A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume II (of 2)

If the two passages above quoted, where the word lupuli occurs, be rejected because they are doubtful, I must consider this name of hops to be more modern than the word humulus; and if this be true, it is impossible to believe, with Du Cange, that the latter was formed from the first by throwing away the initial letter. As yet I had not found the name lupulus given to hops earlier than the thirteenth century.

About this time lived Simon of Genoa, commonly called Johannes de Janua or Januensis, who also had the surname of Cordus. He was physician to Pope Nicholas IV.; afterwards chaplain and sub-deacon to Pope Boniface VIII.; and therefore flourished at the end of the thirteenth century. Of his writings none is better known, or was formerly more esteemed, than his Catholicon, a book in which he describes, in alphabetical order, all the substances then used in medicine, and on which, as he says himself, he was employed thirty years. In this dictionary, which is commonly considered as the first of the Materia medica, there is an article under the head lupulus, copied however from the before-mentioned Latin translation of Mesue, but with the addition, that this plant by the French and Germans is named humilis, and that the flowers of it were used in a beverage which he calls medo939. This Italian, however, does not seem to have been properly acquainted with the subject; for he tells us himself940, that under the name medo or mead, is understood a beverage made of diluted honey, for which hops are never employed. In Italy also, at that time, hops were not in use. About the same period, Arnold de Villanova, in his commentary on the work on Regimen, published by John of Milan, in the name of the celebrated school of Salerno, mentions lupuli, and the use of them in brewing beer941.

Professor Tychsen, to whose friendship I have been frequently indebted for assistance in my researches, suggested to me the conjecture that lupulus perhaps is derived from lupinus, because Columella says that the bitter seeds of this plant were added, in Egypt, to beer in order to moderate its sweetness942. This use is confirmed also by G. W. Lorsbach, from the Arabic historian Ebn Chalican943. At any rate, this proves that in Egypt at that time bitter things began to be added to beer. It is also well known that in Italy lupines were rendered fit for the use of man as well as of animals, by macerating them in water944; and I am of opinion, that on this account Varro required water to be in the neighbourhood of a farm-yard945. Lupines softened in water are still employed for making dough. But if lupulus was formed from lupinus, it must however be proved that the use of it for beer was common beyond the boundaries of Egypt. Even if we admit with Schöttgen, that the poet employs zythum for beer in general, this beverage was never used in Italy, and I have met with no other mention of lupines in brewing.

In the breweries of the Netherlands, hops seem to have been first known in the beginning of the fourteenth century; for about this time we find many complaints that the new method of brewing with hops lessened the consumption of gruit, and also the income arising from gruitgeld. The word gruit seems to have many meanings: in the first place it signifies malt; but though I formerly considered this as the proper meaning, and though some approved my opinion, I must confess that on further examination I am not able fully to prove it. In the second place, it signified a certain tax paid at each time of brewing: thirdly, a certain addition of herbs used for beer in the fourteenth century: and in the last place, the beer brewed with it was itself sometimes called gruit.

That this word always denoted malt is impossible; for it is said that after hops were introduced, less gruit was used and sold than formerly had been the case. But how could hops be employed instead of malt? John, bishop of Liege and Utrecht, complained to the emperor Charles IV., that for thirty or forty years a new method of brewing, that is to say, with the addition of a certain plant called humulus or hoppa, had been introduced, and that his income arising from gruitgeld had been thereby much lessened. The emperor, therefore, in the year 1364, permitted him, for the purpose of making good his loss, to demand a groschen for each cask of hops; and this right was confirmed to bishop Arnold by pope Gregory946. By this and similar accounts I am induced to conjecture that a beverage composed of different herbs was at that time prepared, and that the sale of this mixture and of gruit was converted into a so-called regale. Nay, it almost appears that gruit was a fermenting substance, indispensably necessary to beer, instead of the yeast used at present.

