WINE AND THE ART OP WINE TASTING. 7 



selves contain. The addition of the latter is considered by many as an 

 adulteration, because it changes the quantitative composition of the 

 must, and consequently of the wine. 



'Who first made wine is not known. The history of its manufacture, 

 like that of many other fermented beverages, extends back into the 

 mists of ages; nothing, therefore, is known about its first use. Tradi- 

 tion and mythology give several accounts of its first appearance, but 

 they are of a very contradictory nature. 



Of one thing we may be sure, and that is that from the first, man has 

 asked himself the question: Is wine a real benefit? A question that 

 has not yet, perhaps, been answered to the satisfaction of some. 



Even at the present day it is not possible to give a satisfactory, defi- 

 nite reply to this demand, unless we look at it from an economical stand- 

 point, in which case there can be no doubt of its utility, as it is one of 

 the principal sources of national wealth in every country where the 

 grape can be grown. 



We must therefore consider it from this point of view, otherwise its 

 real utility to man might be contested. 



It is said that wine incites man to anger, licentiousness, murder, and 

 in general subjects him to a thousand depraving temptations. 



" II vino e il veleno piu teribile per la societa. Ne i fulmine di Giove, 

 ne la spada di Marte, ne i bad di Venere hanno fatto tante vittime quanto 

 Bacco coi calici spumante." Bizzozero. 



Alcohol, the moment it enters the cells and nervous filaments, revives 

 their functions and excites and stimulates their action; this state of 

 exaltation passed, however, if more alcohol is imbibed by the cells and 

 nerves a period of exhaustion supervenes. The presence of this foreign 

 body in the organism, tainting the blood and diffusing its vapors 

 through the substance of the brain, interferes with the chemical pro- 

 cesses of the body, augments the resistance to the nervous movements, 

 and engenders that particular kind of poisoning known under the name 

 of intoxication. 



It was owing to wine that Ham was cursed and became the servant of 

 his brothers' servants. It was owing to wine that the ancient Persians, 

 Lacedemonians, Romans active, vigorous, and glorious by a thousand 

 splendid victories, as long as they possessed the virtue of sobriety 

 declined and fell when 



Delia stoica incude 

 Spessa nel vin tempravasi 

 La rigida virtude. 



But that was the abuse not the use of wine. 



Every one should know that wine, drunk in moderation or with 

 temperance, favors and augments the secretion of the gastric juices and 

 so aids digestion; it excites the imagination, awakens the memory, 

 dispels care, restores the physical force, and renders the movements of 

 the body active and vigorous. 



A proof of this, if one is needed, is furnished by the fact cited by all 

 writers on hygiene, that if in the war of 1870-71 the German army was 

 able to sustain the fatigues of the campaign and sieges, always remain- 

 ing in good health, it was because they were invading and conquering 

 a wine-producing country. 



Bacchus is the "Dio salvatore." Plutarch, in the life of Caesar, 

 mentions that the whole army of. the General was once afflicted with a 



