Alcohol consumption in its different forms.

Much of our current scientific thinking on alcohol has its foundations in scientific advances in the last century. With the emergence of organic chemistry, ethyl alcohol was given its name (now ethanol) and formula and became a central point in the study of carbon compounds. Parallel investigations by Pasteur, on the nature of micro-organisms and their activities in wine-making and brewing, laid the basis of modern microbiology and, in providing explanations for age-old practices, prepared the way for the scientific control of fermentations. Simultaneous advances in human physiology led to investigations on the absorption and metabolism of alcohol, the first stages in the biochemical, pharmacological and nutritional experimentation to be considered in later parts of this symposium. Long before these nineteenth century discoveries, there was a voluminous literature on the art and science of fermentation, for it has been the subject of research by the historians of the ancient civilizations of Iran and the Near East, of Egypt and North Africa, and of Greece and Rome. The production and use of alcohol goes back to prehistory; archaeological records reveal the widespread use of alcohol from different sources and in different forms. Greek writers distinguished between three sources of fermented beverages based respectively on honey (to give mead), cereals (to give beer) and the grape for wine. Later (about the fifth century A.D.), references began to appear to other sources, notably the apple (to give cider), the pear (for Perry) and other fruits (Singer, Holmyard & Hall, 1954). The products described in the classical literature or archaeological records of the Mediterranean world were derived direct from fermentation. Distillation awaited the rise of chemistry by way of the Arabian alchemists. Although crude stills were known in the first century A.D., it appears that improvements leading to the distillation of alcohol did not occur until about A.D. 1100 (Singer, Holmyard, Hall & Williams, 1956). This discovery led to the production of a wide variety of distilled spirits to supplement the older fermented beverages; it led also to the production of a third group of beverages, namely wines (or similar products) fortified by the addition of alcohol. I t may be noted that some foods, and especially yeast-fermented products, contain small quantities of alcohol (Kent-Jones & Amos, 1957).