94 



CURRANT. 



white, but they have a peculiar flavour, which to some 

 persons is unpleasant ; they are, however, wholesome, 

 and alford a juice which, when made into syrup with su- 

 gar, is much esteemed in sore throats and quinsies. The 

 officinal black currant has a small berry, but is highly valu- 

 able as a medicine when made into wine. In lung fevers^ 

 putrid fevers, and ulcerous sore throats, and in putrid dys- 

 entery, the medicinal properties of this wine are not to be 

 surpassed." — -Thacherh Qrchardist^ p. 225. 



The following receipt for the manufacture of currant 

 wine is by Dr. Green, of Mansfield, Mass. 



" Let the currants be fully ripe, and freed from all leaves^ 

 webs of insects, and decayed or defective fruit ; break and 

 press out the juice, and to every gallon of juice add two 

 gallons of water, and to every g*allon of this mixture three 

 and one fourth pounds of good clean sugar, one gill of good 

 brandy, and one fourth of an ounce of alum pulverized. 

 Mix well together, and put the same into a clean cask. 

 To expedite the process, ascertain the number of gallons 

 the cask intended for the wine will contain — calculate the 

 proportions of the ingredients — put into the cask the juice, 

 brandy and alum — dissolve the sugar in water, and fill the 

 cask, and with a stick mix the whole tog^ether. 



In the month of March following, draw oft the wine, 

 adding one gill of brandy to a gallon, and the wine is 

 excellent, and improves by age. After the w^ine is drawn 

 off, the residue may be w^orked into vineg-ar, or be suspend- 

 ed in a thick bag, in a cool place, that the remaining wine 

 may filter out and be saved." 



A kind of wine has been manufactured from the black 

 currant, by Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy, of Brighton, Mass. 

 which has been much celebrated for its medicinal proper- 

 ties. Dr. John G. Coffin, editor of the Bostmi Medicah 

 Intelligencer^ says of this wine, " It has all the good 

 properties of the best Port, without any of its heating or 

 constipating effects. We could name several instances^ 

 where, in great debility and exhaustion, after protracted 

 and severe fever, and from other causes, nothing else could 

 be thought of, or taken with pleasure or advantage, in which 

 this wine proved grateful to the palate, and most friendly to 

 the stomach ; in which, indeed, it was the principal means 

 of conducting the patient to health and strength." 



" Its exhibition has been attended with remarkable suc- 

 cess in the early stages of cholera and dysentery, — and 

 again also in the later stages of thes.e diseases^ after the 



