REVIEWS. 
85 
and the food of the child are abundant and regular, the food of the boy and the food of 
the youth should be the same. Both are occupied in the great business of growing life; 
on both are dependent the future man, for his strength and for his manhood. 
“ Boyhood and youth have besides other duties to perform—namely, cultivation of the 
mind, or education ; and then the question arises whether these two important processes 
are equally provided for in the training of our youth. To be well instructed mentally, 
youth must be properly fed physically; and at no period of life are the three ample 
meals of mingled animal and vegetable food so necessary. There must be no putting off 
of the stomach with bread-and-butter and slop as the effigies of two of the three meals 
of the day; but a generous intermingling of all the elements that constitute a sound 
and nutritious diet.” 
We commend this address to the attentive consideration of our readers, for all must 
feel a deep interest in every question which has reference to the health and vigour of the 
rising generation. 
Report on the Cheap Wines from France, Italy, Austria, Greece, and Hungary, 
their Quality, Wholesomeness, and Price, and their use in Diet and Medicine ; with 
Short Notes of a Lecture to Ladies on Wines, and Remarks on Acidity. By Robert 
Druitt, Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London ; Medical Officer of 
Health to St. George’s, Hanover Square, etc. etc. London: Henry Renshaw, 356, Strand. 
1865. . 
The causes which led Dr. Druitt to prepare and publish this report will best appear 
from the following extract from the Preface — 
“ For some years I have been deeply interested in the subject of intemperance, its 
causes and remedies, and in all other matters relating to the popular use of stimulants. 
Hence I watched with intense curiosity the results of the late reduction of the wine 
duties, for I had always believed that health and morality would be largely promoted 
by the more liberal use of wine, and by taking from people all excuse for drinking dis¬ 
tilled spirits. Whilst, therefore, one set of prophets were foretelling the day when all 
the English should give up their beer, and cabmen call for claret instead of ‘ half-and- 
half,’ and whilst another set were foreboding a deluge of some red sour poisonous stuff 
that should set our teeth on edge, I bought cheap wine from time to time, for my own 
table, at such a variety of shops as should enable me to form a notion of what the public 
could really get at a moderate price, that is, at or under half-a-crown a bottle. After a 
while, I began (Jan. 1863) to make memoranda of the qualities of what I was drinking ; 
and after these had accumulated sufficiently, began to publish them in the ‘ Medical 
Times and Gazette.’ Having begun, I soon found myself urged to go on by my medical 
brethren, who also have encouraged me to publish these papers in the present form. Of 
course, they bear the marks of abruptness and repetition, which could not be avoided in 
writing hastily from week to week. I have added notes of what I think would be a 
useful lecture to ladies, should they desire to learn the elements of oenologv. 
“ It is very difficult to put-pen to paper without being misunderstood. ‘ Do you wish,’ 
says one friend, ‘the English to give up their beer and become a wine-drinking people?’ 
Certainly notfor I hold that beer is about the best of all drinks for persons of good 
digestion, who work hard in the open air. Or, ‘ do you really advise us, says anotner, 
‘ to give up our fine old port and soft sherry, and take to sour, thin Bordeaux ? Cer¬ 
tainly not, is my answer. Whoever has good port and sherry, or can afford to buy tnem, 
and finds them agree with him, why should he change ? A man can but be well off, 
after all. But I venture to say that there is a large number of persons who are not well 
off with beer or port and sherry; and these are the persons for whose sake we want the 
wine which France, Germany, Greece, and Hungary can supply. 
« There is the large class of studious, literary persons, clerks, artisans, shopmen, work¬ 
women, governesses, and, I may say, people generally, who lead indoor town-lives, who 
can’t drink beer with due regard to health. Then good port and sherry, if attainable at 
ail. are ruinously dear, and cheap port and sherry very bad. Besides, most men of forty 
say they can’t drink port; and most physicians find that sherry, as it now is, does not 
agree with the dyspeptic. The two cardinal points of man’s moral nature, therefore- 
his stomach and his purse—demand a change. And what shall we go to ? io spirits 
and water ? or to the drugged, factitious liquids sold as cheap sherry ? No, common 
sense says, let us take to Wine ; to the true juice of the grape ; that liquid which our 
