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Franciscus Sylvius, latinized from Franz de le Boë (*15 March 1614 in Hanau; † 14 November 1672 in Leiden), was a Hessian-Dutch physician, anatomist, and natural scientist of Flemish descent. He was an important clinician and iatrochemist, and is considered the founder of scientifically oriented medicine and clinical chemistry. Sylvius introduced the concept of affinity and dealt with digestive processes and body fluids. He was one of the leading exponents of the concept of blood circulation developed by William Harvey. As the person responsible for practical medicine in Leiden, Sylvius established bedside teaching as part of the medical curriculum, and he introduced his students to clinical medicine in an experimental way, both contrary to the rules of the time. He was also interested in pharmacology, herbalism and botany. For heartburn and digestive disorders, Sylvius mixed juniper berries, herbs and alcohol to create a medicine. According to legend, Sylvius marketed this medicine as Genever, for which the name Gin was later adopted in the British Isles, but not only used for medical purposes. Accordingly, the city of birth of Sylvius today calls itself a "birthplace of gin"., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Aims: The study aims to investigate insofar regional differences in alcohol-induced mortality in Russia, which emerged during the early industrialization of the country, persisted over a prolonged period of time (from late nineteenth to early twenty-first century), surviving fundamental political and social changes Russia experienced., Methods: Multivariate regression models with historical and contemporary data on alcohol-induced mortality in Russian regions were estimated to document the persistence of spatial patterns of mortality, as well as to identify the possible mediating variables. Numerous robustness checks were used to corroborate the results., Results: Alcohol-induced male mortality in Russian regions in 1880s-1890s is significantly and strongly correlated with male mortality due to accidental alcohol poisoning in Russian regions in 2010-2012. For female mortality, no robust correlation was established. The results for male mortality do not change if one controls for a variety of other determinants of alcohol-induced mortality and are not driven by outlier regions. Consumption of strong alcohol (in particular vodka) appears to be the mediator variable explaining this persistence., Conclusions: Hazardous drinking behavioral patterns, once they emerge and crystalize during the periods of fragmentation of the traditional society and the early onsets of modernization and urbanization, can be extremely persistent. Even highly intrusive policy interventions at a later stage (like those of the Soviet government) may turn out to be insufficient to change the path-dependent outcomes., (© The Author(s) 2019. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.)

