N^otcs and Gleanings. lOi 



cleared of forests, and the cultivation appeared rather better ; this improve- 

 ment in cultivation bein;^ more marked down the Valley of the Vistula, between 

 Warsaw and the Prussian frontier. Here there were several large towns : tlie 

 country appeared comparatively populous ; and there was a greater proportion 

 of the land cultivated, appearing as if it had been longer occupied than the terri- 

 tory to the northward between the Niemen and St. Petersburg. The trees here 

 changed, too, somewhat in character ; for although firs, evergreens, and white 

 birch, were the prevailing growth, yet I also noticed elms, oaks, ash, maples, and 

 some other kinds. In and about Warsaw, I saw some orchards of large apple 

 and pear trees. yoseph S. Cabot. 



Paris, Aug. lo, 1868. 



" Pure Wixes : what and where are they ? " — Under this heading, in 

 the September number of your Journal, there is a communication from your 

 Missouri correspondent, who makes a very liberal use of my name in connection 

 with cooking potatoes, building mills, baking bread, &c. Now, I do not under- 

 stand the question as one in relation to the preparation of our vegetable food 

 for the table, but whether we can change the natural chemical composition of 

 that food without impairing its nutritious and wholesome character ; or, if you 

 please, whether we can add sugar to the juice of the grape without impairing 

 the nutritious and wholesome character of the wine. 



Sugar, or the saccharine principle, exists in every form of vegetable food, and 

 is essential to its nutritious character. It is to the sugar they contain, that fruit, 

 grains, and other vegetable productions, owe their nutritious properties. We 

 may infer from this that sugar forms a very proper addition to our food ; yet, to 

 be nutritious, it must remain in its natural combination with the other nutritious 

 properties of vegetables. 



Sugar, or the saccharine principle, is the source of all malt and distilled 

 liquors ; and we may therefore say that it is the -source of all the intemperance 

 and drunkenness of the land, as vinous fermentation will transform it into alco- 

 hol. When sugar, or the saccharine principle, is separated from the other ali- 

 mentary substances of vegetables, if the sugar-kettle is used, evaporation first 

 separates it, and vinous fermentation then forms the alcohol ; but, if tlie still is 

 used, vinous fermentation first forms the alcohol, and distillation then separates 

 it. Yet alcohol is the same poisonous or intoxicating substance. So much in 

 explanation of my leave-alone doctrine. 



As to wines, I maintain that pure wine is the fermented juice of the grape, to 

 which nothing has been added ; that the grape contains yeast, which, by vinous 

 fermentation, changes the expressed juice into wine. This is the work or 

 growth of Nature : therefore it is called the "'fruit of the vine."' It is a natural 

 liquid food, the type of our vegetable food. This may differ in aroma, in alco- 

 holic strength, in acidity, and in astringency, with many circumstances ; yet it 

 will contain all the alimentary properties of the grape in their natural con- 

 cordant proportion. This is essential to its nutritious and wholesome charac- 

 ter : it is this which adapts it to the wants of man ; and it is this which relieves 

 it of all seductive influence ana intoxicating power. 



