501

practical suggestions for the consideration of the operator, andhas entered more fully upon the subject of artificial limbs thanhas been hitherto attempted. Mr. Grossmith appears to havesucceeded in affecting many improvements in the constructionof artificial limbs. - ___

The Chemisty of Wine. By J. C. MULDER, Professor ofChemistry at Utrecht. Edited by Dr. H. BENCE JONES.London : Churchill.

A TREATISE upon the 11 Chemistry of Wine," by the learnedprofessor at the University of Utrecht, has lately been givento the English public, under the editorship of Dr. Bence Jones,who has added a paper of his own, read at the Royal Institu-tion, as an appendix to the work.Too much praise cannot be awarded to the author for the

careful manner in which he has considered the subject of wine,not only in its perfect state, as it comes to table, but from itsvery origin in the lap of mother earth. The chemistry of itssoil, its growth, vintage, fermentation, and cellaring, &c. &c.,have been followed out with a most genial love of the inspiringsubject—a love that crops out in various parts of the bookwith a racy naïveté of style scarcely to be found in modernwriters.When any work under examination contains such abundant

.and closely -packed matter as the volume before us, it is difficultto fix upon any part which might more particularly bear com-ment. In a country, however, producing no wine, and con-suming it largely, those chapters which treat of the cellaringand subsequent changes of wine would probably be found moreinteresting than those alluding only to its cultivation. More

particularly of importance appears that section on the

"Odoriferous Constituents of Wine," since the flavour andaroma of that liquid must depend upon .-those constituents.The professor observes that, " It may appear singular, but isNevertheless true, that the etherial ingredient which impartsto the grape-juice after fermentation the vinous odour (alcoholexcepted) is itself fetid." This fetid matter is oenanthio ether:it gives, be it observed, only the vinous odour. The bouquetthe aroma of old wines cannot be ascribed thereto; on the

contrary, it depends upon substances non-existent in youngwine, but developed therein by age-namely, on compounds ofethyl, amyl, and propyliue, with seven or eight different acids,combined’with fusel oils and what Büchner terms ferment oils.The chapter on the " Adulteration of Wine" will be sure to

attract the attention of all who have any interest in the juiceof the grape; but here Mulder acknowledges the shortcomingsof science, and shows that many adulterations-as those withinferior wines, with potato-syrup, and others-cannot be dis-covered by mere tests, but that the suspected liquor must beehemica.lly and analytically compared with a pure vintage wineof the same name. He adds some tests for false colouring matters, on the authority of Orfila and Jacob; but he expresslywithholds his own confidence, and only trusts to such processesas separate the suspicious colour from the wine.

For medical men the important parts of this volume are thosethat treat of the acid, the sugar, and the alcohol contained indifferent sorts of wine. Professor Mulder has determined theamount of alcohol in a very great number of wines, also thequantity of free acid in several, but not the proportion ofsugar. We are therefore indebted to the Appendix, by Dr.Jones, for most of the information on this head. Nine ad-

mirably-arranged tables show the amount of tartaric acid inmany sorts of wine, in spirits, in cider, and in beer. The

knowledge imparted by the Appendix will be most useful tothe physician and dietetician.

DR. MUSPRATT ON THE CHEMISTRY OFWINE.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—A most interesting work, and one long wanted, hasjust been issued, "The Chemistry of Wine," by the celebrated

Professor Mulder, of Utrecht. He very justly remarks in hispreface : "And yet this treatise cannot claim to be called’ A Chelnical Monograph on Wine’-firstly, because it doesnot treat of the preparation of wine; and secondly, becausethere are in it too many deficiencies, which, however, cannotbe immediately supplied. A chemical monograph on wine isat present impossible ; in any age a single life would be insuffi-cient for such a work."My object in now addressing you is to correct an error which

seems to creep into every chemical book--i. e., the quantity of

spirit contained in sherry and port wine. In Brande’s Manual,port and sherry are given as containing twenty-four or twenty-five per cent. of alcohol, and even in Mulder’s work, only justpublished, I find, at page 384, Amontillado sherry given asholding 20 ’5 per cent. of spirit. For several months, owing tothe serious adulterations taking place in the liquor whichNoah first prepared from the juice of the grape, my attentionhas been particularly directed to estimating the amount offixed matters and alcohol in pure wines.A London firm, who I understood from parties here and in

the metropolis, possessed some of the oldest and choicest portand sherry in the kingdom, kindly supplied me with numeroussamples-port thirty-seven years, and Amontillado sherry up-wards of forty years old. In none of the samples of port did Ifind more than eighteen per cent. of alcohol, and in the sherriesonly twelve per cent. In the same page referred to, Mr. Wittstates that pcrt, vintage 1834, yielded 22.46 per cent of spirit.This surely cannot be correct, for wine of that vintage from the

! firm alluded tn gave me the following :—

I only deem it right to point out these mistakes, so that theymay either be corrected or refuted in a subsequent edition. Allmy friends affirm that the wines tested possess a flavour andaroma now seldom met with. In fact, it is almost an impossi-bility to get pure wine of any kind, sophistication being theorder of the day.Wine, of course, obtains its distinctive characteristics, in the

first instance, from the alcohol, which exists in every variety,and the quantity produced in the wine must always be in exactproportion to the quantity of sugar contained in the grapes.

I am, Sir, yours respectfully.SHERIDAN MUSPRATT, F.R.S., &c.,

Professor of Chemistry.Royal College of ChemistryLiverpool, Oct. 1857.

New InventionsIN AID OF THE

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.DR. SCOTT ALISON’S CHEST GONIOMETER.

A NEW instrument has been lately added to those employedin the physical diagnosis of diseases of the chest. Dr. Scott

Alison, the inventor, who has been employing it for some weeks,past at the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest,Brompton, has called it* a chest goniometer, from the Greekwords signifying angle and measure. It consists of two arms,

moving on a centre, to one of which is fixed an arc of a circle,and to the other a hand or index. When the two arms are

separated so as to form a straight line, the arc and the indexare at righb angles to them, and the index points to 1800, thehalf of a circle. The arms are placed upon the p rt of thechest to be measured, and made to fit it; the angle is then readoff. The two sides of the chest are measured and compared,and the slightest deviation from symmetry is at once detected.The discovery of depression in very early or doubtful phthisis,when the ordinary percussion and auscultatory signs are ill

pronounced, readily obtained by this instrument, promises torender it a valuable aid in diagnosis. It will also serve tomark from time to time, with greater precision than by theeye, the progress of disease, whether favourable or unfavour-able, as indicated by the form of the chest. The instrumentis made of ivory, and is very light and portable. Dr. Alisonis collecting observations with it, which he promises shortly tolav before the nrofession.