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54
DRINKS.
less
interesting.
Of
the
chemical
composition
of
wine,
and
of
its
uses
in
health
and
disease;
on
which
so
many-
books
from
the
days
of
old
have
been
already
written,
we
shall,
in
accordance
with
our
preface,
say
nothing
at
all,
or
very
little.
Every
person
who
feels
himself
or
herself
int-erested
in
this
latter
matter
may
learn
as
much
as
he
or
she
will
from
the
pages
of
the
Lancet,
while
Professor
Mulder
has
probably
written
enough
about
the
former
to
satisfy
the
most
anxious
student.
The
origin
of
most
things
is
obscure.
Treatises
have
been
composed
about
that
of
wine.
We
have
no
intention
of
reproducing
aught
of
them
in
the
present
work.
Let
us
be
content
to
suppose
that
wine
had
its
origin,
again
like
most
things,
somewhere
at
some
time
in
the
East.
The
date
of
its
introduction
into
Greece
is
no
more
known
than
that
of
its
introduction
into
Italy.
A
traditional
credit
is
due
to
Saturn,
to
Noah,
and
to
Bacchus
as
early
wine
manufacturers.
Certainly
in
Palestine
they
had
the
advantage
of
fine
grapes.
On
the
well-known
historic
occasion
of
Moses
sending
men
to
search
the
land
of
Canaan,
in
the
time
of
the
first
ripe
fruit,
we
learn
that
when
they
came
unto
the
brook
of
Eshcol,
they
cut
down
from
thence
a
branch
with
one
cluster
of
grapes
and
"
bare
it
be-
tween
two
upon
a
staff."
It
has
been
perhaps
some-
what
hastily
assumed
that
the
fruit
was
therefore
necessarily
of
a
large
size.
There
may
have
been
other
reasons
for
this
proceeding
than
an
enormity
of
weight.
But
if,
as
is
generally
imagined,
these
grapes
were
unusually
fine
and
large,
wine
makers
would
be
clearly
benefited
thereby.
In
support
of
this
interpretation
of