The Cocktail

The invention of thafc American institution the cocktail ia now oredited to the medical profession. The old doctors, it seema, had a habit of treating certain diseaaes of the throat with a liquid mixture applied with the tip of a long feather plucked from a cock's tail. In time this liqnid came tobeoaed as a gargle, the name of "cocktail," however, still clinging to it. In the conrse of furtber evolution the gargle became a mixture of bitters, vermouth and other appetizers and flnally developed into the beverage sohighly esteemed by the patrons of Americau bars.