Decree, issued by the Court Chancellery of Austria [Present-day Austria]: “The petition for a license to dispense kosher wine, brought by the Israelite Hospital of Vienna, is denied, since personal permits may not be afforded to juridical persons.” [Researcher’s note: From medieval times until the late 19th century, it was common practice for hospitals to dispense alcohol to their patients. In Vienna, the Christian Citizens’ Hospital was regarded as one of the largest Austrian wine producers of the 16th and 17th centuries; in 1728, the Christian Citizens’ Hospital in Graz, Austria, kept 14,000 liters of wine in its cellars; and in the single month of January 1870, the Infants Hospital in Randall’s Island, NY dispensed 4 gallons, 2 quarts and 8 ounces of whisky and port wine to its patients.]
Fauller, Chrysostomus. Gesetze, Verordnungen und Vorschriften für die Polizei-Verwaltung im Kaiserthume Oesterreich: Erschienen in den Jahren 1740 bis Ende 1825, und in alphabetisch-chronologischer Ordnung zusammengestellt, mit vorzüglicher Rücksicht auf Nieder-Oesterreich, Zweiter Band (Laws, Ordinances and Regulations for the Administration of Police in the Austrian Empire: Published in the Years 1740 Until the End of 1825, and Compiled in Chronological Order, Under Excellent Consideration of Lower Austria, Volume Two). Geistinger: Vienna, 1828. Page 324. Researched by Dominik Jacobs 3/9/2020