VITIS VINIFERA, ORD. VH. Hederacce.  : 145 
The Vine is a native of most of the temperate parts of the four 
quarters of the world, and is successfully cultivated in our hemis- 
phere between the thirtieth and fifty-first degree of latitude. 
Through the effects of culture, and a difference of soil and climate, 
numerous varieties of grapes are produced, differing widely in 
shape, colour, and taste, and affording wines, which are known to 
be extremely various, Vine leaves, called pampini, and the tendrils. 
or capreoli, have an astringent taste, and were formerly used in 
-diarrhoeias, hemorrhages, and other disorders, requiring refrigerant 
and styptic medicines. The juice, or sap, of the Vine, named 
lachryma, has been recommended in calculous disorders, and is said’ 
to be an excellent application to weak eyes, and specks of the 
cornea. The unripe fruit Kasa harsh rough sour taste: its expressed. 
juice, called verjuice, was much esteemed by the ancients, but is 
now superseded by the juice of lemons; for external use however, 
particularly in bruises and sprains, verjuice is still employed, and: 
considered to be a very useful application. 
' The dried fruit constitutes an article of the Materia Medica, under~ 
-the name of uva passa, of which two kinds were formerly mentioned ' 
in our Pharmacopeeias, viz. Uvze passa majores & minores, or raisins 
and currants; the latter 1s a variety of the former, or the fruit of the 
‘Vitis corinthiaca seu apyrena, of C. B. The manner of preparing. 
them is by immersing them in a solution of alkaline salt, and soap 
lye made boiling -hot, to which is added some olive oil and a small. 
-quantity of common salt, and afterwards drying them in the shade.* 
These fruits are used as agreeable lubricating acescent sweets, in 
pectoral decoctions, and for obtunding the acrimony of other medi- - 
cines, and rendering them grateful to the palate and stomach. They 
are direCted in the Decoctum hordei compositum, Tinctura senne, 
and Tinctura cardamomi composita. 
Wine, or the fermented juice of the grape; of which there isa: 
_great variety, bas by. medical writers been principally confined to. 
four sorts, as sufficient for officinal use. These are the vinum album 
*Sce Antill in American Philosophical Transact. vol. i. p, 194. 
No. 153. 2:0 
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