1*28 OTJE, COMMON FRUITS. 



and the head must be covered and turned the same way 

 as the wind, or the alcoholic and carbonic vapour which 

 rises would cause intoxication, headache, and even syn- 

 cope and asphyxia. It acts like an ordinary warm bath, 

 only that, in addition, the vapours also penetrate the pores 

 and excite the internal organs, so that though never to be 

 ventured on in inflammatory complaints, it has had marked 

 success in curing cases of old rheumatics, sciatica, tumours, 

 &c., &c., and in the wine-growing provinces the vintage 

 season is impatiently waited for through the course of the 

 year by all who have become afflicted with chronic ma- 

 ladies of this description. "It may be," says Noisette, 

 " that more efficacy than is really due to them may be 

 attributed to these baths by the inhabitants of the wine 

 distracts, but they are of sufficient importance to merit 

 being more widely known." The sap of the vine, too, 

 though no longer in use as it once was among regular 

 practitioners, is very popular as a medicine among the 

 .French peasantry, who are accustomed every spring to 

 cut a long vine-branch, the end of which is fixed in a 

 bottle, into which the sap is thus drained at first in a per- 

 fectly clear state ; it soon becomes turbid, undergoing a 

 sort of fermentation, after which it again clears, and is 

 then kept for use, being applied to the skin as a cosmetic 

 to remove spots or stains, or to cure chilblains or inflamed 

 eyes, and also taken internally to allay the pain incident 

 to those who are afflicted with the stone, or to assist in 

 dissipating the fumes of intoxication. 



In Germany, Coblenz on the Rhine is generally looked 

 on as almost the limit of grape culture, the vine zone in 

 Europe being considered to extend from the 31st to the 

 51st N. latitude ; but a few vineyards are to be found 

 even near Dresden and in Moravia, and by artificial means 

 dessert grapes at least may be produced much farther 

 north, for the hothouses of Stockholm and of St. Peters- 

 burg furnish very good specimens. 



Many as are the varieties of the grape cultivated in 

 different parts of Europe, they may all be considered as 

 of one species, the Vitis mnifera ; but, onre across the 

 Atlantic, we are beyond the dominion of Bacchus, and 



