“The characteristic of a period is found essentially in its variation from the adjacent epochs, and that of the one under consideration has been already indicated. But beside the scientific researches, that had very little connection with trade, there grew up a descriptive literature that stands in close relation to the first general empire of beer. To suppose that the present age is the first time of real triumph for the liquor of Gambrinus, shows a very superficial knowledge of the history of civilization, for apart from the Egyptian and Celtic-Germanic beer epochs, which were somewhat local, we have already long passed the real first period of success which fell in the time of the _Renaissance_. In those days the brown flood spread out not merely over Germany, England and Belgium, but into the far corners of recently discovered countries; in village taverns and _rathskellers_ peasants and citizens drank themselves full and merry. At the high schools the students already went to the _kneipen_ with their rapiers (_spiessen_) and swords, studied and rioted behind the tin can, and in the banquet halls of princes and the cabinets of noble ladies, the barley juice was a favorite beverage, not swallowed hastily from tumblers, but taken with deliberation and full enjoyment from deep, wide-mouthed mugs or tankards. Seven maas a day was the allowance for a lady of high rank.[2] About the end of the seventeenth century the increasing use of brandy and coffee put a stop to this immoderate consumption, as at the same time the influence of France and the colonies with their new dishes and resulting change of tastes, brought about the progress from middle age cookery to that of modern times, and as the Gustavus Adolphus boots and wide-brimmed plumed hats gave place to silk stockings and perukes. The present age witnesses the second triumph of Gambrinus, a triumph perhaps even greater than the first, for though the capacity of individuals is far from equal to that of the men of the Renaissance, except in the case of some academic beer soakers and Munich _Danaidenfaesser_ (bottomless vessels), yet the distribution of beer is more extensive, more general and more uniform. The consumption in Europe alone has increased tenfold within fifty years and grows constantly. In the first quarter of this century the wave spread from Bavaria farther and farther over the whole map of Europe, and about twenty years ago a new source was opened in Austria, and the Vienna beer flowed through the canals which the Bavarian product had opened. [2] Sieben Maas Bier per Tag vors graefliche Frauenzimmer war Vorschrift.