Alcohol is the oldest and most widely used drug in the world. Whereas its accidental discovery was undoubtedly made tens of thousands of years ago, proof of the intentional manufacture of beer dates back some 12,000 years. Numerous references to wine appear in the Bible, including Noah’s planting of some of the earliest vineyards on Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey.
Crushed grapes, other wild fruits, and honey contain glucose (sugar). When glucose is exposed to water and yeast (a fungus present on plants), the process of fermentation begins. When the alcohol content reaches 15 percent, the yeast dies and fermentation stops. To produce beverages with much higher alcohol content, distillation is required. Distillation was developed during the eighth and ninth centuries by medieval Arabic alchemists and utilized by Europeans in the twelfth century for the manufacture of high-alcohol beverages. Using the indigenous raw plant materials available to them, our forebears prepared brandy, whisky, rum, gin, and vodka, which have alcoholic contents ranging from 40 to 55 percent.
Societal uses of alcohol are many and varied. Its past uses included serving as a painkiller (analgesic) before operations, as an antiseptic on the skin, as an aid to digestion, and as a “pick-me-up” tonic or stimulant after fainting episodes. Although its importance in medicine faded decades ago, alcohol is still used in religious ceremonies and as a source of nutrition and calories. Contrary to popular belief—and despite the animated behavior of imbibers in social settings—alcohol acts as a depressant on the nervous system.
Examples of the intemperate use of alcohol can be found in the Bible and in ancient Greek and Roman writings and, in this respect, remind us that we are closely linked to the past. As the Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi noted, “Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune.” Worldwide, alcoholism is a major public health problem: Alcohol is the most commonly abused substance and is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
SEE ALSO Alchemy (c. 5000 BCE), Absinthe (1797), Ether (1846), Phenol (1867).
The Gospel Temperance Railroad Map (1880) takes riders to very different terminals. Starting from Decisionville on the left, one can take either the Great Celestial Railroad, which leads to the Celestial City, or the Great Destruction Railroad, whose terminus is the City of Destruction.