As respects the alcohol which they contain, the physiological actions of wines could be discussed with the previous article. But wines differ from alcohol, and from brandy and whisky, not only in spirituous strength, but in the possession of the varied and important constituents mentioned above.

The sparkling wines are more sedative to the stomach, and are more intoxicating, relatively to their alcoholic strength, than the other wines. As they contain a considerable quantity of unappropriated sugar, acid fermentation is apt to occur, and acidity, with headache, follows their use. As respects the influence on the pulse, they are less stimulating than the stronger wines, and the experiments of Dr. Edward Smith have demonstrated that they increase the excretion of carbonic acid.

The dry acid wines are more purely stimulant, partly in consequence of their alcohol, and partly in consequence of the important ethers- which they contain. As they are free from sugar, acid fermentation does not follow their use, but with some subjects the free acid present in them disagrees.

The sweet wines have, generally, considerable body and alcoholic strength. They rather pall on the appetite; are apt to disorder the stomach, and produce headache. Some of them have fine bouquet and flavor, and are satisfying to the palate; but as a rule they are not borne as well as the dry wines.

The red wines, light and dark, are astringent and have considerable body and alcoholic strength. The tannin which they contain, and coloring-matters, are apt to cause stomach-disorders, constipation, and a febrile state. By reason of the large amount of alcohol in them, especially in port, they approach whisky and brandy in power as stimulants and narcotics.

Therapy

"Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used." (Othello.)

The effervescing or sparkling wines often render important service in irritable states of the stomach without inflammatory action. The vomiting of pregnancy, of sea-sickness, of yellow fever, of choleramorbus, with depression, and of true cholera, are not infrequently arrested by table spoonful-doses of iced champagne every fifteen minutes.

A generous glass of a dry wine (sherry) taken with the principal meal greatly assists the digestion of the sedentary who suffer from atonic dyspepsia. The wine should be taken during the course of the meal, and at no other time. Persons who suffer from acidity, due to an excess of formation of acid gastric juice, are relieved by a dry acid wine, taken during the meal or just previously. For this purpose a genuine Rhine wine—for example, Förster Riesling—is best.

In diarrhoea and dysentery, after the acuter symptoms have subsided, and when there is considerable depression, those wines are indicated which contain tannin—the red wines, claret, Ives's seedling, port, etc.

In cases of anaemia and chlorosis, wines render an important service by increasing digestion and assimilation. To aid in this process, red wines with a good deal of sugar and extractives are most necessary. When wines produce headache, and the digestion is disordered by them, and the appetite impaired, they are not serviceable in these maladies. Moreover, for the nervous and hypochondriacal, wines must be prescribed with caution, for the habit of indulgence is quickly acquired by such subjects. In convalescence from acute diseases, there can be no difference of opinion as to the great value of wine as a restorative. Wines of considerable body and alcoholic strength are indicated under these circumstances. When there is much nervous restlessness, wakefulness, and cardiac depression, a wine rich in ethers is specially useful, according to Anstie. In chronic wasting diseases, as phthisis, scrofula, etc., the stronger wines, as sherry, burgundy, port, may take the place, in some cases, of the spirits, whisky and brandy. In these wasting diseases, wines serve a double purpose: they stimulate the activity of the primary assimilation, and within certain limits they are utilized as foods. They are only harmful when digestion is impaired by them; and under no circumstances can they take the place of other aliment.

In passive haemorrhages, in the hemorrhagic diathesis and in purpura, wines are indicated, because they elevate the arterial tension, and thus act indirectly as haemostatics.

In various acute diseases, when the action of the heart becomes feeble and irregular, the pulse dicrotic, and there occur wakefulness and delirium, a wine of considerable alcoholic strength and rich in ethers is peculiarly serviceable. Wines are much more largely used in fevers (typhoid, typhus, etc.) than in any other forms of disease, and the circumstances requiring their employment are indicated in the preceding sentence. The routine practice of alcoholic stimulation in fevers can not be justified. Exact indications for the use of wine exist in the state of the heart and arterial system, and of the brain, and these should be sought for in every case, instead of prescribing for the name. In fevers, wines precede the spirituous liquors. The first weakening of the heart's action, the beginning of dicrotism, and the transitory delirium and subsultus, require champagne and the light and acid wines; more profound adynamia, with diarrhoea, the stronger red wines.

In acute inflammations (pneumonia, pleuritis, peritonitis, etc.), wines serve to maintain the strength when the powers of life are weakening, or to maintain the functions of brain and heart when crises occur, as in pneumonia. The rules for the administration of wine in acute inflammations are the same as in fevers.

Next to their use in fevers, wines are most frequently prescribed, and with the greatest advantage, in surgical practice, for the consequences of wounds and injuries, to support the powers of life under protracted and profuse suppuration, and to favor digestion and assimilation in the course of convalescence from surgical diseases.

The immediate stimulant effect of wine is of great value in sudden and profuse loss of blood, whether from injuries and surgical operations, or post partum. A highly-etherized wine of good body is most useful here, because it produces a prompt effect and easily yields up the force needed to keep the heart and brain in action, and, in the case of the relaxed uterus, to furnish the power needed to procure its energetic contraction.