PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 175 



teration, we have the authority of a more celebrated professor of 

 organic chemistry, that of Liebig, who has thoroughly studied 

 the chemistry of wine-making. Liebig, as I have previously sta- 

 ted, declares that it is a rational practice to improve grape juice 

 deficient in sweetness by the addition of sugar ; and that it is 

 immaterial, as regards the quality of the wine, from what source 

 the sugar is derived, which Mulder admits, for he says that 

 when the fermentatian is completed the added sugar cannot be 

 detected. 



If, then, sugar when added to grape juice cannot be detected 

 after fermentation, and if it is immaterial from what source the 

 sugar has been derived which gives to wine after fermentation 

 one of its important constituents, there can be no chemical objec- 

 tion to the use of sugar in wine-making. 



I will now consider the physiological objection put forth by 

 Mr. Fuller, at the meeting of the New York Farm,ers' Club, pre- 

 viously referred to. Mr. Puller said : " Grape sugar and cane 

 sugar are chemically different, therefore we conclude that the 

 alcohol produced by the fermentation of the two is different ; 

 we know that they act different upon the human system." What 

 authority has Mr. Fuller for this ? Mulder and Liebigboth show 

 that the addition of sugar cannot be proved by analysis of the 

 wine, which would be false, could a difference be detected in the 

 alcohol. I do not think that any medical or physiological author- 

 ity exists for the statement that the alcohol produced from grape 

 sugar, and the alcohol produced from cane sugar operate differ- 

 ently upon the human system, whether used either as an exhila- 

 rating or a medicinal agent. I think Mr. Fuller has been con- 

 founding the effects on the system of alcohol as it exists in wine, 

 and alcohol after it has been distilled from fermented liquor. 

 Medical men and writers on diet represent the practice of adding 

 distilled spirits to Avine as very pernicious. They say that the 

 alcohol thus added does not combine with, or is not acted on by 

 the acids of the juice ; and that the alcohol thus uncombined ads 

 on the organs of the body in the same way as alcohol when dilu- 

 ted M'ith an equivalent quantity of water. 



This is manifest even in the difterence of the moral effects of 

 wine, in which the spirit is an integral element, and of those 

 colored liquids called wine, which serve merely as the vehicle for 

 a large portion of alcohol. The pure light wines of France and 

 Germany produce an agreeable exhilaration of mind very unlike 



