Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/243

 pence upon every four quarts of it brought in, unless it had been conveyed from the mother country. English importations were excepted from the scope of the Act. In 1691, the general tax was increased to four pence; if introduced in a vessel belonging wholly to Virginians, the duty upon the gallon was to be only two pence.

The liberal use which was made of spirits by all classes was not simply due to the indulgence of an appetite for liquor inherited with that English blood which has always gratified itself so freely in this respect under English skies. It was supposed to have a favorable influence upon the body from a medical point of view. The &#8220;morning draught&#8221; was a popular expression in the Colony long before the close of the seventeenth century. This was the draught with which the day was begun, and it was the popular belief, a belief doubtless formed with the most delightful facility, that such a draught was the surest means of obtaining protection against the miasmatic exhalations of the marshes. The taint of sickness in summer lingered about the oldest settlements, and at all seasons followed in the track of settlers on the frontier engaged in cutting down the forest, who thus set free the germs that invariably lurk in a mould created by rotting leaves and decaying wood. This assured a large practice to all who made any pretensions to the art of the physician. It is evident, from the number of medical bills entered upon record in the seventeenth century, that the expense of illness was an important drain upon the