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Archiver > ABOUT-WORDS > 2005-02 > 1107838193


From: "Robert W. King" <>
Subject: RE: [ABOUT WORDS] British Substance Names
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 22:50:09 -0600
In-Reply-To: <001a01c50d90$60748d70$640a0a0a@home67ej7pz83y>


Hi Bill!

Tonic water and quinine water are the same thing. Quinine (made by boiling
cinchona bark from Peru in water) by itself has a rather bitter flavor and
is rather unpleasant to drink. Classically, quinine was mixed with sugar as
a way to improve palatability. Later on, the water was replaced with soda
(sparkling or carbonated water).

Mixing gin with tonic was invented by the British in India in Victorian
times as a way to make palatable the daily dose of quinine needed as a
prevention of malaria. Add some gin and a bit of lime juice to your daily
dose of tonic, and it becomes a pleasant tipple that can 'cut the dust from
your throat' when the sun is over the yardarm.

Malaria was still endemic in parts of Arkansas in the 1920s and 1930s when
my father was growing up. My grandfather had chronic malaria and would take
to his bed for a couple of weeks every summer with fever and chills. As a
child, my father told me about his mother dosing him with tonic on a regular
basis, but nevertheless he got malaria which wasn't cured until the year he
spent in the mountains of Idaho when he was in the Civilian Conservation
Corps in 1938.

Even in the 1950s, I recall listening to WWL from New Orleans on the radio
at night and hearing frequent ads for 'good old Dr. Kitchener's tonic' which
contained quinine, sugar and grain alcohol. It was available over the
counter in every drug store in the region.


--
Robert W. King
I'm an ingenieur, NOT a bloody locomotive driver!
SnailNet: 19023 TV Tower Rd, Winslow, Arkansas 72959
BellNet: 479-634-2086
InterNet:
Web site: http://www.wildweasel.net


-----Original Message-----
From: Bill [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, 07 February 2005 21:44
To:
Subject: Re: [ABOUT WORDS] British Substance Names

I have also heard that Potassium Chloride, which is used as a salt
substitute can be harmful in excess.

My father used to drink Gin and Quinine water rather than Gin and Tonic
water. Are Quinine and Tonic water the same thing?

Bill R

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