According to every appearance the ancient beer could not be long kept; and beer fit to be preserved seems to have come into use after the introduction of hops. The oldest writers who treat of the good and bad effects of hops, reckon among the latter, that they dried up the body and increased melancholy; but among their good qualities, they praise their property of preserving liquors from corruption947. It was soon remarked also, that the keeping of beer depended a great deal on the season in which it was brewed; for M. Anton quotes from the Ilm statutes of 1350, that people were permitted to brew only from Michaelmas to St. Walpurgis’ day948; at other times it was forbidden under certain penalties. At that period various kinds of beer seem to have been in use, and perhaps became fashionable instead of wine, coffee, and tea. Thus M. Anton quotes, from a Hervord document of the year 1144, cervisia mellita and non mellita. However, even at present, honey is used for many kinds of beer; such for example as that brewed at Nimeguen, which has an extensive sale under the name of moll, a word derived no doubt from mollig, mild; which is applied also to wine. In the same manner the English used liquorice.

In England, the use of hops seems to have been introduced at a much later period; but it is said that they were at first considered as a dangerous production, and that the planting of them was forbidden in the reign of Henry VI., about the middle of the fifteenth century949. This I will not venture to deny, though I very much doubt it. I have found no proof of it in any English writer, and I have searched in vain for the prohibition among the orders of that prince, in which however there occurs one in regard to malt950. On the contrary, many English historians assert that the use of hops was first made known in England by some people from Artois, in the reign of Henry VIII., or about the year 1524951. It is nevertheless true, that this sovereign, in an order respecting the servants of his household, in the twenty-second year of his reign, that is in 1530, forbade brewers to put into ale hops and sulphur952. But perhaps his majesty was not fond of hopped beer. Even at present, most of the dictionaries call ale, beer brewed without hops; and an English physician says expressly that the difference between ale and beer is, that hops are not employed for the former953. But according to the English instructions for brewing, hops are required for ale also.

In the English laws hops are mentioned for the first time in the fifth year of the reign of Edward VI., that is in 1552, at which period some privileges were granted to hop-grounds. The cultivation of hops however, which, like the art of brewing, has in England been carried to the greatest perfection, was very limited even in the beginning of the seventeenth century; for James I., in the fifth year of his reign, that is in 1603, found it necessary to forbid, under severe penalties, the introduction and use of spoilt and adulterated hops. At that time, therefore, England did not produce a quantity sufficient for its own consumption.

In Sweden, at least in the fifteenth century, hops seem not to have been very common954; for at that time sweet gale (Myrica gale) was employed for beer; and so generally, that king Christopher, in 1440, confirmed the old law, that those who collected this plant before a certain period, on any common or on another person’s land, should be subjected to a fine. A similar punishment however was appointed for the too early picking of hops; and the cultivation of them was so strongly enforced, that every farmer who had not forty poles with hops growing round them was punished, unless he could show that his land was unfit for producing them955.

But it was long doubted in Sweden whether this plant would thrive in the cold climate of that country; in which however it grows wild. In the time of Gustavus I., who became king in 1523, Sweden was obliged to give for the foreign hops it used 1200 schifpfunds of iron, which was about the ninth part of all the iron made in the kingdom. In the year 1558 the king complained, in an edict, that a pound of hops cost as much as a barrel of malt, and on that account was desirous to encourage the cultivation of the hop-plant. But his exertions were attended with so little effect, that even under the reign of queen Christina, that is, in the middle of the seventeenth century, all the hops used in the kingdom were imported from Germany, and particularly from Brunswick and Saxony. The queen had some hop plantations as rarities in her garden; yet the cultivation of hops was begun under this princess, and carried so far that German hop farmers, who before had been accustomed to travel to Sweden every three years, to receive payment and take new orders, returned very much dissatisfied, and suffered a part of their hop-grounds to run to waste. Under Charles XI., however, who reigned from 1660 to 1697, the cultivation of hops was first brought to a state of considerable improvement.