In China, pottery containers first appeared about 20000 cal. BP, and became diverse in form during the Early Neolithic (9000-7000 cal. BP), signaling the emergence of functionally specialized vessels. China is also well-known for its early development of alcohol production. However, few studies have focused on the connections between the two technologies. Based on the analysis of residues (starch, phytolith, and fungus) adhering to pottery from two Early Neolithic sites in north China, here we demonstrate that three material changes occurring in the Early Neolithic signal innovation of specialized alcoholic making known in north China: ( i ) the spread of cereal domestication (millet and rice), ( ii ) the emergence of dedicated pottery types, particularly globular jars as liquid storage vessels, and ( iii ) the development of cereal-based alcohol production with at least two fermentation methods: the use of cereal malts and the use of moldy grain and herbs ( qu and caoqu ) as starters. The latter method was arguably a unique invention initiated in China, and our findings account for the earliest known examples of this technique. The major ingredients include broomcorn millet, Triticeae grasses, Job's tears, rice, beans, snake gourd root, ginger, possible yam and lily, and other plants, some probably with medicinal properties (e.g., ginger). Alcoholic beverages made with these methods were named li , jiu , and chang in ancient texts, first recorded in the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions (ca. 3200 cal. BP); our findings have revealed a much deeper history of these diverse fermentation technologies in China., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article discusses alcohol use throughout history. The discovery and cultivation of wine and beer and distillation of spirits are explored. The article spans prehistory, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Europe, and the Americas; and the religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Also explored are the history and distillation of rum, gin, and champagne. Effects of alcohol use on society are discussed., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: To study the 20-years' clinical alteration and alcoholism basing on the changes in its clinical symptoms and course., Material and Methods: The study included 527 alcoholics with formed alcohol withdrawal syndrome: 181 alcoholics were examined in 1988-1990 (Group 1) and 346 alcoholics in 2011-2012 (Group 2)., Results and Conclusion: In Group 1, vodka consumption dominated at all stages of alcoholism. Group 2 included 172 alcoholics with the domination of vodka consumption and 174 alcoholics with mixed consumption. It was shown that in comparison with Group 1 (1988-1990 patients) patients from Group 2 (2011-2012) had slower and mild development of alcoholism, especially those in the mixed consumption group. The authors suggest that the change of the clinical pattern in Group 2 was due to the change in the composition of consumed alcoholic beverages.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance and Background: Fermented drinks, often alcoholic, are relevant in many nutritional, medicinal, social, ritual and religious aspects of numerous traditional societies. The use of alcoholic drinks of herbal extracts is documented in classical pharmacy since the 1st century CE and it is often recorded in ethnobotanical studies in Europe, particularly in Italy, where are used for a wide range of medicinal purposes. Formulations and uses represent a singular tradition which responds to a wide range of environmental and cultural factors., Aims: This research has two overarching aims To determine how long ancient uses, recipes and formulas for medicinal liqueurs from the pharmacopoeias and herbals of the 18th century persisted in later periods and their role in present ethnobotanical knowledge in areas of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna (Italy). To trace other possible relationships among ancient and recent recipes of alcoholic beverages, from both popular and 'classic' (learned) sources in N-C Italy and neighboring areas., Methods: The review of herbals and classical pharmacopoeias, and ethnobotanical field work in Alta Valle del Reno (Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, Italy) were followed of a systematic study of ingredients and medicinal uses with multivariate analysis techniques., Results: The multivariate analysis clearly shows six different styles of preparing medicinal alcoholic beverages: 1. The medicinal wine formulae by Dioscorides (1st century CE). 2. The pharmacopoeias of Florence and Bologna in the 18th century CE. 3. The formularies of Santa Maria Novella and Castiglione (19th and early 20th centuries CE). 4. The ethnobotanical data from Appennino Tosco-Emiliano; home-made formulations based almost exclusively on the use of local resources. 5. Traditional recipes from NE Italy and Austria. 6. Traditional recipes from NW Italy, Emilia, and Provence (France). A total of 54 ingredients (29 fruits) from 48 species are used in different combinations and proportions in Alta Valle del Reno (Italy) to produce fermented beverages, liqueurs, distilled spirits and aromatized wines. Among these, 37 ingredients (33 species) are used as medicinal remedies. 15 ingredients (14 species) are also used to prepare specific medicinal liqueurs. Most are addressed to the treatment of diseases of the digestive system, dyspepsia in particular, followed by diseases of the respiratory system symptoms, not elsewhere classified and diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, fundamentally of allergic origin., Conclusions: Although medicinal wines, liqueurs and spirits are recorded in numerous classical herbals and pharmacopoeias in Italy and other countries of Europe these show in terms of formulations and ingredients little influence in the ethnobotanical formulations recorded in Alta Valle del Reno (Italy), they apparently play no role in present ethnobotanical knowledge in Appennino Tosco-Emiliano and similarly in other areas of Italy, France and Austria. No (or very poor) persistence was found of ancient uses, recipes and formulas for medicinal liqueurs from pharmacopoeias and herbals of the 16th century CE in later periods in the formulas in use in the pharmacies of Tuscany. Popular recipes are strongly dependent on the availability of local wild and cultivated plants. Overall, Alta Valle del Reno ethnobotanical formulations of medicinal wines and spirits are extremely simple involving from one single ingredient to a few, which are locally produced or collected and selected among relevant medicinal resources used for a wide range of diseases in form of non-alcoholic aqueous extracts. Fruits gathered in the forests are the main ingredients which in this aspect show similarities with those from Tyrol (Austria). Medicinal liqueurs and wines are in analyzed ethnobotanical data mainly employed as digestives., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Although in modern societies fermented beverages are associated with socializing, celebration, and ritual, in ancient times they were also importa`nt sources of essential nutrients and potable water. In Mesoamerica, pulque, an alcoholic beverage produced from the fermented sap of several species of maguey plants (Agavaceae; Fig. 1) is hypothesized to have been used as a dietary supplement and risk-buffering food in ancient Teotihuacan (150 B.C. to A.D. 650). Although direct archaeological evidence of pulque production is lacking, organic residue analysis of pottery vessels offers a new avenue of investigation. However, the chemical components of alcoholic beverages are water-soluble, greatly limiting their survival over archaeological timescales compared with hydrophobic lipids widely preserved in food residues. Hence, we apply a novel lipid biomarker approach that considers detection of bacteriohopanoids derived from the ethanol-producing bacterium Zymomonas mobilis for identifying pulque production/consumption in pottery vessels. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry selected ion monitoring (m/z 191) of lipid extracts of >300 potsherds revealed characteristic bacteriohopanoid distributions in a subset of 14 potsherds. This hopanoid biomarker approach offers a new means of identifying commonly occurring bacterially fermented alcoholic beverages worldwide, including palm wine, beer, cider, perry, and other plant sap- or fruit-derived beverages [Swings J, De Ley J (1977) Bacteriol Rev 41(1):1-46].

