of tall and very powerful trees, as it would quite 
choke and overwhelm slender trees or mere 
shrubs. Its leaves are finely divided; and, when 
seen at a little distance, resemble those of parsley, 
but are larger. 
The summer vine or fox grape, Vitis estivalis, 
is a native of Virginia, and was introduced to 
Britain in 1656. Its stem attains about the same 
height as that of the crumpled vine; its leaves 
are large, heart-shaped, indented, and smooth on 
both surfaces; its flowers are green, and come 
out in vine-like bunches; and its fruit are black, 
and have in a high degree the odious flavour like 
the smell of a fox. <A variety of this species, 
V. &. sinuata, is only about half the height of 
the normal plant, and has sinuate leaves. 
VINEGAR. Impure and diluted acetic acid. 
It was known in very early times and in far dis- 
tant countries, and was used by the ancients in 
mixture with water as a cooling beverage, and 
made a figure in commerce long before the eco- 
nomical use of any other acid. Various and 
widely different kinds of it seem also to have 
been early known. A kind called pesca or sera, 
almost or quite identical with weak soured wine, 
is supposed to be the vinegar which was offered 
to Ruth by Boaz and to the Saviour by the Ro- 
| man soldiers; and a very sour or strong kind 
| seems to be referred to in the two passages in 
Proverbs, “ As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke 
to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send 
him’”—“ And as vinegar upon nitre, (or rather 
upon natron or native soda,) so is he that singeth 
songs to an heavy heart.” The latter passage 
also intimates that the Hebrews knew well the 
neutralizing power of an alkali upon an acid,—or 
at least the power of soda to destroy the sourness 
of vinegar; and a passage in the Pentateuch,— 
‘He shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar 
of strong drink, neither shall he drink any vine- 
gar of grapes ”’—intimates that they made their 
vinegar from different sources, and had extensive 
practical acquaintance with both the acetous and 
the vinous fermentations. 
The varieties of vinegar, as to both method of 
preparation and intrinsic quality, multiplied with 
the progress of art and the discoveries of science, 
till they have become absolutely innumerable. 
All originate in the process described in our arti- 
cle Acetous FERMENTATION; and all consist of 
acetic acid and water, together with one or more 
or many vegetable principles or extracts either 
spontaneously present or artificially intermixed. 
See the articles Acerrc Actp and Pyrozignzovus 
Actp. . All the common vinegars of commerce, 
with the exception of the clear or pyroligneous 
ones, are made variously from wine, cider, malt 
liquor, infusions of malt, saccharine vegetable 
Juices, watery solutions of sugar, and some other 
and similar liquids; and the chief vegetable princi- 
ples which they contain are mucilage, extractive, 
bitartrate of potash, and some acids, essential oils, 
and colouring matters, “Vinegar,” say our com- 
VINEGAR. 
ogl 
mercial people, “can be made in a cheap manner 
from refuse materials which are frequently thrown 
away as useless,—such as the husks of grapes, 
decayed raisins, the lees of wine, grounds of ale, 
grounds of beer, all the summer fruits of England, 
even blackberries, and all the refuse washings of 
a sugar-house, cider-pressings, and the like,— 
anything, in fact, which contains sugar, or which 
with the aid of water, air, and warmth, will pass 
into the acetous fermentation.” 
The best common vinegar of vinous countries 
is made from the lees of wine worked up with 
new wine; and the best of Britain is made from 
an infusion of malt, and always has a deeper 
colour than any good wine vinegar. But four 
very good kinds of household vinegar, perfectly 
suitable for pickling and for other domestic pur- 
poses, may easily be made from respectively 
honey, brown sugar, British wines, and sour ale, 
according to the following recipes :—First, as to 
honey or white vinegar, dissolve three quarters 
of a pound of honey in rain-water, and put it into 
a seven-gallon cask, with a quart of malt spirit ; 
shake it well, then fill up the cask with rain- 
water; shake it again and place it near the kit- 
chen fire, where it must stand without being 
moved or shaken. Let it remain five months in 
this place, and the vinegar will be made. Draw 
it off by piercing the lower part of the cask; and 
let it run until the concretion which is formed 
at the top, and is termed ‘ mother of vinegar,’ 
begins to appear. You may then begin the pro- 
cess again without cleaning the cask.—Second, 
as to vinegar from sugar:—To eighteen gallons 
of water put eighteen pounds of very coarse 
brown sugar; let it boil in an iron boiler, re- 
moving the scum until no more rises; pour it 
into a large tub to cool, and when cold enough 
to work, put into it a large piece of toasted bread 
saturated with yeast, washing the toast well in 
the liquor; after it has fermented three days, 
beat the yeast well into the liquor, put it into a 
cask and place it near the kitchen fire, laying a 
bit of wood over the bung-hole. Ifin four months 
it is not sour enough, let it remain a month 
longer; then rack it off into a fresh cask, and 
throw into it a handful of shred isinglass; this 
will fine it, when it may be drawn off and bottled. 
Half this quantity, or even five or seven gallons, 
may be made, but the vinegar is always best 
when made in the first proportion.—Third, as to 
vinegar from British wines:—Take a new five- 
gallon cask, and pour into it, boiling hot from 
the fire, a quart of the best and strongest white 
wine vinegar, which you have boiled for this 
purpose in a stone pitcher; bung the cask close, 
and roll it about until the whole of its surface 
has been covered with the vinegar, and this 
latter has become cold; let it stand six hours, 
then take it out and place the cask in a conve- 
nient place by the side of the kitchen fire; bung 
it up tightly, then bore a hole close to one of the 
ends where the head is inserted; into this hole 
