These facts speak for themselves; and we only add that, while fully appreciating the value of the " Marshall Hall method" of performing artificial respiration, we cannot but think that the cause of science and of true humanity alike demand that "the test of a successful experience" be applied to the method suggested, before it is made to supplant and exclude entirely that which has for many years passed the test, and which already numbers its instances, not by units, but by tens of thousands. It appears, then, from the facts before us, that each of the two systems is attended by success. The Royal Humane Society directs its attention mainly to the circulation; Dr. Marshall Hall principally to the respiration; and as both functions are essential to life, it is evident that the restoration of the one does in many instances secure the activity of the other. It seems probable that cases differ in their requirements, and that in dependence upon physiological peculiarities, external conditions, and the period during which apnoea has been continued, the reinvigoration of the circulation is of the greater vital moment in one, and that of the respiration in the other. These conditions of variation may be discovered by further experience, and be made the basis of operation, so that we may expect much from the judicious discrimination between, and the combination of, the two plans of treatment. There is nothing in the one which need exclude the other; warmth may be applied while postural respiration is being carried on; and thus combined, we believe that the "Marshall Hall method" will prove to be one of the largest boons conferred by its late and ever distinguished author upon both science and humanity. REVIEW II. 1. The History of Ancient and Modern Wines. By Dr. HENDERSON. London, 1824. 4to. 2. Traité sur les Vins de la France. Par P. BATILLIAT.- Paris, 1846. 8vo. Treatise on the Wines of France. By P. BATILLIAT. 3. Beiträge zur Heilkunde. Genussmittel.-Crefeld, 1849. Von F. W. BÖCKER. Erster Band. Contributions to the Science of Medicine. By F. W. BÖCKER. Vol. I. On Articles of Luxury. 4. De Wijn Scheikundig Beschouwd. Door G. J. MULDER.-Rotterdam, 1855. 8vo. Wine Scientifically Considered. By G. J. MULDER. 5. The Chemistry of Wine. By G. T. MULDER. Edited by H. BENCE JONES, M.D.-London, 1857. pp. 390. 6. Wine and Spirit Merchants' Own Book. By C. C. DORNAT.London, 1855. A FEW years ago, if a physician, curious bon vivant, or ambitious merchant desired to know, for the sake of his patients, his palate, or his pocket, the difference between one wine and another, he got little help from his chemical library. He learnt the various quantities of alcohol contained in the several sorts, and scarcely anything else. Hence some physiologists and medical men concluded that wine really was only diluted alcohol, that spirits and water was just as useful or hurtful as the true gifts of Bacchus, and that to make distinctions was merely pandering to an expensive fancy. Others more shrewd have fallen back on personal experience alone as their guide, and steer as well as they can by its uncertain and limited light. A knowledge of the amount of alcoholic contents of a wine will indeed enable us to give a rough guess how much a man may drink without its getting into his head, but not even that with sufficient certainty to be of practical use; for some wines poor in spirit, have a bad habit of rapidly fuddling the brains; whilst others are so constituted as to accomplish the physician's occasional wish of conveying into the system, without intoxication, a large amount of alcohol. We know, too, that alcohol is necessary to the preservation of wine, and there is a minimum quantity, beneath which the amount of it cannot sink, without the liquor being subject to decomposition inconveniently rapid. But this quantity varies in different wines, some sorts requiring much more than others. We may, then, fairly be discontented with the information solely derived from the alcoholic contents. We want to know how wine will taste, how it will keep, what price it will fetch, what effect it will have upon our patients, and we are often puzzled to know whether it is wine at all: and in clearing up these mysteries get no help from alcoholometry. The advances made by the present generation in organic chemistry, lend a hope of throwing more light on the subject than could have been done by science at the date when Dr. Henderson published his invaluable work, still the classical authority with all who know it. The easy taste of its style, the beauty and number of its illustrations, the accuracy and good selection of its quotations, not to mention its convenient type and division, must render it an universal favourite. But its chemistry, though rarely wrong, is of course not that of 1858. We think the time has come for reviewing what since then has been done, and is doing, by scientific research, and examining how far that is capable of practical application. How shall we arrange the topics on which the advance of science ought to make us better informed, or at all events more