Aims: We aimed to map the context of the large increase in vodka consumption in Sweden during the transition from early modern to modern times (c. 1775-1855). What were the attitudes to alcohol among the groups that dominated society, and how did these attitudes relate to contemporary legislation and socio-economic change?, Methods: Qualitative analysis of diaries and memoirs. Information was also collected from legislation, writings of the temperance movement and previous research., Findings: During the period studied, attitudes to alcohol among the socio-economic elite were positive if the drinker was a person of standing, whereas drinking among the working population was scorned and, from the 1830s onwards, a cause for concern. Legislation was characterized by frequent and radical changes. Consumption levels are difficult to estimate: in the 1820s, agricultural overproduction, liberal legislation and improved distilling methods probably resulted in a major consumption increase. In 1846-53, permissive licensing laws and the industrialization of distilling similarly led to very high consumption levels., Conclusions: In Sweden in the late 18th and early 19th centuries the social elite appears to have used alcohol as a tool in their negotiations with the working population but later, as the spread of wage labour and cheap vodka coincided with Sweden's largest ever population growth, the view that popular drinking must be checked gained support in leading circles., (© 2012 The Author, Addiction © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japan, with a tradition lasting more than 1,300 years; it is produced from rice and water by fermenting with the koji mold Aspergillus oryzae and sake yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Breeding research on sake yeasts was originally developed in Japan by incorporating microbiological and genetic research methodologies adopted in other scientific areas. Since the advent of a genetic paradigm, isolation of yeast mutants has been a dominant approach for the breeding of favorable sake yeasts. These sake yeasts include (a) those that do not form foams (produced by isolating a mutant that does not stick to foams, thus decreasing the cost of sake production); (b) those that do not produce urea, which leads to the formation of ethyl carbamate, a possible carcinogen (isolated by positive selection in a canavanine-, arginine-, and ornithine-containing medium); (c) those that produce an increased amount of ethyl caproate, an apple-like flavor (produced by isolating a mutant resistant to cerulenin, an inhibitor of fatty-acid synthesis); and (d) those that produce a decreased amount of pyruvate (produced by isolating a mutant resistant to an inhibitor of mitochondrial transport, thus decreasing the amount of diacetyl). Given that sake yeasts perform sexual reproduction, sporulation and mating are potent approaches for their breeding. Recently, the genome sequences of sake yeasts have been determined and made publicly accessible. By utilizing this information, the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the brewing characteristics of sake yeasts have been identified, which paves a way to DNA marker-assisted selection of the mated strains. Genetic engineering technologies for experimental yeast strains have recently been established by academic groups, and these technologies have also been applied to the breeding of sake yeasts. Sake yeasts whose genomes have been modified with these technologies correspond to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). However, technologies that enable the elimination of extraneous DNA sequences from the genome of sake yeast have been developed. Sake yeasts genetically modified with these technologies are called self-cloning yeasts and do not contain extraneous DNA sequences. These yeasts were exempted from the Japanese government's guidelines for genetically modified food. Protoplast fusion has also been utilized to breed favorable sake yeasts. Future directions for the breeding of sake yeasts are also proposed in this review. The reviewed research provides perspectives for the breeding of brewery yeasts in other fermentation industries.