In the year 1766, Linnæus hazarded a conjecture that hops, spinage, chenopodium, tarragon, and many other garden vegetables were brought to Europe by the Goths, during their periods of emigration, from Russia and particularly the Ukraine, because the old writers make no mention of these plants, and because in those districts they all grow wild at present956. It however appears certain that hops belong to our indigenous plants, as they grow everywhere wild in Germany, Switzerland, England, and Sweden, and even in countries into which the cultivation of them has never yet been introduced, and where it cannot be supposed that they accidentally became wild by being conveyed from hop-fields and gardens. The want of information in works older than the emigrations of the northern tribes, is no proof that a plant did not then exist. At that time there was no Linnæus to transmit plants to posterity, as Hipparchus, according to the expression of Pliny, did the stars. Such vegetable productions only as had become remarkable on account of their utility or hurtful qualities, or by some singular circumstance, occur in the works of the ancients. Many others remained unknown, or at least without names, till natural history acquired a systematic form; and even at present botanists have often the satisfaction to discover some plant not before observed.

Is it probable that the Chinese even are acquainted with our hops? They have a kind of beer made from barley and wheat, which is called tarasun; and according to the account of J. G. Gmelin, who purposely made himself acquainted with the preparation of it, hops formed by pressure into masses, shaped like a brick, are added to it957. It is well known that the Chinese have also a kind of tea formed into cakes by strong pressure. Our hops are compressed in the same manner in Bohemia; and in that state will keep without losing any of their strength for fifty years. They are put into a sack or bag of coarse canvass, and subjected to a press. A square sewed bag, each side of which is two ells, contains fifty bushels of hops prepared in this manner; and when any of them are required for brewing, the bag is made fast to a beam, and as much as may be necessary is cut out with an axe. The whole mass is of a brown colour, and has a resemblance to pitch, in which not a single hop-leaf can be distinguished. Whether the Chinese conceived the idea of employing our common hops for the like purpose, is a question of some importance in regard to the history of them; but at present I am not able to answer it.

[Hops are extensively cultivated in Kent, Sussex, and Herefordshire; and to a less extent in Worcestershire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Surrey, and several other counties.

From 50,000 to 60,000 acres of land are covered in England with hop-gardens, about one-half being in Kent; an excise duty of 18s. 8d. per cwt. is levied upon their produce. British hops are exported to Hamburg, Antwerp, St. Petersburg, New York, Australia, and other places. A trifling quantity is also imported, principally from Flanders. The duty on hops of the growth of Great Britain produced in 1842, £260,979.]

BLACK LEAD

To ascertain how old the use of black lead is for writing might be of some importance in diplomatics, as the antiquity of manuscripts ruled or written with this substance, or of drawings made with it, could then be determined.

I allude here to pencils formed of that mineral called, in common, plumbago and molybdæna, though a distinction is now made between these names by mineralogists. The mineral used for black-lead pencils they call reissbley, plumbago, or graphites; but under the term wasserbley and molybdæna they understand a mineral once considered to be the same as the former, but which, however like it may be in appearance, differs from it in being heavier, occurring much seldomer, and containing a new metal, almost of a steel-grey colour, exceedingly brittle, and named molybdænum. Plumbago, which is the substance here meant, when exposed to an open fire, is almost entirely consumed, leaving nothing but a little iron and siliceous earth. It contains no lead; and the names reissbley and bleystift have no other foundation than the lead-coloured traces which it leaves upon paper. The darker, finer, and cleaner the lines it makes are, the fitter it is for drawing and writing. These lines are durable, and do not readily fade; but when one chooses, they may be readily rubbed out. Black lead, therefore, can be used with more convenience and speed than any coloured earth, charcoal, or even ink.

