Introduction

The consumption of beer and wine was popular in biblical times and was documented in ancient Egypt, and surprisingly strong drink as distinct from wine is described in The Old Testament Book of Proverbs around 500 BC. Distilled rice and barley liquors were enjoyed in India at approximately the same time (Prakash 1961), but the knowledge remained isolated for more than 1000 years. Distillation was described by the Greeks (Barbor 1986), but although Aristotle in his Meteorology Book 2 (quoted in McGee 1984) detailed the distillation of wine and sea-water with the formation of potable water, the brandy and salt were regarded as useless impurities and were discarded. Plato knew the difference between wine and strong drink, but widespread consumption of distilled liquors did not occur until much later, and then at first as a medicine. Episodes of very heavy drinking have occurred in certain populations, as during the gin epidemic in London, when 1 in 4 of the adult population is said to have consumed a bottle of gin a day (Robinson 1988). In spite of this, the ill effects of chronic heavy consumption, as described by careful observers from Plato to Hogarth, have not included cancers. Apparently there was no conspicuously high incidence of esophageal cancer similar to that which has been recognized by the community to occur in certain areas in China since antiquity.