Background: In Norway, all sales of distilled spirits were prohibited from 1916 to 1926 and fortified wine was also banned from 1917 to 1923, a period of history called The Prohibition. During this time, the doctors served as gatekeepers who regulated the population's access to alcohol, since a prescription was the only legal way of obtaining fortified wine and distilled spirits. Many have claimed that the doctors failed in this role and undermined Norwegian prohibition policy. KNOWLEDGE BASE: The article is based on a review of articles on the alcohol issue published in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association., Results: Many doctors were of the opinion that alcohol had beneficial health effects, for prevention and alleviation as well as to provide a cure. Moreover, few doctors were temperance advocates and many of them were opposed to the prohibition, including the Director of Health. Over time, many doctors prescribed large amounts of spirits and fortified wine. However, there were few real whisky doctors. The medical community was strongly in favour of rationing, i.e. letting people acquire a certain amount of alcohol without any medical supervision, but this proposal never gained political acceptance., Interpretation: The doctors had a certain responsibility for this erosion of the prohibition, and thereby also for its final demise. The whisky doctors were a threat to the profession's reputation, and the most unscrupulous were excluded from the Norwegian Medical Association. The main responsibility for the situation with regard to prescriptions, however, fell on the health authorities and politicians, who delayed the introduction of effective regulations for far too long.

Background: In Norway, the sale of distilled spirits was prohibited from 1916 to 1926, and fortified wines were banned from 1917 to 1923. This period is often referred to as The Prohibition. The consumption of alcohol declined somewhat, but at a high price: Increased smuggling, moonshining and abuse of prescriptions. The latter was caused by the doctors' exclusive right to prescribe alcohol, which some doctors abused for the sake of personal gain. KNOWLEDGE BASIS: The article is based on a review of the records of the Storting's deliberations concerning prescription practices in the period 1916-1926, as well as articles on alcohol issues in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association from the same period., Results: With the aid of increasingly strict regulations, the authorities sought to stem the activities of the so-called «whisky doctors». The restrictions and controls imposed on their prescribing rights turned out not to be very effective, however, since the doctors' rights were firmly established. In combination with weaknesses in the legislative base, this hampered the criminal prosecution of doctors who wrote prescriptions in a big way. The abuse reached its climax in 1923. It was only with the enactment of the Prescription Act which came into force on 1 March 1924 that the authorities finally succeeded in gaining control of the abuse of prescriptions. The sale of spirits on prescription subsequently dropped sharply., Interpretation: The prescription of spirits had gradually spiralled out of control, and the repeated control measures enacted by the authorities proved insufficient. When the Prescription Act was finally adopted after three attempts in the Storting, time was in reality up for the prohibition.

The Hong Kong Flu in the years 1968-1970 challenged both German health care systems. This article intends to analyse the patterns of reaction to the pandemic. Both German states faced the threat according to their respective ideological orientation. This applied to the two parts of Berlin - West and East - as well. In the GDR the control of influenza was centrally organized. When the pandemic passed away an influenza guiding document ("Führungsdokument") was made obligatory for the fight against the plague. In the FRG hospital treatment maintained predominance while the outpatient sector was administrated by physicians in private practice. In West- Berlin outpatient clinics were declined by the Association of Physicians ("Kassenärztliche Vereinigung"). In 1970 a first concept of surveillance was presented on the level of the state in West Germany. In the years 1968-1970 vaccinations were not common in both German states. The essay is based on the analysis of archival sources, monographs, scientific and newspaper articles., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Objective: To describe community-driven alcohol policy for 78, primarily First Nations, Métis and Inuit, communities in Canada's three northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) between 1970 and 2008. This is a first step to understanding the policy-oriented prevention system that has evolved in these areas over time., Methods: Regulatory data were compiled from Part II of the Territorial Gazette Indices and the Revised Statutes and Regulations of each territory. Regulations were categorized as open, restricted, prohibited or other., Results: The number of communities with some form of regulation has increased steadily over time with half of the sample communities adopting some form of regulation between 1970 and 2008. The use of prohibition as a policy choice peaked in 1980 but has remained relatively steady since that time. There has been a steady increase in the adoption of other kinds of restrictions. Communities with regulations tend to have smaller and younger populations, a greater percentage of people with First Nations, Métis or Inuit origin and are more geographically isolated than those with no regulation., Conclusions: This is the first time alcohol control policies have been compiled and described for the Canadian north. The dataset records the collective energies being put into community problem solving and provides a means to interpret the prevalence of health and social problems linked to alcohol use in these communities over time., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Alcohol has been the most important knockout drug in history and literature and continues to play an essential role up to now. Blunt force to the head in the form of a knockout punch is another mechanism leading to a transient loss of consciousness. Diethyl ether and chloroform are among the classical knockout substances. Although they have meanwhile been replaced by modern sedatives and hypnotics, their use is still observed in isolated cases.

