CHAPTER VII

A SPIRITUOUS DISCOURSE

What is brandy? — See that you get it — Potato-spirit from the Fatherland — The phylloxera and her ravages — Cognac oil — Natural history of the vine-louse — “Spoofing” the Yanks — Properties of Argol — Brandy from sawdust — Desiccated window-sills — Enormous boom in whisky — Dewar and the trade — Water famine — The serpent Alcohol — Some figures — France the drunken nation, not Britain — Taxing of distilleries — _Uisge beatha_ — Fusel oil — Rye whisky — Palm wine — John Exshaw knocked out by John Barleycorn . . . Pages 72–82