Notices respecting New Books. 65 



spirit, although comljiued with water, is still different from that 

 ot the other on the Iniman body. Thev are both very different 

 ironi that of pure wine in which either chemical reat^ents or 

 distillation have ascertained precisely the same proportion of al- 

 cohol. In otiier words, the same quantity of alcohol applied to 

 tne stomach under thf> form of natural wine, and in a state of 

 mere comhmation with water, is productive of effects on the 

 ';° ■;*,""' ""'>■ >"'mediately but ultimately attended with consi- 

 (lera , e differences. These are well known to i^hvsicians. Thev are 

 equally well known to those whose habits of observation either on 

 themselves or others have led them to compare the moral effects, 

 It we may so term them, produced by intoxication with different 

 wines, with champao-ne and claret, or with port and sherry, the 

 elevation o thouglit produced by the h.rmer, with the sedative' 

 eirects o the latter ; or who have had an oj)portunitv of wit- 

 nessniM- the stupidity produced by ale and the ferocity which re- 

 su ts h-om intoxication with spirits. The nervous system is here 

 .1 test of differences which elude the ordinary resources of che- 

 mistry, '^et the reagents which have been applied to the in- 

 ves.gation of these differences, although they have done little, 

 still show tliat some chemical distinctions may really exist It 

 has been perhaps hastily said of Fabbroni's experiment, tliat it 

 was useless since it produced no consistent results. On the con- 

 trary It appears to bo a test applicable to some of the least tena- 

 cious combinations of alcohol, and the censure unjustly passed 

 on ,t has originated in want of attention to the subject, and to 

 those delicate circumstances in the combinations of alcohol oii 

 ^^^llch Its various effects, as it exists in wine and other potable 

 hquors, depend. Could we discover an additional number of 

 such reagents differing in their various powers of separating the 

 (htterent comiiinations under which it is found, I have little 

 doubt that chemical means would shortly illustrate, by corre- 

 sponding differences of effect, the different powers which these 

 t.eycrages exert on the nervous system. The experiment of 

 l-abbroni is perfectly valid to a certain extent, and the causes of 

 he supposed irregular results appear to be abundantly obvious. 

 It alcohol be mixed with water in miy proportion, it inay be se- 

 parated by carbonat of potash. If it be mixed with wine in the 

 same manner, it is, with riue attention and in particular circum- 

 stances, ecpially separable. But if an attempt be made to se- 

 parate the adventitious alcohol from those wines to which it has 

 i.een added by the manufacturer, the experiment will sometimes 

 .'K-ceed and sometimes fail. The cause is mentioned in various 

 parts o this essay, and is apparently this. If the alcohol or 

 brandy be added before the fermentation of the wine, or at some 

 M.i,sequcnt ;^tage when that fermentation can be artificially 're- 

 \ol4b.No.2W.Ju/yMti. E cxdted. 



