Researches on Wines and other Fermented Liquors. 53 
To these facts I will only add, that the wines of Palestine were 
generally kept in bottles made of leather or goat skins firmly sewed 
or pitched together. In these the process of fermentation took place, 
and the wine acquired its proper degree of strength. 
In the absence of any thing like chemical analysis, these are the 
data, from which we must draw our conclusions concerning the na- 
ture of the wines referred to by the sacred writers. Some of them 
are represented to have been sweet wines, which if not the strongest, 
are known to be among the stronger kinds. The grapes from which 
they were produced, were remarkable for their richness and excel- 
lence, the climate of the country being such as to favor their 
growth and the development of those principles, which during fer- 
mentation are converted into alcohol. And as the grapes of that 
country are now known to furnish very rich and spirituous wines, we 
may infer that the ancient wines were similar in their character, since 
there is abundant evidence, that the climate has not suffered any 
material change, for three thousand years. 
I should not omit, in confirmation of this view of the spirituous na- 
ture of the wines of Palestine, to advert to the modes in which they 
were kept. It is now well known, that when mixtures of alcohol 
and water, are put into bladders, the water evaporates and leaves 
the alcohol in a more concentrated form. And it is asserted, that 
wine which has been kept in bottles, closed by pieces of bladder 
firmly tied over the mouth, ina few weeks acquires the strength 
and flavor which would be imparted to it only by several years pres- 
ervation, in the ordinary way. Now it is probable, that the leath- 
ern bags, into which these wines were put, would produce a similar 
effect upon the liquer, which, after the process of fermentation had 
ceased, would soon attain its complete and appropriate alcoholic 
character. 
Intoxicating power of Wine.—lIt is generally supposed, tat i in ; id 
wine, the action of the alcohol upon the animal economy, is modifi- 
ed by the other vegetable ‘matters, which are mixed or combined 
with it. According to this view, it is of course taken for granted, 
that the intoxicating power of wine is not so great, as that of a mere 
mixture of the same proportion of alcohol with water. Before offer- 
ing any remarks upon this point, it may be proper to introduce the fol- 
lowing table, showing the relative powers of several wines and other 
fermented liquors, on the supposition, that the alcohol is equally 
effective, as in distilled liquors :—brandy containing 53.39 per cent 
Fs 
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