1224

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

It iscase

Xak cn

and

genuine wines. Lead, formerly used to sweeten wine (see Becpm |Hist, of Invent, vol. i. p. 396), may be occasionally detected, m ' ■minute quantity, in wine (by sulphuretted hydrogen, see p. 505).usually to be traced to shot in the bottle, and rarely to fraud (see ain the Phil. Mag. liv. 229).

The physiological effects of wine next deserve our attentionin moderate quantities, wine operates as a stimulant to the nervous *vascular systems, and the secreting organs. It quickens the action 0 gheart and arteries, diffuses an agreeable warmth over the body, P r0,u ^the different secretions, communicates a feeling of increased inuSC | I j aforce, excites the mental powers, and banishes unpleasant ideas.state of perfect health, its use can be in no way beneficial, but, o n ^,contrary, its habitual employment is calculated to prove injurious)exhausting the vital powers, and inducing disease. The actual ain jof injury which it may inflict will of course vary with the quantityquality of the wine taken, and according to the greater or less P re< ^. fsition to disease which may exist in the system. Maladies of the u !->tive organs, and of the cerebro-spinal system, gout and dropsy, aremost likely to be induced or aggravated by it. Intoxication in i ts ' , j 6)forms is the effect of excessive quantities of wine. It is renaarK jhowever, that though the effects of wine mainly depend on thecontained in this liquor, yet they differ in several circumstances ethose of the latter (described at p. 200 et seq.) In the first place, Vjj,possesses a tonic influence not observed after the use of ardent s l jjj( , eCommon experience proves to every one, that the stimulant in * l t ] ia ucommunicated by wine is slower in its production and subsidencc^ ce

that developed by spirit. In the second place, the intoxicatingof wine is not equal to that of mixtures of ardent spirit and " 1corresponding strengths, nor proportionate, in different wines,relative quantities of alcohol which they contain,from the following table:—

■ater

to

oi

th c

This will be obvi° u

f A&®‘

Average quantities of Ardent Spirit and of Wine, containing four fiuidounces oj

(sp. gr. 0 825 at 60° F.)

Brandy, about. 8 fluidounces.

Port wine. 18£ ditto.

Claret. 26i ditto.

Champagne. 32 ditto.

intoxicating l l0 "qj a t a

Now it is obvious from this table that if thevinous liquids was in proportion to the spirit contained in them,pint of Port wine would be almost equal to half a pint of bran J' ol &that Claret would exceed Champagne in its influence over the n .system ; all of which we know not to be the case. It is thereforethat the other constituents of the wine possess the power of mo . ;i[ . cthe influence of the alcohol. Furthermore, it is probable thatenabled to do this by being in chemical combination with tn piFor it is asserted by connoisseurs, that, a brandied wine (*• e - . 11( liedwhich brandy has been added) is more intoxicating than a non-. jjpswine equally strong in alcohol. Hence dealers endeavom - to ob' ju£l yby the operation of fretting in, and which, in a scientific point of y 1 gpih*'be regarded as effecting the chemical combination of the f° rel '; nt . l tio> 1 'with the constituents of the wine, by a second or renewed ferum j sA third distinction between the operation of wine and arden 1