508,883. It has been estimated that Barclay & Perkins (successors to Thrale, Johnson’s friend) have £1,500,000 sunk in their trade. Bass, the largest brewer in the world, pays license on 1,000,000 barrels, and there are eighteen other brewers who pay duty on 2C l 0,000 barrels. From the excise official returns we find the annual consumption per head of the population is [table]

The first essay known to us on the subject of brewing is by Basil Valentine. Boerhaave says of this treatise that it is both accurate and elegant. In 1573 II. Knanst published a work in five volumes at Erfurt, with the quaint title, On the Divine Noble Gift, the Philosophical, highly Dear, and Wondrous Art to Brew Beer. In the year 1585 Thaddeus Hagecius ab Hayek (a Bohemian), published a treatise entitled De Cerevisia, ejusque conficiendi ratione, natura, viribus, et facultatibus. This small work of fifty pages gives a very clear and accurate description of the process of brewing. To Mr Combrune, a London breweι∙ in the earlier part of the 18th century, we are indebted for the proofs he gave of the value of the thermometer in brewing. In other respects his work entitled The Theory and Practice of Brewing, is of no particular value at the present day, though it was very useful at the time in advancing the art, and ran through several editions. Previous to his time brewers had looked upon the thermometer as a scientific toy, and “rule of thumb” was the order of the day. In the year 1784 Mr Richardson of Hull brought out his Theoretic Hints on Brewing Malt Liquor, and Statistical Estimates of the Materials of Brewing, showing the use of the Saccharometer. These works would be beneficial but for the absurd mystery with which the author invests the whole subject. It was he who first brought publicly to the notice of brewers the value of the saccharometer, an improvement of his own on the hydrometer, or water guage, invented by Martin, the Fleet Street mathematician. Mr Ba verstock purchased one of these in 1768, and in 1770 received a certificate of the value of his instrument from Mr Th rale, the celebrated brewer in Southwark, who had tested it. It was not, however, till 1785 that Mr Ba verstock published his Hydrometrical Observations and Experiments in the Breweries; so that Mr Richardson has the merit of bringing his improved hydrometer, which he christened saccharometer, first to the notice of the trade. By this instrument the brewer is enabled to ascertain the amount of saccharine or fermentable matter in the wort, and thus to take advantage of a particularly good sample of malt, or to compensate for a bad one, so as to procure an uniform strength. Malt varies in quality according to season, the skill of the maltster, and other circumstances. Samples of barley raised from the same seed, and grown in adjoining fields, will produce malt widely different, although this is not discovered till it has been in the mash tun. The quantity of malt which suffices for a particular “length” to-day may fall far short of affording the same quantity of ale to morrow, and vice versa. In either case the saccharometer is essential, as it enables the brewer to make his ales one standard strength. The instrument is also of great service in regulating the fermentations.

Mr Richardson’s saccharometer was constructed on the principle that 36 gallons (one barrel) of water weighs 360 lb, and if that quantity of water were converted into wort and again weighed the difference would show the weight of fermentable matter extracted from the malt. His instrument, therefore, was graduated so as to show one degree for each pound that a barrel of wort weighed more than a barrel of water. He does not, however, allow for the displacement of a certain quantity of water by the saccharine matter dissolved in it; consequently, his instrument is not quite correct. The saccharometer of Dring and Fage and that of Long, which are both on the same principle as Richardson’s, are adjusted so as to allow for this inaccuracy; for example, if a gallon of sugar, weighing 16 lb, be added to 35 gallons of water (together making one barrel imperial measure), their instruments show in this infusion, at 60° Fahr., the excess above that of distilled water, which, in this instance, is 6 lb gravity; thus we have a barrel of wort, 'weighing 366 lb, composed of water 35 gallons, and saccharine matter 16 lb. The Excise make their calculations by Allan and Bate’s instruments, which are constructed on the principle of indicating the specific gravity of the wort,—that of distilled water, which is the standard of weight by which all substances have to be compared, being reckoned 1000. It is, however, easy to change the reckoning of the one to the other. Should we wish to reduce the specific gravity indicated by Allan’s or Bate’s instruments, we have only to divide the specific gravity by 2’77; or if we wish to convert the indication of Dring and Fage’s scale into specific gravities we multiply by the same factor.

