250 Analysis of Wines from Asia Minor, Palestine, fyc. 



was put in requisition in the discussion of this subject. But it 

 has seemed to me that a few analyses of wines from some of the 

 most famous localities of western Asia, whence the wines of 

 Scripture were obtained, would do much more towards settling 

 the question as to their alcoholic character, than the most ingen- 

 ious philological criticisms. And I confess T was surprised to 

 find that no such analysis had been made. I wrote, therefore, 

 to my friend, Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep, American missionary 

 at Smyrna, requesting him to send me specimens of the common 

 wines of Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. As Mr. Van Lennep 

 was a native of Smyrna, I thought he would be better acquaint- 

 ed with the proper localities than a foreigner, and be more sure 

 of obtaining specimens in an unenforced and unadulterated state ; 

 while the fact that he was educated in this country, would make 

 him fully acquainted with the precise object I had in view. I 

 was particular to request him to send no specimen but the pure 

 juice of the grape, to which no ardent spirit had been added. 

 To my request he kindly attended, though with no small trouble. 

 In a letter dated at Smyrna, Sept. 23, 1842, he says : "I have 

 been a great while in fulfilling your commission for specimens 

 of wine from the Levant. I have met with a good deal of diffi- 

 culty in obtaining specimens from Syria and Palestine, or rather in 

 getting them transported from thence. For what with quaran- 

 tine regulations, delays of vessels, &c. it is now more than a 

 year, I think, since I wrote to some of the missionary brethren 

 at Beyroot and Jerusalem on the subject. I now forward to Bos- 

 ton, to your address, a box containing the following : one bottle 

 of wine from Mount Lebanon, one year old, and another from 

 the same place, six years old ; two bottles from Hebron, age un- 

 known ; one bottle from Corfu, age unknown ; one bottle from 

 Syria, place and age unknown; one bottle from Cyprus, not old; 

 one bottle from Samos, not old ; one bottle from Rhodes, one 

 year old ; one bottle from Smyrna, new, that is, about a year old. 

 1 hope the custom-house officers will not open the box, and shall 

 therefore write the contents on the outside. But with all the 

 precautions I have taken, I should not be surprised should they 

 all, or many of them, reach you soured. Then, instead of your 

 laboratory, they will take their place in your store-room, and 

 whenever you have salad on your table, you will please pour on 

 the vinegar to my health — a sour health to be sure !" 



