INTOXICATING PRINCIPLE. 59 



for some time it is gradually converted into sugar, and by fermentation 

 undergoes such changes as convert it into alcohol. It is therefore ap- 

 parent that the author of nature designed no such perverted use to be 

 made of vegetable productions. 



The Intoxicating principle of vegetable juices is alcohol, whether 

 found in distilled liquors, fermented wines, beer, cider, perry, or others 

 of the many compositions in which ingenuity has concealed that prin- 

 ciple. It is a poison to the nerve applied externally or internally. 



Opium, too, is a poison, and one of the most active of the vegetable 

 kingdom ; yet, like alcohol, in some cases, it is medicinal. We have, 

 however, spoken of alcohol in another place. It is the use of these 

 things in all cases which is to be considered ; and it is the obvious use 

 designed in their creation by a wise and Beneficent Being that alone 

 gives them, with all other substances, their value to man and animals. 

 Most happily the wisdom of the present period views alcohol in a 

 more just and rational light than formerly. The judgment of men has 

 become convinced, though the natural taste may not be otherwise chang- 

 ed ; and the consequence is, as may always be expected under like cir- 

 cumstances, the one has triumphed over the other. This conviction of 

 the judgment, it should be remarked, is the only certain and efficient 

 precursor of good. Rum and brandy, gin and whiskey, beer and wine 

 drinkers have become convinced, we say, of the evils which necessa- 

 rily flow from their use, and hence the progress of the popular achiev- 

 ments in temperance, and hence men cease to abuse the blessings of 

 vegetable nature, as well as the health and existence of their own. 



The process of fermentation does not take place in nature so as to 

 develope alcoholic liquors ; but it is the result of art. The making of 

 wine and beer, as with the distillation of molasses, consists in numer- 

 ous and elaborate artificial processes. In brewing there is grinding, 

 mashing, hopping, boilins:, cooling, cleansing, fining, attenuation, &c., 

 in all of which great care is necessary. In wine making the processes 

 are equally numerous. Grape juice might pass, by a natural process, 

 if the grapes were prepared, into the vinous fermentation ; but it would 

 almost immediately pass into the acetous fermentation and form vine- 

 gar. This, indeed, would seem to be the natural process. It is not a 

 natural process for barley to form beer any more than it is for the fa- 

 rina of the seed to form beer in passing into sugar in germination, for 

 the support of the young plant. Wine, therefore, is the manufactured 

 liquor of the juice of the grape, and beer is the manufactured liquor 

 of barley, and not, as some would believe, the result of natural pro- 

 cesses. 



The composition of grape juice consists in sugar, extractive matter, 

 gum, glutenous matter, malic acid, citric acid, cream of tartar, etc. ; 

 and wine is alcohol, water, tartaric or malic acid, extractive matter, 

 etc. Carbonic acid is found also in the effervescing wines, blue color- 



