The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-06-15
A Glass Of Wine.

IldoOio 10 oh0 VI Is'D
liquors as dangerous. All the danger
is in alcohol, In which they are alik',
except that a larger quantity may be
imbibed in a quart OF one than in a
quart of the other. Naturally ferment-
ed liquors NAV contain w per cent OF
alcohol and they can seldom exceed
seventeen per cent.
Spurious liquors may be drank as
pure alcohol Gin small quantity or di-
luted with water down TO the alcoholic
strength of beer or the weakest wine.
A w~ine-glass of sherry contains
than a h%alf-ounoe of alcohol, while a
tumbler of brandy and water, which is
called spirits, may contain less than a
h%alf-ounce.
Men speak of the ''pure juice of the
grape" as a thing positive; pure juice
of the grape from the northern vines OF
Germany to some southern vines on
the Mediterranean, differs almost as
much as vinegar and molasses, and all
SO cheap In the lower qualities where
grown that substitutes ale unnecesai y;
the impurities are in what may be adj
ded, especially alcohol, and probably
the wine of IN consumed III
America during the last century, has
for the most part been "wine" only in
name-that is, if we assume "wine"
to be the naturally fermented Juice OF
grapes of any kind. AS to effects, all
the gout that has tortured hosts of Eli
glishmen in the last century, and quite
too many in the present, has been the
result of wine drinking and not of
spirits.
There has been a wonderful ignor-
ance with re ,pect to the facts about i'll
toxicants. A good woman declares
that she would not allow spirits in her
house, but she has for the use of her
family a collection of tinctures and es-
sences from the druggist which con-
tains ninety per CEN of alcohol. There
is as much alcohol in a tablespoonful
of some tinctures as there is in a glass
of strong wine. While she breads
spirits she con ,ilers wine innocent,
and gives to a weakly child to do it
good as much alcohol in a glass of sher-
ny or port as her husband takes in his
tumbler of brandy and water.
Many fruits, some vegetables, and
most of the grain consumed as food by
man contain %saccharine matter or SUI
gar. The pressed out juice of the
fruit, or a decoction of the grain, if eX-
posed to the air, ferments by natural
process. When the scum is removed
there remains a clear liquid in which
the sugar has been converted into alco-
hol and diflused throughout to an eX-
tent varying in quantity. In beer or
cider about five per cent, or one gallon
of alcohol to nineteen gallons of water.
In grape Juice from two to twenty per-
cent, that is, from one to four gallons
of alcohol to twenty gallons of water.
The North German wines contain
from five to twelve per cent. French
wines from ten 10 fifteen, Spanish and
Portuguese a little more; the sacchar-
inc matter of the grape increasing in
richness as the cultivation proceeds
southwark; all may be ''brandied" up
to twenty-five percent, and, conse-
quently, there being no house gauge to
measure strength, nobody knows what
he is drinking as wine.
Brandy, rum, gin and whisky are
called distilled liquors, being all the
product of evaporation and condensa'
ton, by which the alcohol is separated
from any fermented liquor and made
pure spirit, which may be diluted
with water to any strength required.
Gin contains about forty per cent
brandy about fifty, and whisky anC
rum something between the two. The
proof spirit of commerce, applicable tt
all, is fifty per cent, or half alcohol anc
half water.
There are various descriptions of al
cohols. but all the alcohol consumed by
maj in his drink is precisely the sam,
IN its elements and consequences.
The measure of the Imperial gallon
is exactly ten pounds of pure water, OF
one hundred and sixty ounces. A gal
lon of alcohol may be called eigh
pounds. 1t may be made lighter; tina
in common use is a little heavier. Tn
old wine measure vas eight pound
wafer, or one hundred and twenty
eight ounces; and as glasses in com
mon use are more nearly graduated t
this old standard, it will be used in tn
following calculations
A fair sized table tumbler &C ntain
eight ounces or a half pint old measure
The tumbler of the restaurant is fiv
ounces while hat of the lower saloon
is so thick in its bottom and lowe
sides that it may contain only tire
ounces. The common wine glass col
tains two ounces; all ounce of liquid
two large Ia Slespoonfuls. A tumble
of brandy or gin will contain eigf
ounces of alcohol in quantity. If file
with brandy there will be four ounce
if half filled with brandy and filled Il
with water there will be two ounce
alcohol ana six of water; if one fourt
filed, there will be one ounce of alec
hol and seven of water. If there
only a half ounce and seven and on,
half ounces of water, the drink will
milder and the consequences from a
cohol less than from the same quantit
of some light wines. In manufacture
wines such as champagne, inebriatin
qualities are in greater ratio than I'll
alcoholic strength.
A tumbler of strong wine contain
two ounces of alcohol, the same quaint
ty of light wine, n ounce; of bee
one-half ounce; the common win
glass containing two ounces of fiji
would, if filled with strong win