end the Method of making Wm-es. 2%l 



by the temperature of the ftomach, extinguifhes the irrita- 

 bility of the organs, and brings on ftupor. 



Old wines, in general, are tonic, and very wholefome: 

 they are fuited to weak ftomachs, old people, and in all 

 cafes where hrengthening is neceffary : they afford very- 

 little nourifTiment, becaufc they are deprived of th^ir really 

 nourifhing principles, and contain fcarccly any other thaa 

 alcohol. 



It is of fuch wine that the poet fpeaks, when he fays : 



Generofum et lene requiro 



Quod curas abigat, quod cum f'pc divite manet 

 In venas animumque meum, quod verba mini ft ret, 

 Quod me, Lucane, juvenem commendet ainicae. 



Oily thick wines are the moil nourifhing. Pinguia fan- 

 guinem augent et nutriunt ; — Galen. The fame author re- 

 commends the wines of Therea and Scibellia as highly nou- 

 rifhing: quod craffum utrumque, nigrum et dulce. 



Wines differ alfo effentially in regard to colour. Red, in. 

 'general, is more fpiritous, lighter, and' more digeftible : 

 white wine furnifhes lefs alcohol, and is more diuretic and 

 weaker, as it has remained lefs time in the vat : it is almoft 

 always more oily, more nutritive, and more gafeous, than 

 the red. 



Pliny admits four fhades in the colour of wines — album, 

 fulvum,fanguineum, rubrum: but it would be too minn 

 well as ufelefs to multiply fhades, which might become In- 

 finite, by extending them from black to white. 



Climate, culture, and variety in the proceffes of fermenta- 

 tion, produce alio infinite differences in the qualities and 

 virtues of wine. To avoid fatiguing repetitions, we muft 

 refer to what we have already laid on this fubjeS. 



The art of tempering wine by the addition of one part of 

 water was pra&ifed among the antients : wine of this kind 

 they called vinum dilutum. Pliny, after Harrier, fpeaks of 

 a wine which could bear twenty parts of water. The fame 

 hiftorian informs us, that in his time wines fo fpiritous were 

 known, that they could not be drunk: niji fervincerentur 

 aqua et attcnucntur aqua calida. 



The antients, who had very jurt and correct ideas refpecl- 

 ing the art of making and preferving wines, feem to have 

 been unacquainted with that of diftilling fpirit from them : 

 the flrft correct ideas refpecYmg the diftillation of wine are 

 afcribed to Arnaud de Villeneuve, profeflbr of medicine at 

 Montpellier. 



The diftillation of wines has given a new value to this 

 production. It has not only furniihed a new beverage^ 



ilrontrer 



