This fizzy gin recipe comes from an 1862 book by the (male) Julia Child of cocktails.
Jerry Thomas as portrayed with the year 1862's version of Instagram.
Source: imgs.sfgate.com
Jerry Thomas ran bars from San Francisco to New York throughout the 1800s. Today he's like the Julia Child of cocktail-makers. His 1862 book How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion was the first in the U.S. to compile, as he put it, “clear and reliable directions for mixing all the beverages used in the United States.”
Fun fact: it appears that the original version scanned for Google books was transferred from Harvard’s library to the women’s archives at Radcliffe in 1960, so perhaps some classy co-eds stirred up this Gin Punch rather than beer-bonging Keystone Light in their dorm rooms like the rest of us.
I skipped Jerry's tip for extracting “the ambrosial essence of the lemon” with what sounds like a sensual citrus massage, but if you want to give it a shot yourself it's here.
Source: books.google.com
Source: books.google.com