_(For the Mirror.)_
Sir,--I am induced to send you the following, in consequence of reading
an article upon _wine_ in No. 352, page 45 of your interesting work.
The article appears to have been written with a view of inducing a more
frequent use of that wholesome and invigorating beverage by adducing a
host of respectable names of antiquity. But I am somewhat inclined to
believe, that notwithstanding the classic lore and learned style in which
the article appears, that many there are, whose adverse temper, and whom
the present "march of intellect" has so far rendered callous to
_authoritative_ conviction, that they still remain sceptics of the
extraordinary good qualities and virtues, which the ancients believed
this beverage to contain; only because they have thought fit to adhere to
the common adage, that no opinion ought to be received upon men's
authority, without a sufficient reason assigned for its correctness. It
is with this view of the subject then, that I venture to make the few
following observations. In the first place, we will briefly consider the
nature and chemical properties of wines, and then their tendency
and action upon the constitution.
The characteristic ingredient of all wines is alcohol, the proportion and
quality of which, and the state and combination in which it exists,
constitute the essential properties of the numerous kinds of wines. The
colour of the red wines is produced from the husk of the grape, they
being used during fermentation; on the contrary, the colourless wines are
those where the husk of the grape is not used during the process of
fermentation. The colouring matter produced from the husks is highly
astringent, consequently the red and white wines are very different in
their qualities, and very different in their effect on the stomach.
All wines contain more or less acid; for British wines are considered
less salubrious than those of foreign, from their having an excess of
malic acid, which our fruits contain. The foreign wines are reckoned
superior in quality, in consequence of their containing an excess of
tartaric acid, their fruit containing a greater portion of this acid than
does ours. Wines during fermentation, if improperly managed, will produce
_acetic acid_, which will greatly deteriorate their quality.
Various have been the opinions of eminent men on the effects of wine upon
the constitution. It would be needless to enter into a detailed account
of all those who have written for or against its utility; the following,
from a modern eminent writer _against_ the use of wines will suffice, and
serve to show that the opponents to wine-drinking have at least some
reason on their side. Mr. Beddoes, states, in his "Hygeia," vol. ii, p.
35, that an ingenious surgeon tried the following experiment:--He gave
two of his children for a week alternately after dinner, to the one a
full glass of sherry, and to the other a large China orange; the effects
that followed were sufficient to prove the _injurious tendency_ of vinous
liquors. In the one the pulse was quickened, the heat increased; whilst
the other had every appearance that indicated high health; the same
effect followed when the experiment was reversed. This certainly is a
formidable objection, but let us before drawing a final conclusion,
examine the opposite arguments.
Wines, and, indeed, all fermented liquors have an antiseptic quality.
They act in direct opposition to putrefaction, and in proportion to the
quantity of alcohol which they contain, so will be their value and
beneficial tendency. Now the circulating fluids of our system have a
continual tendency to putrefaction; and the food we take, both animal
and vegetable, tends to produce this effect; if, therefore, something of
an antiseptic nature, or of a nature in direct opposition to this
principle be not received, the fluids would ultimately become a mass of
corruption, with the extinction of life. If we meet with an individual
whose habits are abstemious, as regards the drinking of wines or
fermented liquors, we generally discover him to have a great predilection
for that valuable commodity _salt_, which article being in its nature
antiseptic, answers the same purpose as wine. Therefore, the labouring
man, whose narrow circumstances prohibit him from the advantage of a
daily use of wine, by taking with his food a sufficient quantity of salt,
and his apportioned quantity of malt liquor, retains his vigour and
strength of body equally with those whose more ample means render them
capable of acquiring the necessary quantity of wine daily. Doctor Barry
mentions an experiment made on a soldier, who was hired to live entirely
for some days on wild fowl,[3] with water only to drink; he received in
the beginning his reward and diet with great cheerfulness, but this was
soon succeeded by nausea, thirst, and disposition to putrid dysentery,
which was with some difficulty prevented from making further progress, by
the physician who made the experiment. Again, he remarks, "I knew a
person who, by the advice of his physician abstained for some years
entirely from _salt_, drank chiefly _water_, and used freely an animal
diet, and by that means acquired a violent scurvy; he was, after some
time, relieved by a strict regimen of diet and medicine, and as he
afterwards used salt and vegetables with animal food, and drank wine more
freely, never had a return of the disorder." It is therefore evident,
that a _moderate_ use of wine tends to promote health, and keeps off the
numerous train of disorders, to which the constitution of man is subject,
thereby lessening the evils incidental to human nature. We can then
exclaim with Virgil of wine,
"Deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat."