8 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. I. 
old dwelling — its subdivision into many small 
rooms— is much as it was ; the fittings and furni- 
ture m a gayer Parisian style. ... The morning 
occupations of our jury are curious and various, 
each one well adapted to its end, but performed 
amidst a scene of gesticulation and action and a 
Babel of seeming altercation which renders the 
result, when we come afterwards coolly to sum 
up the notes, surprising to me. Take the fol- 
lowing as an example: Time, 7 a.m. ; subject, 
wines of Austria; scene, Grande Exposition, in 
a small whitewashed chamber with a skylight ; 
a table with green cloth, and books, papers’ 
writing materials ; another with rows of bottles of 
wine, corkscrews, &c. Hampers of wine on one 
side of the room. President and two or three 
members of jury in green velvet fatitetdh ; three 
experts seated in a corner of the room with a tin 
pail before them, each with a silver chalice like 
a Highland quaigh, and a small napkin. The 
Austrian Commissioner and the representatives 
of the several wine-growers ; a man in green and 
silver umfom to uncork ; a grinning negro to 
serve the wine to the tasters ; a worthy ‘ blouse ’ 
to^ hand and take back the sample-bottles. Com- 
missioner calls out the number and vintage-year of 
the sample. A juryman enters it in a ruled book 
the uncorker uncorks the bottle ; the grinning 
negro pours a little into the pail, then fills the 
chalice. Each taster agitates the wine, carries it 
