ABSTRACT
Gin was first developed in 1650 by Franciscus Sylvius, professor of medicine at the State University of Leyden in Holland. To produce a medicine with diuretic properties, he distilled the juniper berry with spirits derived from fermented barley. The French name for juniper, genièvre, was the origin of the English name, gin, for the resultant alcoholic refreshment which also became known by the term Mother’s Ruin. It was introduced in England early in the eighteenth century by soldiers returning from the Low Countries, and it rapidly become a national addiction. This was not because of its taste, though, but because of vested interests. Beer and ale had been taxed since 1643, but gin was not because its production gave farmers a market for cereal at a time when prices were low and because of the political power of the distillers.
