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Analysis of Wines from Palestine^ Syria, and Asia Minor » 

 By Professor Edward Hitchcock, LL.D., of Amherst Col- 

 lege. 



It is well known, that in the discussions which have arisen in this 

 country and England on the subject of temperance, much has been 

 said respecting the character of the wines described in the Bible and 

 other ancient writings. By some it was maintained, '* that few, if 

 any, of the wines of antiquity were alcoholic ;" that the strongest 

 grape wines of the ancients had in them a less quantity of alcohol 

 than our common table-beer ;" *' that of one hundred and ninety -five 

 kinds of wine used by the Romans in Pliny's time, only one was al- 

 coholic ;" " that amongst the Jews in Judea there was a real diffi- 

 culty, from chemical and natural causes, in the making and preserv- 

 ing any wines except the unfermented ;" '* that the wines of Pales- 

 tine were not alcoholic," &c. (Anti -Bacchus.) A vast amount of 

 curious learning was put in requisition in the discussion of this sub- 

 ject. But it has seemed to me that a few analyses of wines from 

 some of the most famous localities of Western Asia, whence the wines 

 of Scripture were obtained, would do much more towards settling the 

 question as to their alcoholic character, than the most ingenious phi- 

 lological criticisms. And I confess I was surprised to find that no 

 such analysis had been made. I wrote, therefore, to my friend, Rev. 

 Henry J. Van Lennep, American missionary at Smyrna, requesting 

 him to send me specimens of the common wines of Palestine, Syria, 

 and Asia Minor. As Mr Van Lennep was a native of Smyrna, I 

 thought he would be better acquainted with the proper localities than 

 a foreigner, and be more sure of obtaining specimens in an unenforced 

 and unadulterated state ; while the fact, that he was educated in 

 this country, would make him fully acquainted with the precise object 

 I had in view. I was particular to request him to send no specimen 

 but the pure juice of the grape, to which no ardent spirit had been 

 added. To my request he kindly attended, though with no small 

 trouble. In a letter dated at Smyrna, Sept. 23. 1842, he says : 

 " I have been a great while in fulfilling your commission for specimens 

 of wine from the Levant. I have met with a good deal of difficulty 

 in obtaining specimens from Syria and Palestine, or rather in getting 

 them transported from thence. For what with quarantine regula- 

 tions, delays of vessels, &c. it is now more than a year, I think, since 



— and, in this manner, at least the possibility of obtaining light and insight in 

 regard to the subject would be afforded. — All this is very different in its nature 

 and consequences from the course followed, of regarding the above historical report 

 as an illusion, because facts belonging to the province of chemistry are therein 

 stated, for whose explanation that science has not yet found the key. 



