42 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



tlemen, suffering at different periods from the 

 same kind of local imflammatory affection, which 

 every kind of alcoholic beverage aggravated, 

 accidentally drank some very fine Chateau Mar- 

 gaux that had been many years in bottle ; in 

 both instances not only was there no local irrita- 

 tion produced by two or three large glasses of 

 the wine, but the general refreshing influence it 

 exercised on their condition of depressed health 

 was most marked. In neither of these cases 

 could half a glass of sherry be borne with com- 

 fort. 



The original quality of a wine, its freedom 

 from admixture with added alcohol or other sub- 

 stances, and its maturity, are the conditions 

 which determine its action on the human organ- 

 ism. It is exceedingly likely that the purely ex- 

 hilarating effect of certain fine old wines, when 

 taken in moderate quantity, may be due to the 

 circumstance that some of the natural constitu- 

 ents of the wine, combined with the alcohol, 

 determine the complete decomposition of the 

 latter into simple elements or its rapid elimina- 

 tion after its stimulating effects have passed 

 away ; so that no undecomposed alcohol and no 

 secondary products of its decomposition, such as 

 acetic acid or aldehyde, remain in the organism. 

 Analogous instances certainly occur in the use of 

 other narcotic substances. Opium taken by it- 

 self has a very different and far more disagreeable 

 effect than when combined with salts of ammonia 

 or other substances which excite the action of 

 the secreting organs. It is the same with the 

 hydrate of chloral. Taken by itself it often pro- 

 duces much headache and drowsiness after its 

 soporific effects have passed away ; but, when 

 combined with an equal quantity of bromide of 

 potassium, a medicine which acts as a stimulant 

 to certain organs of secretion, the unpleasant 

 consequences are generally wholly obviated. 



It must not be expected that cheap wines can 

 be good wines. There are a great number of 

 persons always ready to give good prices for good 

 wines. Cheap wines are either fabricated wines, 

 and therefore unwholesome, or they are poor, 

 acid, flavorless, natural wines that will not keep. 

 The latter may not always be unwholesome, es- 

 pecially if their excess of acidity be corrected by 

 admixture with effervescing alkaline waters ; but 

 they possess none of the generous, exhilarating 

 properties cf good, sound wines. So recently as 

 last year the respectable wine-merchants of Paris, 

 Bordeaux, and other towns, petitioned the French 

 Legislature to interfere and put a stop to the 

 wholesale fabrication of red wines. They stated 



that it was becoming so common a branch of in- 

 dustry to take a barrel of sour white wine, and, 

 by means of artificial coloring - matters, to con- 

 vert it into a brilliant red, salable article, that 

 the credit and reputation of the French wines 

 were likely to be seriously affected by it. 



The best and most wholesome wines for gen- 

 eral use as beverages are the good, sound, ma- 

 tured wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. The 

 finer and older the wine, the more perfect will 

 be its tonic properties. As very light, refreshing 

 beverages, containing but a very small percentage 

 of alcohol, there are some kinds of hock and still 

 Moselle to be obtained at very moderate prices. 

 The sparkling wines of Champagne are preemi- 

 nent for their rapid stimulating effects. No bev- 

 erage proves of greater value, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, than a draught of champagne. It is 

 especially useful in convalescence from some 

 acute diseases, and I have known it prove most 

 helpful under certain conditions of prolonged 

 mental strain. Indeed, the genuine, light, sound 

 wine of Champagne can be easily distinguished 

 by its effects from the spurious imitations. These 

 often produce depression, and Dever the peculiar 

 buoyancy of true champagne. In the case of 

 very delicate stomachs, it answers best when mixed 

 with an equal quantity of soda-water. 



Of all the wines that are consumed in this 

 country, port and sherry stand responsible for 

 producing the greatest amount of mischief. An 

 incalculable amount of evil is wrought by sherry, 

 and especially by the so-called dry sherries. Ever 

 since it has been the fashion to prefer dry sher- 

 ries, dried sherries have been provided in abun- 

 dance. Most sherries (and ports also) are made- 

 up wines, and contain, roughly speaking, about 

 twice as much alcohol as other wines ; but, of all 

 made-up wines, the made-up dry sherry is the 

 most pernicious. Nor have they even the merit 

 of being cheap, for many of them are sold for 

 high prices. The dryness is given them by ni- 

 trous ether — a horrible and bad imitation of the 

 amontillado flavor — sulphate of lime, tannin, 

 alum, and other atrocities. Now this falsifica- 

 tion would not be practicable if men who ask for 

 dry sherries (and the same remark applies to 

 many of the so-called dry champagnes) under, 

 stood what is the real meaning of the word "dry " 

 applied to wines. It simply means a wine free 

 from added spirit or sugar, and in which the nat- 

 ural saccharine matter of the grape has under- 

 gone a more or less complete fermentative de- 

 struction. It is a negative, not a positive quality. 

 It means the absence of sweetness, and not the 



