ON COLONIAL WINES. 
native pure wine obtaining all the reputation it is justly- 
entitled to, and its legitimate use as food or a stimulant; 
and those are the customs tod habits of society in 
relation to " the properties of the conduct of ladies," 
and the backwardness of the Medical faculty in the 
matter of prescribing it for their patients, when the 
proper time for the exhibition of wine has arrived. 
And to my knowledge, while some doctors occasionally 
recommend, and advise its use in private practice, they 
seem afraid to order it for hospital patients. 
Against this backwardness the argument seems to 
hold good in this way, i.e., if the patient need wine, 
let it be pure, ripe wine, not this brandied stuff of 
from 30° to 40° per cent, of indifferent alcohol. If the 
patient need a stimulant, begin with brandy and 
ammonia, &c. 
The customary reply is, the patient will not take 
that wine of yours ; I reply, by the same rule that 
they take cubebs, and salts and senna. They will 
take it, if you order it ; but don't order it, where a 
mere stimulant is wanted. 
But the real misery is in the case of the middle and 
poorer classes of patients in private practice ; members 
of clubs and their families. A case, needing to be 
supported and strengthened occurs, and the medical 
attendant says " get a bottle of Port Wine." What, I 
may ask, do these people know about " Port" They 
probably in their hurry give five or six shillings to a 
servant girl or a member of the family, with orders to 
run to the grocer or the nearest public house, and get a 
bottle of " Port Wine ! " 
It is got, and the nauseous stuff, most probably 
compounded in cellars, not 25 miles from Melbourne 