The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which locus of self (institutional versus impulse), measured using the Twenty Statements Test (TST), moderates the relationship between beliefs about alcohol and the college experience (BACE) and alcohol use among college undergraduates. Although the majority of our respondents listed more idiosyncratic personal characteristics and preferences than consensual social roles in response to the TST, the number of students classified as institutionals was notably higher than what has been reported within the literature. In opposition to our hypothesis that BACE would affect levels of alcohol consumption primarily among these individuals, our results indicated that the perception that alcohol use is integral to the college experience had a relatively minimal effect on drinking among respondents who defined themselves in terms of institutional roles. Moreover, multiple social roles themselves appeared to reduce the effects of BACE on levels of alcohol consumption. More impulse-oriented personal characteristics and preferences did not exhibit this moderating influence. Thus, our findings suggest that role occupation may be more important than locus of self in shaping students’ susceptibility to beliefs about drinking and college life.

Why did the production of rum in the French West Indies not achieve the same success within the French Atlantic as it did in the British Atlantic world? Surveying the history of rum production in the French Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this article contends that the reason why no regional trade in rum developed in French North America resulted from fierce industrial and institutional competition from brandy producers in metropolitan France. Rum, nevertheless, remained significant within the culture and economy of Native Americans and African Americans. This article seeks to add nuance to the wider debate of the ability of the trans-border diffusion of new ideas to stimulate and institutionalize industrial and economic growth in the Atlantic world. French entrepreneurs were no less ‘entrepreneurial’ than their British counterparts, but real constraints on consumption on both sides of the Atlantic created insufficient demand.

National alcohol prohibition in the United States between 1920 and 1933 is believed widely to have been a misguided and failed social experiment that made alcohol problems worse by encouraging drinkers to switch to spirits and created a large black market for alcohol supplied by organized crime. The standard view of alcohol prohibition provides policy lessons that are invoked routinely in policy debates about alcohol and other drugs. The alcohol industry invokes it routinely when resisting proposals to reduce the availability of alcohol, increase its price or regulate alcohol advertising and promotion. Advocates of cannabis law reform invoke it frequently in support of their cause. This paper aims: (i) to provide an account of alcohol prohibition that is more accurate than the standard account because it is informed by historical and econometric analyses; (ii) to describe the policy debates in the 1920s and 1930s about the effectiveness of national prohibition; and (iii) to reflect on any relevance that the US experience with alcohol prohibition has for contemporary policies towards alcohol. It is incorrect to claim that the US experience of National Prohibition indicates that prohibition as a means of regulating alcohol is always doomed to failure. Subsequent experience shows that partial prohibitions can produce substantial public health benefits at an acceptable social cost, in the absence of substantial enforcement.

The provinces of Alberta and Ontario have chosen very different methods to distribute alcoholic beverages: Alberta privatized the Alberta Liquor Control Board (ALCB) in 1993 and established a private market to sell beverage alcohol, while Ontario, in stark contrast, opted to retain and expand the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). This article examines the reasons for the divergent policy choices made by Ralph Klein and Mike Harris' Conservative governments in each province. The article draws on John Kingdon's “multiple streams decision-making model,” to examine the mindsets of the key decision-makers, as well as “historical institutionalism,” to organize the pertinent structural, historical and institutional variables that shaped the milieu in which decision-makers acted. Unique, province-specific political cultures, histories, institutional configurations (including the relative influence of a number of powerful actors), as well as the fact that the two liquor control boards were on opposing trajectories towards their ultimate fates, help to explain the different decisions made by each government. Endogenous preference construction in this sector, furthermore, implies that each system is able to satisfy all relevant stakeholders, including consumers.

There is relatively scant evidence of the Indigenous production and consumption of intoxicating drinks on the Australian mainland prior to the arrival of outsiders. Although Australian Aboriginal peoples had mastered fermentation in some regions, the Indigenous manufacture of much stronger drinks by distillation was unknown on the Australian mainland. However, following contact with Pacific Island and Southeast Asian peoples in the 19th century, Islanders in the Torres Strait adopted techniques for fermenting and distilling what became a quasi-indigenous alcoholic drink known as tuba. This paper discusses the historical process of the diffusion of this substance as a result of labour migration and internationalisation in the Strait, and provides present-day accounts of tuba production from Torres Strait Islanders.

