140 VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



Alcohol not the product of distillation. It was once 

 supposed that the chemical changes which any ferment- 

 ed liquor undergoes to produce alcohol, took place 

 only when it was heated, and that thus alcohol was the 

 product of distillation. This supposition, though long 

 since exploded by the light which analytical chemistry 

 has thrown on the subject of the composition of bodies, 

 is still maintained by the ignorant. Thus it was said 

 that the juice of the grape, by the vinous fermentation 

 merely, never produced alcohol, and therefore if a wine 

 could be obtained and kept, without any admixture of 

 brandy, we should have a liquor free from the former 

 pernicious element. Acting, perhaps entirely, on this 

 belief, several importers sent to their foreign corres- 

 pondents to have wine manufactured without the addi- 

 tion of brandy, and thus the country was furnished with 

 a wine which many people believe contains no alcohol ; 

 and not a few, who on no account would touch a drop 

 of common wine, do not hesitate to take freely of this. 

 It is not a little surprising, by the way, that such do not 

 find by the cheering effects, that this wine contains alco- 

 hol as well as that made in the usual manner, with which 

 it is well known a certain portion of brandy is mixed. 

 This is done under the impression that the juice of the 

 grape does not naturally produce a sufficient quantity of 

 alcohol to preserve the wine, and therefore without the 

 addition of a little brandy, or alchohol in some other 

 form, the vinous, would run into the acetous fermenta- 

 tion, and thus, that the wine would become vinegar. 

 With respect to certain light wines this is true, but ex- 

 perience appears to have proved that there is a differ- 

 ence in grapes in this respect, and that some kinds of 

 wine do not require any addition of alcohol for their 

 preservation, that which the juice produces being amply 

 sufficient for this purpose. 



Now this is not the place to go into a history of this 

 subject, and we have made this digression, merely for 

 the purpose of showing those who still maintain that 

 alcohol is the product of distillation, and that therefore 

 he who drinks the pure juice of the grape, drinks no al- 

 cohol, labors, or rather drinks under a mistake, and that 

 he who receives into his stomach this kind of wine, 