It is well known that transcribers, more than a thousand years ago, when they wished their writing to be in a particular manner beautiful and regular, drew fine parallel lines, which they followed in writing. These lines may be still clearly distinguished in old manuscripts. In many instances, they have only been impressed on the parchment by some hard, sharp body; but they often exhibit a leaden colour; from which one might suppose that they had been drawn with our plumbago, and consequently believe that the use of this substance is as old as we must consider, from certain marks, the oldest ruled manuscripts. But, on a little reflection, one will be convinced that this would be a very fallacious conclusion. For lines so like those made with plumbago, that the eye can scarcely perceive the difference, may be made with lead958.

It can be proved that the ancients drew their lines with lead; and this could be done with more convenience, as this soft metal was easily rubbed off by the parchment, which, being harder and rougher than our paper, had therefore more body. It is well known that, formerly, when people wished to draw lines, a small round plate of lead, which could not so readily cut the parchment or become bent as a leaden style, was employed959.

Old manuscripts, ruled with lead-coloured lines, have been pointed out by modern diplomatists. Our learned Professor Schönemann, who was unfortunately hurried off by a premature death, has given a description of the Codex Berengaris Turonensis, of the eleventh or twelfth century, and the Codex Theophyli Presbyteri de Temperamento Colorum of the latter century, both preserved in the library of Wolfenbuttel; and remarks that lines are drawn on the first partly with a style and partly in a light manner with lead; but he says of the other, that it exhibits very fine lines drawn with a black-lead pencil960. Le Moine quotes a document of the year 1387, which is ruled with black lead, and at the same time says that the custom of ruling ceased about the year 1421 and 1424. The lines, therefore, after that period, became crooked and oblique961.

But the antiquity of black-lead pencils cannot be determined by the help of diplomatic documents. It might be traced out with more ease were it known by what mineralogical writer plumbago, and the uses of it, were first mentioned. The following is what I have remarked on this subject; but I suspect that there must be some older mention of it than any I have yet been able to find. I do not, however, believe that those who require more than bare conjecture will discover this mineral in the works of the Greeks and the Romans; for it cannot possibly be proved that it is to be understood under the terms plumbago, galena, molybdæna, and molybdoides, as has been confidently asserted by many, who, were it not superfluous, might easily be refuted. But in whatever obscurity these names may be involved, one can with certainty discover that they sometimes denote galena, or a real lead ore, or else some production of lead works.

The first author in whose writings I have as yet found certain mention of plumbago is Conrad Gesner, whose name I can never pronounce without respect. In his book on fossils, printed at Zurich in 1565, he says that people had pencils for writing which consisted of a wooden handle, with a piece of lead, or, as he believed, an artificial mixture, called by some stimmi Anglicanum. Such pencils must at that time have been scarce, because he has given a figure of them in a wood-cut. To judge by this, the pencil seems to have had a wooden sheath or covering.

Thirty years after, Cæsalpinus gave a more complete account of this mineral, which he calls molybdoides, because he thinks it was so named by Dioscorides. He says that it was a lead-coloured shining stone, as smooth as if rubbed over with oil; it gave to the fingers an ash-grey tint, with a plumbeous lustre, and pointed pencils were made of it for the use of painters and draftsmen. He adds, that it was called Flanders’ stone, because it was brought from the Netherlands to Italy962.

Three years after Cæsalpinus, a still better description was given by Imperato. The latter calls the black lead grafio piombino, and says that it is much more convenient for drawing than pen and ink, because the marks made with it appear not only on a white ground, but, in consequence of their brightness, show themselves also on black; because they can be preserved or rubbed out at pleasure; and because one can retrace them with a pen, which drawings made with lead or charcoal will not admit963. This mineral is smooth; appears greasy to the touch, and has a leaden colour, which it communicates with a sort of metallic lustre. It can resist for a long time the strongest fire; it even acquires in it more hardness, and therefore has been considered as a kind of talc. Sometimes it is foliaceous, and may be crumbled to pieces in scales; but it is frequently found denser and stronger, and in this case writing-pencils are made of it. The first kind was mixed with that clay called rubrica, and manufactured into crucibles, which were exceedingly durable in the fire. It is here seen that these Italians, at that time, were well acquainted with this mineral. It has been reckoned a species of talc by Justi, by Wallerius in the first edition of his mineralogy, and also by others. Its durability in resisting heat is certainly manifested, when it is kept in a close fire and between coals. But it is proved by the experiments of modern mineralogists, that in an open, strong, and long-continued fire, it becomes almost entirely consumed.

