Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/18

2 ; while the art of Brewing, which may be considered equally important, has remained, to say the least, stationary. This may be easily accounted for. It is well known that many eminent chemists have turned their attention to this subject, and would no doubt have made as great improvements in it, as they have done in other arts, had they been furnished with the same advantages in regard to practical information. This, however, unfortunately has not been the case; for practical brewers, generally speaking, either from self-sufficiency, jealousy, or ignorance, are very unwilling to impart their real or supposed information to any one; but particularly to men of science, whose inquiries excite their jealousy. This in many instances, prompts them rather to mislead than to inform the inquirers.

Another obstacle to improvement is, that almost every brewer in the course of his practice, persuades himself that he has made some discovery, by which he can make his beer better than that of his neighbour. These nostrums, though often worse than useless to the possessors, might, if freely communicated to scientiﬁc inquirers, lead to some improvement; but they are invariably concealed, and thus the want of the combination of science with practice, throws insurmountable difficulties in the way of acquiring useful and accurate information. Had it been otherwise, there can be no doubt, that the