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



of brandy, — enough certainly to make the wine quite intoxica- 

 ting. Yet it is quite sweet, and therefore sweetness does not 

 prove that a wine is unintoxicating. When the juice of the 

 grape is boiled down, so as to become thick like honey, or even 

 solid, then, indeed, it cannot ferment, and may be kept an indefi- 

 nite length of time without containing alcohol. Such was some- 

 times the case among the ancients ; but whether the wine which 

 they called defrutum, in which the juice was boiled away only 

 one half, was of this character, that is, thick enough to prevent 

 all fermentation, I much doubt. This inspissated juice of the 

 grape was rather regarded as honey, and so it is called in the Bi- 

 ble, and at the present day in the eastern world it is a very com- 

 mon article ; but so far as I can learn, by inquiring of several 

 missionaries, it is not called wine, but is rather a substitute for 

 our honey or molasses. Admitting however that this article was 

 sometimes called wine by the ancients, (and I have no doubt of 

 the fact,) its use as a beverage must necessarily have been quite 

 limited, and therefore this fact does not invalidate my general 

 conclusion, that the character of the ancient and modern wines 

 in eastern countries was essentially the same. This conclusion, 

 at which Prof. Beck arrived by chemical considerations, in his 

 valuable paper on the analysis of wines in this Journal, (Yol. 

 xxvin,) seems now to be still farther confirmed by experiment. 



I trust that in arriving at such conclusions, it will not be ima- 

 gined that I wish to take away any support, or do in fact take 

 away any support, from the noble cause of temperance, which I 

 have endeavored for so many years to sustain both theoretically 

 and practically. True, some able friends of this cause have sup- 

 posed the ancient wines to be mostly unintoxicating. But I rest 

 and always have rested its support on very different grounds than 

 the per cent, of alcohol in the wines of Syria and Palestine. But 

 this is a point irrelevant to the present paper, and therefore I 

 waive it. To find out the exact truth should be the object of 

 every scientific investigation, however it may affect opposing 

 opinions. 



In the paper of Prof. Beck just spoken of, he has given the anal- 

 ysis of a few samples of American cider ; and he found in them 

 only the average per cent, of 4-68 ; whereas Prof. Brande gives 

 the average of 7*54 per cent, as the amount in English cider. I 