Barley is the seed of several species of Hordeum, and belongs to the tribe of grasses, called by botanists Graminaceoe. It has been cultivated from the earliest times. The species most used for malting purposes are the long-eared or two-rowed barley (Hordeum distichum), and the Hordeum hexastichon, commonly called bere or bigg. This, in consequence of its being more hardy and ripening more rapidly, is cultivated in Scotland and Ireland. The variety of the two-rowed most iu repute is the Chevalier. This was introduced early in the present century by the rector of Stonham, in Suffolk, after whom it was named, and was the result of careful cultivation. Mr Chevalier saw some fine specimens of two-eared barley growing on a manure heap, had them saved, and cultivated them for several years, selecting only the soundest and largest seeds, until the Chevalier barley became famous and commanded large prices. The land in Great Britain suitable to the growth of the finest grain for malting is limited,—the most favourable districts being Suffolk, Norfolk, and parts of Essex and Herts. It is, of course, cultivated in all other counties, but not to the same extent. From the Agricultural Returns of Great Britain, presented to Parliament, we find that in the year 1870, there were 2,600,000 acres under barley, which, if taken together, would form a block ⅜th larger than the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk. Taking the average yield at 32 bushels per acre, the total is 83,000,000 bushels, or more than 10,000,000 quarters. Of this, 50,000,000 bushels were converted into malt, and 4,000,000 used by the distillers. Farmers find by experience that some land is not fit for the growth of this cereal, and maltsters that if it is grown on certain soils it will not make good malt. Light calcareous or friable gravelly dry soil is the best. Rich loamy soil produces an excellent crop, and sandy soil, when well manured, answers; but cold clayey land, even when well drained, will not produce the best malting barley It is a most precarious crop, requires but little moisture, and a wet season is fatal to it. When it is in full ear rain, or even heavy dew, will break the stalk, and if wet continues for two or three days the ears on the ground begin to grow, get stained, and become quite unfit for malting. It should remain in the stack at least a month to season. If “got up” damp, it is liable to generate excessive heat, in which case the growing power of the germ is destroyed, and the grain rendered useless for malting purposes. Good barley should have a thin, clean, wrinkled husk, closely adhering to a plump well-fed kernel, which, when broken, appears white and sweet, with a germ full, and of a pale yellow colour. It is of all cereals the best adapted for malting, containing as it does more starch and far less gluten than other grain, and about 7 per cent, of ready-formed grape-sugar. Its specific gravity is from 1’280 to 1’333, that of malt 1’200. A bushel of barley weighs between 53 ft) and 58 ft», depending on climate, soil, and harvest; the same quantity of bere or bigg weighs from 47 ft) to 51 ft». It cannot well be too heavy, as it gives a corresponding gravity to the malt, providing it be mellow, thin-skinned, and not steely. The cuticle, or husk, forms nearly ⅜th of the weight of barley, and between ⅜th and ⅜th in bigg. According to Einhoff, 1000 parts of barley meal contain 720 of starch, 100 of water, 68 of fibrous or ligneous matter, 56 of sugar, 50 of mucilage, 36’6 of gluten, 12 ’ 3 of vegetable matter, and 2 ’ 5 of phosphate of lime. Hermbstädt gives the following percentages as the mean of ten analyses of barley made by him :— [table]

Great care must be taken when buying for malting, for sometimes .the grain...

The most important subjects of his inquiries are enumerated by Forbes under the following five heads :—1. The laws of polarization by reflection and refraction, and other quantitative laws of phenomena; 2. The discovery of the polarizing structure induced by heat and pressure; 3. The discovery of crystals with two axes of double refraction, and many of the laws of their phenomena, including the connection of optical structure and crystalline forms; 4. The laws of metallic reflection; 5, Experiments on the absorption of light. In this line of investigation the prime importance belongs to the discovery (1) of the connection between the refractive index and the polarizing angle, (2) of biaxal crystals, and (3) of the production of double refraction by irregular heating. These discoveries were promptly acknowledged by those best qualified to estimate their value. So early as the year 1807 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Brewster by Marischal College, Aberdeen; in 1815 he was made a member of the Royal Society of London, and received the Copley medal; in 1818 he received the Rumford medal of the Society; and in 1816 the French Institute awarded him one-half of the prize of three thousand francs for the two most important discoveries in physical science made in Europe during the two preceding years. Among the non-scientific public his fame was spread more effectually by the invention, in 1816, of the elegant philosophical toy, the kaleidoscope, for which there was so great a demand both in England and America that for some time the supply could not meet it. An instrument of higher interest, the stereoscope, which, though of much later date (1849-50), may be mentioned here, since along with the kaleidoscope it did more than anything else to popularize his name, was not, as has often been asserted, the invention of Brewster. Wheatstone discovered its principle and applied it as early as 1838 to the construction of a cumbrous but effective instrument, in which the binocular pictures were made to combine by means of mirrors. To Brewster is due the merit of suggesting the use of lenses for the purpose of uniting the dissimilar pictures; and, accordingly, the lenticular stereoscope, now in exclusive use, may fairly be said to be his invention. A much more valuable practical result of Brewster’s optical researches may be traced in the vast improvement of the lighthouse system during the last half century. It is true that the dioptric apparatus was perfected independently by Fresnel, who had also the satisfaction of being the first to put it into operation, the French Government being in this, as in many other cases, quicker than the English to perceive the value of new scientific discoveries. But it is indisputable that Brewster was earlier in the field than Fresnel; that he described the dioptric apparatus in 1812; that he pressed its adoption on those in authority at least as early as 1820, two years before Fresnel suggested it; and that it was finally introduced into British lighthouses mainly by his persistent efforts. The tribute paid to his memory by his successor at the head of the University of Edinburgh was therefore as just as it was graceful “Every lighthouse that burns round the shores of the British empire is a shining witness to the usefulness of Brewster’s Hfe. υ