Bartholomew Ambrosinus, in the continuation of Aldrovandi’s Musæum Metallicum, printed at Bologna in 1648, uses the name lapis plumbarius. The short account which he gives of it has been borrowed from the two Italians last mentioned; but it deserves to be remarked, that even then he thought it worth his while to give Gesner’s figure enlarged.

In the works of Albertus Magnus, George Agricola, Encelius, Cæsius, Kircher, and many other old mineralogists, I have found no mention of black lead. But as the advantageous use of it for crucibles was known to Imperato, and as the crucibles made at Ips, which till very lately were employed by all the mints in Europe, and even in other parts, derived their superiority from plumbago being mixed with the blue clay, and as these crucibles are introduced more than once by Agricola without any mention of the addition, it must either at that time have not been usual, or it must have escaped the notice of this diligent man. How old then are the pits at Leizersdorf, which furnish plumbago for the crucibles of Ips or Passau? I know of one mineralogist only who has described that district, but on this subject he has given us no information.

I am equally unacquainted with the time when the pits in Cumberland, which, as is well known, produce the best plumbago, were discovered. They are situated on the Borrowdale mountains, about ten miles from the town of Keswick. The families to whom these pits belong, according to an established regulation, can open them only once every seven years, and take out but a certain quantity of the mineral, in order to keep up the price, and prevent the pits from being exhausted964. This production is called there black lead, kellow or killow, wad or wadt, which words properly mean black965. I have found no older information in regard to these pits than that of Merret, who wrote in the year 1667, and who calls this mineral nigrica fabrilis, because it had then no Latin name966. Pettus remarked, in his Fleta Minor, published 1683, that the pencils made from it were inclosed in fir or cedar. It is related by Robinson967 and others, that at first the country-people around Keswick marked their sheep with it. Afterwards the art was discovered of employing it for earthenware, and for preserving iron from rust. The last-mentioned author says also, that it is used by the Dutch in dyeing, in order to render black more durable, and that it is bought up by them in large quantities for that purpose. But this is only a pretence. I am inclined to think that they prepare from it black-lead pencils.

The greater part of the plumbago at present used in commerce, but which, as far as I know, is fit only for iron-black, comes from Spain, where it is dug up in the neighbourhood of Ronda, a town in Grenada, a few miles distant from the sea; but, in regard to the antiquity of these pits, I have found no information. In commerce, it is called potloth; and the mills, such as those at Bremen, where it is ground fine, are named potloth mills, an appellation which in all probability has been borrowed from the Dutch, among whom potloot signifies as much as potters’ lead. From this word the French have made potelot, which however in many dictionaries is omitted. If I am not mistaken, this mineral was first found in France at a very late period in Upper Provence, near Curban, and not far from the river Durance, between Sisteron and Gap, from which it is sent to Marseilles.

It appears to me probable, that in the sixteenth century the use of plumbago was first introduced into Italy, a country which abounds with draftsmen and drawing-schools; where other minerals had been long used for drawing, and where the best kinds had been carefully sought out. It is likely, therefore, that some one may have made a trial with plumbago, induced by its appearance; and indeed nothing but a trial was necessary to show its superiority to charcoal, and to black and red chalk. I am inclined to think also, that the earliest mention of it will be found in the oldest Italian works on drawing, rather than in those on mineralogy, to the authors of which this substance first became known by its use. For a long time, all the black-lead pencils employed in Germany and in the neighbouring countries were made at Nuremberg. I shall here observe, that the very convenient method of wiping out writing made with a black-lead pencil, by means of Indian rubber, was discovered about twenty or thirty years ago, and, as I believe, first in England.