GRAPES. 351 
satisfactory effects. In 1863 it was tried by the authorities of the 
Highgate Small-pox Hospital, with the result that they reported 
“it does not seem to do the least good.’’ Yet during the same 
time it was being given at Dorking with a result that the 
mortality there among unvaccinated patients was only 11 per 
cent as against 47 in the Highgate Small-pox Hospital. The 
usual mixture was a quarter of an ounce of the bitartrate of 
potash to a pint of water, taking a wineglassful of this at frequent 
intervals. Later on the same remedy was supplied in the form of 
whey ; half, or three-quarters of an ounce of cream of tartar 
being administered in half a pint of hot, almost boiling milk. 
Mr. Rose came to the conclusion that this was essential in some 
cases, which the other form of the potash salt taken with Turkey 
Rhubarb, failed to benefit. “I am _ willing,” wrote Edward 
Hume to the Liverpool Mercury, 1875, “ to forfeit my reputation 
as a public man if the worst cases of small-pox cannot be cured 
in three days simply by the use of an ounce of cream of tartar 
dissolved in a pint of water, and drunk at intervals, when cold, 
as a certain never-failing remedy. It has cured thousands, 
never leaves a mark, never causes blindness, and avoids tedious 
lingering illness.” 
A limited diet of sweet grapes taken almost exclusively will 
sometimes work wonders for the feeble digestive powers of persons 
rendered weak and bloodless by over-work, or worry; to eat a 
grape each minute for an hour at a time, three or four times in the 
day, while taking very little else beyond dry bread, will often 
prove highly beneficial in such cases. 
What is known as the Grape Cure is pursued in the Tyrol, 
Bavaria, on the banks of the Rhine, and elsewhere, with two 
objects in view according to the respective class of patients. 
Those weakly bloodless persons who are labouring under wasting 
disease, as in chronic catarrh of the lungs, requiring quick supplies 
of animal warmth, and adipose repair, gain special help from 
sweet ripe grapes, being ordered to take these almost exclusively, 
from three to six pounds a day. On the other hand, sufferers 
from torpid biliary functions, sluggish liver, or passive local 
congestions, benefit rather by taking the grapes not fully ripe, 
and not sweet, in moderate allowance ; these latter grapes have 
a diuretic, and somewhat laxative effect, being eaten four or five 
times a day during the promenade ; their reaction is alkaline, 
as aforesaid, therefore suitable for persons troubled with gravel, 
or acid gout. 
