VI. y&z ACCOUNT of the Method of making a W i N E, called by 

 the TA R T A R s KO UMIS S ; with Obfervations on its Ufe 

 in Medicine. By JOHN GRIEVE, M. D. F. R. S. EDIN. 

 and late Pbyfician to the Ruffian Army. 



{Read by Dr BLACK, July 12. 1784.] 



IN an age like the prefent, when few things in nature feem 

 to have eluded the refearches of philofophy, when the com- 

 munications of learning are as well eftabliihed as thofe of com- 

 merce, it may appear fomewhat furprifing, that one of the 

 moil important productions of milk mould ftill remain, in a 

 great meafure, unknown to the mod enlightened parts of Eu- 

 rope. 



THE production I mean is the vinous liquor which is pro- 

 cured by fermentation from mares milk. And it was fcarcely 

 to be expected, that, after it had efcaped the obfervation of 

 men the moft fkilled in chemiftry, it fhoxild be taught us by a 

 horde of Tartars, whofe rank in fociety is not above that of 

 Barbarians. 



EVEN in Ruffia itfelf, it was with difficulty I could learn the 

 particulars of the preparation ; and though it has been ufed, 

 for fome ages, by feveral tribes of people who belong to that 

 empire, yet, in the year 1781, when I firft began to think of 

 employing it in medicine, it was as little known in what may 

 be called Rujfia proper, as it is now in Great Britain. If the 

 academicians of St Peterfburgh gave fome accounts of it, thefe 

 accounts have never excited the attention of the phyficians of 

 Ruffia. 



THIS neglect is moft probably to be afcribed, partly to the 

 obfcure relations of travellers, and partly to the pride of fyftem, 



which 