easily and systematically informed, than our fathers? An orderly rehearsal of the several constituents elicited by chemists would weary our readers, and offer more show than reality of improved science. To trace the noble juices from their birth in the grape, through the vat into the cask, from the cask into the bottle, and from the bottle into the human frame; reviewing what can be learnt of the changes they undergo in fermenting, casking, bottling, cellaring, and drinking, would indeed be an interesting task, but too lengthy for our pages, and rather suited for industrial than medical application. A more convenient method will be to take in order the several points mentioned just now as not eluci dated by the estimation of the alcoholic contents, and to see how far modern chemistry will aid us to have clearer ideas concerning the flavour, the changes by age, the value, the medical uses, and the adulteration of wines. The FLAVOURS of wines may be considered to depend on their— 1. Free* Acids; 2. Sugar; 3. Tannin; 4. Volatile Ethers, or "Bouquet ;" 5. Non-volatile Extract, or "Body.” 1. Free acids are found in all wines and in less variable quantities than perhaps might be expected. Thus Mr. Gunning,† acting apparently under Professor Mulder's directions, found in 100 grammes (= 3 imperial fluid-ounces, or about a couple of glasses) And so on through many less familiar vintages, none seeming to have less than 4, or more than 9, grains of acid in the two glasses. How is it, then, that our connoisseurs pronounce some wines "not acid?" How is it that we do not taste in all sorts this large amount of decided flavouring ?-Simply because it is masked by sugar more in some than in others. Everybody notices a degree of tartness in even the finest Chateau Yquem Sauterne, yet its acid constituents are less than those of port, where they are undiscoverable, or of champagne, which is pronounced "sweet." This is almost entirely explained by the total absence of sugar from the first, by the presence of about twenty grains per ounce in the second, and of still more in the third. Who would have guessed that Lachryma Christi was in reality nearly as sour as ordinary claret? Yet such it appears to be by the table above drawn out from Guuning's experiments. It is clear that almost any amount of acidity may be concealed from the taster by sugar. The effect of acids is doubtless to render the gustatory nerves more susceptible of other agreeabler savours. Wine neutralized by soda is sad mawkish stuff, and acidulous fruits are always the most delicious. But it also prevents the sugar from palling the palate, enables more to be borne in the liquor, and thus the peculiar advantages of the sac Under the head of “free acids," the mode of analysis employed includes the acid equivalent of cream of tartar. + Changed in the German and English translations into "Güning." We have reduced the weights and measures to the British standard; and we take this opportunity of wishing that all translators would do the same. Persons who shrink from the labour of reading French and German, have an equal objection to be puzzled with centigrade thermometers, cubic centimetres, loth, maass, milligrammes, &c. It may be remarked that in Dr. Bence Jones's translation of Mulder, the value of the gramme is wrongly stated-viz., as 15:49 instead of 15:48 grains. charine constituents to be enjoyed in larger proportion. There is also every reason to believe that the acid unites with other constituents of the grape, to develope during age those fruity ethers which are the chief attraction to the purchaser. There is a marked difference in wines as regards the sort of acid found in them. Some interesting analyses of the chief wines in the London market, published by Dr. Bence Jones,* are much diminished in value by all that which neutralizes caustic soda being reckoned as "tartaric acid," instead of being classified as it ought to be under several heads. We may indeed set aside traces of malic acid (in Bordeaux), of citric, glucic, formic, and lactic acids, as probably due to some eccentric experiments of the manufacturer or merchant. But leaving them as unimportant, we come to racemict as certainly found, and to acetic and tartaric acids as capable of having their quantities estimated in various wines. The proportion of the two is by no means a matter of indifference, for it appears that the former of those whose amount can be reckoned, is much more capable than the latter of developing the attractive flavours. Madeira, when young, with a medium quantity of acid (see the table given above), is yet a high-flavoured wine, because the acetic is to the tartaric as 1 to 2; whilst in the unpopular Tavel it is only as 1 to 23.§ In Port, the proportions are as 1 to 3; and the consequence is, that with a smaller quantum of acidity it is yet fuller-flavoured than Beaune, where the proportions are as 1 to 12. Now, the object of the consumer being to have a maximum of flavour brought out by a minimum of acidity, it appears a real step in knowledge to find that acetic acid rather than tartaric conduces to this result. 