Plate: PL. 135

"Two sisters living in Switzerland, gave the world a drink that eventually became the symbol of evils of alcohol, Absinthe. The Henriot sister's intentions were purely altruistic: in 1797, when a retired French major named Dubied passing through their village became ill, they offered him a potion they had been preparing at home for themselves and friends for years: an alcoholic punch flavoured with wormwood, a common herb whose root yielded a bitter but highly intoxicating essence. Dubied liked the drink, bought the formula from them, and immediately started commercial production in Couvet. In 1805 as the demand increased, he set up a new distillery on the French side of the border, in Portarlier, for his son-in-law Henri-Louis Pernod. Able now to supply all of France without having to pay duty to the Swiss, it was Pernod who really popularized absinthe, eventually establishing a vast empire of companies, all run by various members of the far-flung family" (Wine Spectator 173)