1875.] Notices of Books. 537 
normal constituents, and then the fraudulent additions or sub- 
stitutions. 
Thus we are informed that genuine wine (the fermented juice 
of the grape without any addition) contains :— 
(a). Alcohol, 7 to 20 per cent. by weight. 
(b). Non-volatile substances, 3 to ro per cent., including— 
Grape-sugar o°I to 3 per cent (in a few varieties of wine 
IO, 13, t4 per cent.) 
Free fixed acid, equal 0°3 to 0°6 of tartaric. 
Tannic acid, 0°08 to 0°20 per cent. 
Glycerine, or to o°5 (maximum 2:0 per cent.) 
Albumen (nitrogen from 0'02 to 0°06 per cent.) 
Gum, pectin, fat, wax, colour, ash, 0°17 to 0°27 per cent. 
(Potassic phosphate, fully two-thirds the ash.) 
Tartrate of ethyl (decomposed upon evaporation). 
(c). Volatile substances, besides alcohol and water. 
Ethers. 
Fusel oil. 
Acetic acid (0°06 to 0-12 per cent.) 
We must remark that the author does not use the term “ fusel’”’ 
aS a mere synonym for amylic alcohol, but extends it to all 
those products of fermentation which distil at a temperature 
higher than the boiling-point of ethylic alcohol. He quotes 
from Schmidt’s ‘ Jahrbiicher Gesam. Med.,” 1871, B. 149, 
p. 264, some interesting information on the physiological action 
of these compounds, which fully confirms the prevalent notion 
of their insalubrity. Amylic alcohol, it appears, produces poison- 
ous effects, closely resembling those of ethylic alcohol, but of 
fifteen times greater intensity. Frogs were floated in a 0-002 
solution of the alcohol (one part to 500 parts of water), and then 
in stronger solutions, and the effects of depressed action of the 
heart, congestion, anesthesia, and death were timed. Amzylic 
alcohol produced the same effects in the same time as did ethy- 
lic alcohol of fifteen times greater concentration or butylic alco- 
hel of three times greater concentration ; from which it was in- 
ferred that the poisonous action of butylic alcohol is five 
times more intense than that of ethylic acohol in the same 
quantity. Rabuteau also experimented on himself, taking 
trom four to eight grains of amylic alcohol in a glass of wine, 
and the results confirmed the conclusions given above. On the 
other hand, Hermann, in his ‘‘ Alcoholism in Russia,’’ maintains 
that delirium tremens and acute alcoholism are not found more 
likely to result from the use of cheap spirits with much fusel oil 
than from the consumption of purer qualities. We may here 
state that in Poland and certain parts of eastern Germany, 
where highly fuseliferous potato-spirit is extensively consumed, 
the belief in its specially injurious character is common, both 
among professional and non-professional observers. 
