254 Analysis of Wines from Asia Minor, Palestine, Sc. 
s except the first, which I con- 
I performed two analyses of 
n both results, that chemists 
ce is to be placed upon my re- 
the amount of alcohol by 
In the other cases, 
we are warranted in 
It will be seen that in all ca 
ceived to be of little importan 
each specimen; and I have ¢ 
might judge how much depende nt 
searches. In No. 2 the difference ii 
the two processes amounts to 1-2 per 
the difference is less; and it seems to 
concluding, that my mean results do not y more than one per 
cent. from the truth in any case. And this is near enough for a 
the purposes for which the analysis was undertaken. as 
It appears that in all cases except Nos. 7 and 8, the menial i 
gravity of the wines before distillation was greater than that of — 
water. No. 4, from Lebanon, was much heavier; in part proba- 
bly because the juice was concentrated before fermentation, and 
in part because it is so olds It yields, of course, a large per cent, 
of solid matter. ‘ 
The difference in the oaciies according to the tables used, is 
just what we might expect from the different standards assumed 
by Tralles, Gilpin, and Lowitz, and from the fact that the table — 
of the latter gives the per cent. by weight, whereas all the others — 
give it by measure. Gilpin’s tables have been most commonly 
made the standard, but they convey erroneous conclusions ; that 
is, as the subject is usually understood, they indicate more alco- 
hol in fermented liquors than they contain. 
The results which I have now given, justify, it seems to me, 
the following conclusions. 
In the first place, the grapes of Palestine, Syria, and the Le- 
vant generally, produce wines as strongly alcoholic as those of — 
any country whose soil and climate are congenial to the vine. 
It has been thought that the great quantity of sugar which — 
must exist in the grapes of those countries, and the heat of the 
climate, are so unfavorable to fermentation that little or no alco- 
hol can be produced from them. But here we have ten speci- 
mens of the common wines of those countries, all of which be- 
long to the class of the strong wines. It may be thought that 
the strongest wines were selected by Mr. Van Lennep. But I 
particularly requested him not to do it, desiring him to send — 
me rather the common wines. And the apprehension which he — 
expressed that they would all be soured before reaching this 
