This important book looks at the entire history of distilling in the Middle East and Europe from the earliest experiments by the Pythagorean alchemists of Ptolemaic Egypt in the fourth century BC to the commerical production of spirits in the British Isles to the year 2000. The author links the art of distilling to alchemical practice; to the Dionysian cults of ancient Greece and Rome; to the development of the art by the Gnostic mystic Christian sects; to the research of the Persians and Arabs; to the preservation of the art by various heretic cults in western Europe; into more mainstream development by the medieval and Renaissance alchemists; before comparative relaxation into the domestic history of distilling in England for the manufacture of strong liquor and the making of medicinal and perfumed waters by members of the landed gentry. While dealing extensively with the mystical, cultish and religious origins of distilling, as well as its links to early science, the book looks closely at all forms of distilling in the British Isles, including the manufacture of spiritous liquors, and the part played in country house domestic life by cordial waters and other distillations.