246 



a lesser degree, takes place in Champagne; and it is al- 

 most unnecessary to observe, that the general beverage of 

 the northern provinces consists of cider, or of poor wine, 

 equally acescent in its nature, and prone to the acetous 

 fermentation. The Champagne, though somewhat- less so, 

 is' replete with carbonic acid gas, and disengaged tartarous 

 acid; and though, in the more southern provinces, this 

 malady cannot be considered as endemial, yet it is of fre- 

 (juent occurrence in the hospitals of Montpellier. 



For, even in these favoured climes, Avhere wine is of so 

 little value, and Avithal so spirituous, the unfortunate pea- 

 sant is obliged to content himself with an inferior quality, 

 prepared by a second maceration of the marc of the grape, 

 which lie denominates picqiiet; a patois appellation, most 

 happily applied to its highly acid quality. 



In that once happy country, Switzerland, on the con- 

 trary, as Baron Haller assures us, the disease is by no 

 means frequent, and chiefly confined to the children of 

 the poorer sort; their mountainous and elevated situations 

 affording them little or no vinous liquors: whereas their 

 neighbours, the inhabitarits of the Rhine and INIoselle, as 

 well as some tracts on the banks of the Danube, are pe- 

 culiarly afflicted. 



The truth of this observation we find confirmed, by the 

 medical authors of all times. Silvius observes, " Vina acida 

 " tenuia et Rhenana, magis nocere calculosis quam opi- 

 " ma;" and the same is particularly insisted on, in Dolve- 

 us's " Encyclopoedia, Ephemerides natura; curiosorum," 

 and Rivinus's " Morbi endemici," &c. Now, the wines in 



these 



