alcohol

[SarahK12345]

why it was probably "by accident" that alcohol and its effects were discovered?

[mastadon]

because alcohol has to be fermented to be ...well alcoholic. it is unlikely that someone figured out they could get drunk before they created alcohol. so fruit or hops or something was probably lying about, got mixed with fluid(water) and over time fermented. apparently egyptians invented beer and pigs have been getting drunk forever on wind fall apples. prob not much help but there you go

[pritchard69]

The monkeys on the rock of Gibraltar often eat fermenting fruit and suffer the same effects as we do. Interestingly, the percent of monkeys which choose to avoid such fruit is almost exactly the same as the percentage of tea-total humans.

[Octavius]

Alcohol may have been "discovered" when people stored fruit and it fermented naturally, and turned into wine.

Higher primates, such as chimpanzees, will eat rotting fruit to enjoy the "high" from their fermenting juices. It's therefore pretty safe to assume early Man did, too. The process of sugars fermenting into alcohol occurs regularly in nature through contact with airborne yeasts. But alcohol use would not have begun in earnest until the dawn of agriculture. Most sugars are simply not abundant enough in nature to make serious production worthwhile, so we probably began farming before we began brewing.

The first brew was probably date palm wine, originating in Mesopotamia. We know that the ancient Egyptians were drinkers, because they invented the first straws, for drinking beer that still contained wheat-husks. Some of their texts refer to the social problems associated with drunkenness, so they were no strangers to recreational drinking. The Babylonians, in the world's first legal text, incuded a law regulating drinking houses.

The Romans had a god Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god of wine, who they worshipped in bouts of alcoholic frenzy. Greek literature is full of warnings against intemperance - they were well-acquainted with the health and social implications of excessive drinking. There are many Old Testament references, and it was an important part of early Jewish rituals. Because of its ceremonial importance, overindulgence was frowned upon, and therefore, in a culture of regular drinkers, it was under strict social control.

Alcohol's importance was never confined to the mystical, however. It has been used socially for many diverse purposes, such as calming feuds, giving courage in battle, sealing pacts, celebrating festivals, and seducing lovers. In medieval Europe, it served as a folk medicine and preservative: what better way to ensure liquids remained safe to drink than turning them into beer?