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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ramify is gum. These are the only substances of which a 
rudimental gooseberry consists, and both are the produce of 
vital action. 
In the next stage malic acid is formed, which is also a vege- 
table secretion; and whatever may be the origin of the potass, 
there is no doubt of the tartaric acid being a vegetable product. 
As the period of maturity arrives, sugar is formed. Now, 
when we remember that the best analyses agree in assigning 
nearly the same constituents to sugar as to gum, making them, 
isomeric, we require no direct chemical action, but merely a 
little variation in the functions of vegetable life to render the 
gummy matter saccharine. A little longer, and alcohol is 
generated. Now, though it is as certain that sugar is suscepti- 
of a ready conversion into spirit, it must be remembered that 
the only chemical means is by fermentation, during which 
action the intestine movement is great, the heat much aug- 
mented, and the escape of gas voluminous; any of which pro- 
cesses would be incompatible with correct maintenance of 
vital function, whilst their combined influence would un- 
doubtedly prove its destruction. The great thickness of inspis- 
sated mucilage which lines the cortex of a gooseberry, would 
exclude the atmosphere too completely to allow fermentation to 
proceed; or, admitting its possibility, such mucilaginous tex- 
ture, aided by the firm covering of the lignin, would never 
admit the escape of any gas that might be formed, and rup- 
ture would consequently always accompany ripening. Be- 
sides, as chemical action, which is always attended with disor- 
ganization or decomposition, cannot proceed conjointly with 
the healthy functions of vegetable life, it follows that the 
alcohol must be formed by a vital and not by a chemical pro- 
cess. 
I am further inclined to this opinion from having been un- 
able to discover the slightest trace of alcohol in gooseberries 
gathered when sugar only was present, and allowed to stand 
in the sunshine until those which remained on the tree were 
distinctly impregnated with spirit; and it has only been by 
