S3 2 
pec 
; 
been recommended in calculous diforders, and is faid to be an excel- 
lent application to weak eyes, and fpecks of the cornea. The unripe 
fruit has a harfh rough four tafte : its expreffed juice, called verjuice" 
was much efleemed by the ancients, but is now fuperfeded by the' 
juice of lemons ; for external ufe however, particularly in bruifes and 
fprains, verjuice is ftill employed, and confidered to be a very ufeful 
application. 
The dried fruit conftitutes an article of the Materia Medica, under 
the name of uva pafTa, of which two kinds were formerly mentioned 
in our Pharmacopoeias, viz. Uvx paffae majores & minores, or raifins 
and currents ; the latter is a variety of the former, or the fruit of the 
Vitis corinthiaca feu apyrena, of C. B. The manner of preparing 
them is by immerfing them in a folution of alkaline fait, and foap 
e made boiling hot, to which is added fome olive oil and a fmall 
quantity of common fait, and afterwards drying them in the made.* 
Thefe fruits are ufed as agreeable lubricating acefcent fweets, in 
tt>ral decoctions, and for obtunding the acrimony of other mediein.-, 
and rendering them grateful to the palate and ftomach. They are 
directed in the Decodum hordei compofitum, Tin&ura fennse, and 
Tindura cardamomi compofita. 
Wine,^ or the fermented juice of the grape, of which there is a 
great variety ; has by medical writers been principally confined to four 
forts, as fufficient^ for officinal ufe. Thefe are the vinum album hif- 
panicum, mountain; vinum canarium, canary or fack $ vinum rhena- 
num, rhenifh ; and vinum rubrum, red port. 
On a chemical inveftigation, all wines confift chiefly of water 
alcohol, a peculiar acid, the aerial acid, tartar, and an aftringent 
gummy refinous matter, in which the colour of red wines refides, 
and which is expreffed from the hulks of the grapes. They differ 
from each other in the proportion of thefe ingredients, and particularly 
in that of the alcohol, which they contain. 
The qualities of wines depend not only upon the difference of the 
grapes, as containing more or lefs faccharine juice, and of the acid 
matter which accompanies it, but alfo upon circumltances attending 
the procefs of the fermentation. Thus, if the fermentation be in- 
complete, the wine may contain a portion of majl, or unaffimilated 
See Antill in American Philofopbical Tranfacl* vek i. p. 194 
juice. 
1 