2. Sugar has been mentioned above as useful in rendering vegetable flavours more appreciable by the palate. Where, then, these flavours are naturally poor and weak, it is essential that a large quantity of sugar should exist in the wine, or it is tasteless. Now, as an almost universal rule, it may be observed that the grapes of warm climates are wanting in higher kinds of flavour, and therefore, that unless they are well ripened, and rich in sugar, the wine produced is of the worst possible quality. This is the case with the inferior Peninsular and Italian growths, which are never fit for exportation. All the better sorts which come into foreign markets-Port, Madeira, Sherry, Lachryma Proceedings of Royal Institution of Great Britain, &c. Racemic (or paratartaric) differs from tartaric acid in containing the additional quantity of hydrogen and oxygen equal to two equivalents of water. Tartaric=CgHqO12; racemic CH014. Its chief interest as regards the present subject is, that it is as sour as tartaric acid, and may be formed by the decomposition of tartaric ether, which is much less strong in flavour. It may therefore help to account for the acidifying of some wine by keeping, where the alcohol, being undiminished, has evidently not formed vinegar. On the origin of racemic acid, see the Comptes Rendus de l'Acad., xxix. p. 526; and Gerhardt, Chimie Organique, vol. ii. p. 11. Mulder, p. 205. § Gunning, in Mulder, p. 202. We may as well mention here that we found it impossible to use Dr. Bence Jones's translation of Mulder, on account of the numerous blunders, not only in proper names, but in numbers. The queen of wines, for instance, is cruelly used; she is sometimes spelt Madera; the very first average of her acid contents is wrongly struck; and 310 milligrammes printed instead of 102 as the quantity of acetic acid contained in her. 2.93 for 2.98, 225 for 255, 90 for 20, 12 for 11 parts, are instances almost equally puzzling in their place. Christi, and the like, are full of sugar. Fortunately, the same warmth of climate which has a deleterious influence over flavour, is favourable to complete ripening, and therefore (under proper farming) to the formation of sugar in the grape, so that at least a sound if not a delicate wine may be made. On the other hand, where the vine attains its extreme northerly limit, it develops its richest aromas, and on the Rhine and Moselle we find wines which are almost perfumes. But at the same time, the must is so poor in saccharine constituents, that there is only just enough to produce the alcohol necessary to keep the wine. We do not miss the sweetness, for there is enough flavour to be tasty without it. 1 There seems a little doubt whether or no any wines are entirely free from sugar. Dr. Jones was unable in any of the Rhine, Moselle, Burgundy, or red Bordeaux, which he examined by Soleil's saccharometer, liquor potassæ, and sulphate of copper, to detect even a trace. Whilst, on the other hand, Professor Mulder says that onehalf per cent. is absolutely necessary to the flavour of red wines; and Fischern, Fresenius, and Diez found it in fifty sorts of Rhine, Moselle, and Ahr wine, some (e. g., Rieslinger) containing as much as 3.5 per cent. And Kersting found sugar in seven specimens of wine from the Bergstrasse. Perhaps cellaring may convert it into alcohol; perhaps the German chemists may have mistaken the reactions of albumen on copper for those of sugar. The determination of the point has no practical value for the present question, and we may patiently wait till the chemists have settled it, for it is clear enough that little or none of this substance is to be expected in the wines of the more temperate climates, and much in those of the warmer. The way in which wines come to be sweet is various. In the more perfect, such as the best Port and Madeira, the ripe grape is so rich in sugar, that the excess checks the fermentation before the whole is converted into alcohol. In others, such as Tokay and Malaga, part of the must is boiled down to form a stock of extra sugar, to be added for the same purpose. In other cases, the sugar is gained by allowing the grapes to hang on the vines till almost converted into raisins. In the many nameless vineyards which furnish the cheaper imitations of the above-named prime wines, cane-sugar and potato-sugar are added to the genuine juice during fermentation, at the discretion of the manufacturer; or alcohol is added in the shape of brandy, so as to check the further progress of the chemical changes. Of the artificial methods, the two former involve a loss of quantity, and therefore justify an addition of expense; the latter are dilutions of the peculiar constituents of the grape, and if designed for purposes of deception, are of course fraudulent. 3. Tannin does not exist in grape-juice, but is abundant in the skius, stones, and stalks. Its introduction, therefore, is purely voluntary, and is intended partly to assist in the preservation of the wine, * Proceedings of Royal Institution. The analyses are quoted in Mulder, p. 145 et seq. 42-XXI. •2 |