184 REVIEWS—ON THE MANUFACTURE OF VINEGAR. 
is more complete than the elaborate one of Otto, to which our author 
with most commendable frankness, owns his material indebtedness. 
Although much of the work before us is therefore merely a transla- 
tion from Otto, the community is not the less indebted to Dr. 
Wetherill for the production of a very readable and carefully com- 
piled work on this subject, especially as it contains in addition the 
results of much personal experience. 
The work is divided into two sections, the first treating of the 
chemical history of those substances which are used in the production 
of vinegar, of the theory of its formation, and of its chemical history 
generally ; the second of the purely practical part of its manufacture. 
Perhaps our author’s work might have been as useful if confined. to 
the second portion, but any one who desires to enter upon the 
manufacture of vinegar whether for domestic or manufacturing 
purposes, will not find himself any the worse for an attentive perusal 
of the preceding pages. He will be much less likely to fall into 
error, and will be better enabled to remedy any defect which may 
occur in the process of manufacture. 
The very complete second part of the present work, in which all 
necessary practical. details are fully described, is not of such a 
character as to admit of much remark, but a few observations may 
be made on the first part, in which our author first treats of the 
history of vinegar or acetic acid, of chemical principles generally, 
of sugar, cellulose, starch, gum, dextrine, &c., with their various 
modifications, of alcohol and fermentation, malting, brewing, hydro- 
meters, &c., and lastly of acetic acid, its strength, properties, and the 
theory of its preparation. 
In the historical portion, our author, with a laudable anxiety to 
enhance the value of the substance of which he is treating, endea- 
yours to prove its great antiquity, and in support of this proposition, 
affirms that it must have been known to Noah, as he “ drank of 
wine’? to intoxication, and wine is converted into vinegar by 
keeping. The reasoning is ingenious. but the deduction somewhat 
illogical, inasmuch as if Noah used his. wine so freely as to induce 
intoxication, the probabilities. are that he never kept it sufficiently 
long to form vinegar. That. it was known at the time of Solomon 
appears from the following passage from the Proverbs, “As he that 
taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, 
so is he that. singeth songs to a heavy. heart,’ where nitre probably 
