638 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
not that he decries good Port and Sherry, but because, as he says, it is almost 
an impossibility to obtain either of the latter forms in a state of purity. 
Besides, he contends that the national wine of England was Bordeaux or 
Burgundy, till near the end of the seventeenth century, and he shows that 
in the beginning of the eighteenth century, when French wine was banished 
from England, “ the educated and intelligent classes grumbled as much then 
as they would now if all wines were banished save South African. As cheap 
wine is now called Gladstone, so Port was called ‘Methuen.’ The stage 
reviled it, the poets had all a fling at it, as a dull, muddled, humble, thick, flat, 
cheap stuflf.” Armstrong, who was a physician as well as a poet, remarked ; — 
“ The man to well-bred Burgundy brought up 
WiU start the smack of Methuen in the cup.” 
Dr. Druitt has a good deal to say about the wines sold in this country as 
Port and Sherry, and we think there can be very little doubt that he is 
right in thinking that many of them are manufactured, or are, at all events, 
materially altered on their arrival in England. He is exceedingly severe, almost 
to the degree of being abusive, with those who indulge in the habit of ordering 
special wines for patients, on the principle that they contain medicinal ingre- 
dients. Speaking of this practice, he remarks, “ I am ashamed to hear that such 
things are talked of in medical consultations. I have been told that an 
eminent physician in consultation asked, ‘ Don’t you thmk we had better 
order our patient to drink Carlowitz wine ? ’ ‘ Why ? ’ ‘ Because it contains 
phosphuret of iron.’ ‘ Who says so ? ’ ‘ Why, have you never heard that it 
was ordered for the Lady Dulciana, and for the rickety eldest son of the 
Marquis of Garabbas, because it contains phosphide of iron ? ’ My 
informant bowed in grim silence, hoping the day would come when physi- 
cians would disregard the logic of Mrs. Gamp.” This quotation from our 
author’s essay gives in a very brief space the general tone of his book. In 
every possible instance he makes an onslaught on the too commonly adopted 
system of accepting theories which have no facts to support them ; and in aU 
such cases we cordially sympathize with him. It would hardly have been 
too much to expect that so determined a rationalist in matters professional 
should have been extremely cautious in advancing views of his own. It was 
naturally to be expected that one who can so clearly discern the fallacy in 
the argument of others, would support his own opinions with an overpower- 
ing force of logic. We regret, however, to perceive that this is not the case. 
The statements relative to the dietetic value of particular wines, which Dr. 
Druitt commits himself to, are in most cases supported by his own expe- 
rience. That experience may, no doubt, be a valuable one, and we have every 
reason to suppose that it is so ; but it nevertheless behoves us in all questions 
relating to food, to look for something more than the ipse dixit of a writer. 
Dr. Druitt suggests the employment as constant articles of diet, of those light 
wines, which several energetic, and shall we say interested merchants, are 
striving to obtain a sale for. He contends, that from his knowledge of the 
action of these wines upon his own ^system and that of his patients, they 
must be beneflcial ; and mayhap his conclusion is just. On the other hand, 
it may be objected that the limited observation of a few individuals is hardly 
sufficient to warrant us in calling upon our fellows to use any particular form 