Brewster’s own discoveries, important though they were, were not his only, perhaps not even his chief, service to science. The extent and variety of his contributions to scientific literature were little short of marvellous. He commenced literary work in 1799 as a regular contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine, of which he acted as editor at the age of twenty. In 1807 he entered on a much larger undertaking, which cost him long continued labour, and, especially towards its close, great vexation and anxiety. The chance suggestion of a friend, who knew his varied powers, led to the projection, under his editorship, of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, of which the first part appeared in 1808, and the last not until 1830. The work was, as might have been expected, strongest in the scientific department, and many of its most valuable articles were from the pen of its editor. At a later period he was one of the leading scientific contributors to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (seventh and eighth editions), the articles Electricity, Hydrodynamics, Magnetism, Microscope, Optics, Stereoscope, Voltaic Electricity, &c., being from his pen. In 1819 Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in conjunction with Jameson, the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, which took the place of the Edinburgh Magazine. After a time the title was again changed to the Edinburgh Journal of Science, sixteen volumes of which appeared under Brewster’s sole editorship, with very many articles from his own pen. To the transactions of various learned societies he contributed from first to last between three and four hundred papers, and few of his contemporaries wrote so much for the various reviews. In the North British Beviev) alone seventy-five articles of his appeared. A list of his larger separate works will be found below. Special mention, however, must be made of the most important of them all —his biography of Newton. In 1831 he published a short popular account of the philosopher’s life in Murray’s Family Library; but it was not until 1855 that he was able to issue the much fuller Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Neu ton, a work which embodied the results of more than twenty years’ patient investigation of original manuscripts and all other available sources.

Brewster’s relations as editor brought him into frequent communication with the most eminent scientific men, and he was naturally among the first to recognize the benefit that would accrue from regular intercourse among labourers in the field of science. In an article in the Quarterly Review he threw out a suggestion for “an association of our nobility, clergy, gentry, and philosophers,” which was taken up by others and found speedy realization in the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Its first meeting was held at York in 1831; and Brewster, along with Babbage and Herschel, had the chief part in shaping its constitution. It was this service mainly that was referred to when it was said of him after his death that “the improved position of men of science in our times is chiefly due to Sir David Brewster.” In the same year in which the British Association held its first meeting Brewster received the honour of knighthood and the decoration of the Guelphic order of Hanover. In 1838 he was appointed principal of the united colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, St Andrews. Two of the highest honours of the scientific world were conferred upon him in 1849, when he filled the office of president of the British Association and was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the Institute of France in succession to Berzelius. In 1859 he accepted the office of principal of the University of Edinburgh, the duties of which he continued to discharge vigorously until within a few months of his death, which took place at Allerly, Melrose, on the 10th February 1868.

In estimating Brewster’s place among scientific discoverers the chief thing to be borne in mind is that the bent of his genius was not characteristically mathematical. His method was empirical; he was a painstaking and accurate observer and classifier of facts rather than a theorizer; and the laws which he established, some of them, as has been pointed out, of prime importance, were generally the result of repeated experiment. To the ultimate explanation of the phenomena with which he dealt he contributed nothing, and it is noteworthy in this connection, that if he did not maintain to the end of his life the corpuscular theory he never explicitly adopted the undulatory theory of light These limitations, however, are to be taken as characterizing his genius rather than as detracting from it. Few will be inclined to dispute the verdict of Forbes :—“His scientific glory is different in kind from that of Young and Fresnel; but the discoverer of the law of polarization, of bιaxal crystals, of optical mineralogy, and of double refraction by compression, will always occupy a foremost rank in the intellectual history of the age.” In addition to the various works of Brewster already noticed the following may be mentioned :—Notes and Introduction to Carlyle’s translation of Legendre’s Elements of Geometry (1824); Treatise on Optics (1831); Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott (1831); The Martyrs of Science, or the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler (1841); More Worlds than One (1854). (See The Home Life of Sir David Brewster, by his daughter Mrs Gordon.)