The study of archival materials and published historical and ethnographic sources shows that alcohol played an insignificant role in contacts with the aboriginal population during the Russian colonization of Alaska. The Russian-American Company (RAC) tried to fight alcoholism and limited access of spirits to the natives of the Russian colonies partially for moral and partially for economic reasons. The only Alaskan natives to whom agents of the RAC supplied rum in large quantities were the Tlingit and Kaigani Haida in 1830–1842, and among them excessive drinking became a widespread problem. The chief suppliers of alcohol for these Native Americans were the British and American traders at the end of the eighteenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century traders and whalers began to supply it to the Bering Sea Eskimos as well. Russian colonization was marked by efforts to limit drunkenness in the native populations. In that sense, Russian colonization was favorable in comparison with subsequent American colonization of Alaska.

This article examines ideas of morality and health, and connections between moral transgression and disease in both Scottish missionary and Central African thought in the context of the Livingstonia Mission of the Presbyterian Free Church of Scotland in Malawi during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By concentrating on debates, conflicts and co-operation between missionaries and Africans over the key issues of beer drinking and sexual morality, this article explores the emergence of a new "moral hygiene" among African Christian communities in Northern Malawi.

Chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery vessels from Puerto Escondido in what is now Honduras show that cacao beverages were being made there before 1000 B.C., extending the confirmed use of cacao back at least 500 years. The famous chocolate beverage served on special occasions in later times in Mesoamerica, especially by elites, was made from cacao seeds. The earliest cacao beverages consumed at Puerto Escondido were likely produced by fermenting the sweet pulp surrounding the seeds.

In 1913, the Anti-Saloon League of America declared its intention to pursue national prohibition. While it continued to adhere to its core principles of agitation, it expanded its communication efforts and entered a partnership with the Scientific Temperance Federation, a spin-off of the education arm of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The League's tactics were not necessarily new to the temperance movement -- or even to other reform movements of the time. What did set it apart was its single-minded focus on stopping the liquor traffic. Tracing through archival artifacts the League's communication strategies and tactics during 1913, then, this study contributes to a larger body of work that seeks to expand on the traditional model of public relations history.

This article focuses on the 1905 crisis of French and Algerian viticulture that came to be known as the "Leakey Affair." It explains why metropolitan French observers reacted so strongly to Leakey's contract and subsequent advertising of Algerian wine on the British market, first from a socio-economic perspective, and second by reference to the importance of wine in French culture and identity. The final section of the article explains the response of Algeria's colonists to their metropolitan critics. Throughout, wine is used as a prism through which to explore the nature of identity in modern France and the complex colonial relationship in which the wine industry played such a major role. The Leakey Affair revealed the fragility of colonial cultural formations and the importance of wine as a conduit of ideas, and a symbol for fierce wrangling over identity, belonging, and the nature of empire. What was at stake was no less than the intellectual ownership of a mainstay of France's cultural mythology -- wine -- and the relationship between an imperial power and its colonial world.

This study examines the unique publicity activities devised by the Tooth's brewery in Sydney during the Great Depression and the 1930s. Unlike many advertisers, the brewery did not turn its back on advertising or marketing. Recognising the importance of publicity, the brewery developed innovative advertising and marketing initiatives in an attempt to arrest its declining sales. Such strategies included the development of co-operative advertising campaigns, the creation of advertisements directly targeting female consumers, and the renovation of pubs owned by the brewery. However, the significance of these initiatives extends beyond the immediate economic concerns. They were also celebration of modernity. By locating Tooth's advertising, marketing, and public relations activities within the broader social, cultural, and political context, this study provides a revealing insight into the way in which such campaigns simultaneously informed and reflected the Australian experience of modernity during the 1930s.

Background: Estimates of per capita consumption of alcohol in the United States require estimates of the mean alcohol content by volume (%ABV) of the beer, wine, and spirits sold to convert beverage volume to gallons of pure alcohol., Methods: The mean %ABV of spirits is estimated for each year from 1950 to 2002 and for each state using the %ABV of major brands and sales of sprits types. The mean %ABV of beer and wine is extrapolated to cover this period based on previous estimates. These mean %ABVs are then applied to alcohol sales figures to calculate new yearly estimates of per capita consumption of beer, wine, spirits, and total alcohol for the United States population aged 15 and older., Results: The mean %ABV for spirits is found to be lower than previous estimates and to vary considerably over time and across states. Resultant per capita consumption estimates indicate that more alcohol was consumed from beer and less from wine and spirits than found in previous estimates., Conclusions: Empirically based calculation of mean %ABV for beer, wine, and spirits sold in the United States results in different and presumably more accurate per capita consumption estimates than heretofore available. Utilization of the new estimates in aggregate time-series and cross-sectional models of alcohol consumption and related outcomes may improve the accuracy and precision of such models.

Prohibition voices supported their cause through community events as well as public speeches and political debates between 1929 and 1933, the last years before the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. Many activists and average citizens continued to believe in Prohibition with a social, moral, or economic reasoning. Although no Carrie Nations had re-emerged, Prohibition still possessed strong supporters led by strong voices. The three major leaders in Iowa were Senator Smith Wildman Brookhart, John Brown Hammond, and Ida B. Wise. Each created an activist persona. All three believed Prohibition could, should, and would work for the economic, social, and moral welfare not only Iowans but all Americans.

This paper compares the politics of a failed religious movement to ban alcohol advertising in the 1950s with the politics of a more secular, and partially successful, movement to regulate alcohol marketing in the 1970s and 1980s. Although the contexts of the two marketing control movements were quite different, the continuities were equally striking. Both employed arguments about youth, social order, and the power of mass media.

All researchers agree that individuals can become intoxicated by and dependent on alcohol, tobacco, and other psychoactive drugs. But they have disagreed over whether, and to what extent, drug pathologies comprise a unitary medical problem. Most critically, does addiction have a biological common denominator? Consensus on this question has shifted back and forth. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, physicians often studied and treated various drug addictions together, working under the "inebriety" paradigm. By the mid-twentieth century the inebriety paradigm had collapsed. Tobacco and alcohol had split off, both in the medical research community and in western popular culture. This article argues that neuroscientific, genetic, epidemiological, and historical evidence helped to reunify the addiction field in the late twentieth century. A new unifying paradigm emerged, variously called chemical dependency, substance abuse, or simply ATOD -- alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

Alcohol-related pathologies lead to most serious expressions, both at clinical and social level. The diffused social acceptance of consumption and abuse behavior and the lack of alcohol education for professionals (physicians, psychologists, social workers etc.) make difficult to put in the right frame this issue. Just a multidimensional approach can make the problem understandable. The history of alcohol consumption during the time gives us an exhaustive picture of the negative consequences of alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is a problem still underestimated and represents a serious risk for the health of the newborns: children alcohol-exposed in uterus are at risk to develop many pathologies and even the fetal-alcohol syndrome (FAS) that leads to facial anomalies, growth deficiencies and neurological damages. Therefore interventions coping with this kind of issues are needed in order to enhance people's health.

The custom of allowing British seamen the regular use of fermented liquor is an old one. Ale was a standard article of the sea ration as early as the fourteenth century. By the late eighteenth century, beer was considered to be at once a food (a staple beverage and essential part of the sea diet), a luxury (helping to ameliorate the hardship and irregularity of sea life) and a medicine (conducive to health at sea). In particular, beer and its precursors, wort and malt, were administered with the aim of preventing and curing scurvy. This paper examines the use of malt and beer during late eighteenth century British sea voyages, particularly their use as antiscorbutic agents, focusing on James Cook's three voyages during the period 1768-1780. Cook administered sweet wort (an infusion of malt), beer (prepared from an experimental, concentrated malt extract), and spruce beer (prepared mainly from molasses), among many other items, in his attempts to prevent and to cure scurvy. Despite the inconclusive nature of his own experiments, he reported favourably after his second voyage (1772-1775) on the use of wort as an antiscorbutic sea medicine (for which purpose it is now known to be useless). Cook thereby lent credibility to erroneous medical theories about scurvy, helping to perpetuate the use of ineffective treatments and to delay the discovery of a cure for the disorder.