New varieties, however, can only be obtained from seed; and a seedling, carefully treated, will show blossoms in its fourth or fifth year. The diversity of wines, however, appears to depend more on soil, climate, and exposure, than on the particular variety, though this has its influence. The Burgundy, however, may be considered the most general vineyard grape of France, from Champagne to Marseilles and Bordeaux. The best wine in Italy and Spain is also made from grapes of this description; but in both countries, many of the larger-berried sorts are raised, as being more productive of liquor. The sweet wines are made from sweet-berried grapes, allowed to remain on the plants till over ripe. That wine is the strongest, and has most flavor, in which both the skins and stones are bruised and fermented. As a general rule, the varieties most esteemed for winemaking have small berries and bunches, with an austere taste. In certain localities, the vine lives only twenty or thirty years; but under favorable circumstances, it may last several hundred. The time of flowering is a critical moment: heavy rains, drought, or a sudden fall of temperature, at this period, may produce the partial or even total destruction of the vintage. Hail often does great injury, even when the stones are of small size. Most varieties bear only once in the season, some oftener, especially in warm climates. Grapes, when fresh and perfectly ripe, are wholesome, refreshing, and very agreeable to the taste: they are sometimes employed as the sole article of diet. They contain sugar, mucilage, and a little acid. It is remarkable that better dessert grapes are produced in England than in any other part of Europe. The varieties on the continent are few; and the best, as the Muscats and Frontignacs, have been obtained from England. The Chasselas or Muscadine is almost the only eating grape known in the Paris fruit market. England has not only produced the finest varieties, but they acquire a higher flavor there than elsewhere, owing to the perfection of their artificial climates, and the great attention paid to soil and subsoil, and other points of culture. In the south of Europe, grapes are often dried either by the sun or in a furnace, and are known in commerce by the name of raisins. Of these there are several sorts, the smallest of which are the raisins of Corinth, more generally known under the name of currants. Raisins are sweeter than the fresh fruit,

and are served up at desserts throughout the year. A wine may be obtained by fermenting them-a business which is carried on extensively in England. Red wines are made exclusively from red or black grapes, while red or white are used indifferently for white wines. All wines should be kept in cellars, where the teinperature is always the same: some improve very much by age. Wine takes the first rank among liquors. The ancients, like the moderns, attached great prices to certain wines. At present, the most esteemed wine is Tokay, which is produced in a limited district in Hungary, and is all reserved for the use of the emperor. Inferior wines, from the same vicinity, are sold in commerce under this name. As late frosts are very apt to injure the vine, notwithstanding that it will bear severe cold in the depth of winter, our climate would seem, a priori, to be unfavorable to its culture. It is, however, cultivated for the table in almost every part of the U. States, and the making of good wine in this country is no longer problematical. Wine of the very first quality has been produced in several instances. We have, however, more to hope from some of the varieties of our native grapes, which require less care, and are better adapted to our climate. Some of these have been produced of a very excellent quality, though, hitherto, none equalling the finer varieties of the foreign grape. Our American species of grape are not yet clearly understood.-The fox grape (V.labrusca) is found as far north as Quebec. It is distinguished by the large size of the berries, and by having the under surface of the leaves covered with a thick coat of down. The berries are deep blue, have a thick skin, and the central part of the pulp very tough. They are not much esteemed, but it is said that very good wine has been made from them.-The chicken grape (V. astivalis) has the inferior surface of the leaves much less downy than the preceding; and the berries are smaller and much more agreeably tasted. They are brought regularly to the Philadelphia market. We are not aware that this species has been found north of lat. 42°. The V. cordifolia, or vulpina, is readily distinguished by having the leaves smooth on both sides. The berries are small and nauseous. It is found as far north as lat. 40°.—The bullet grape (V. rotundifolia) has the leaves smaller and more rounded, and the fruit larger, than in our other species. It is found as far north as lat. 39°.-The V. riparia, re

ods has more or less of a brown color, and a peculiar but rather grateful smell. By distillation in glass vessels, the coloring matter, which resides in a mucilage, is separated; but the fragrant odor is generally replaced by an empyreumatic one. Its specific gravity varies from 1.005 to 1.015. A crude vinegar has long been obtained from wood, for the use of the calico printers. It is sometimes known under the name of pyroligneous acid. The following arrangement of apparatus is found to answer very well in its preparation. A series of cast-iron cylinders, about four feet diameter and six feet long, are built horizontally in brick-work, so that the flame of one furnace may play round about two cylinders. Both ends project a little from the brick-work. One of them has a disc of cast-iron well fitted and firmly bolted to it, from the centre of which disc an iron tube, about six inches in diameter, proceeds, and enters, at a right angle, the main tube of refrigeration. The diameter of this tube may be from nine to fourteen inches, according to the number of cylinders. The other end of the cylinder is called the mouth of the retort. This is closed by a disc of iron, smeared round its edge with clay-lute, and secured in its place by wedges. The charge of wood for such a cylinder is about eight hundred pounds. The hard woods, oak, ash, birch and beech, are alone used. The heat is kept up during the day-time, and the furnace is allowed to cool during the night. Next morning the door is opened, the charcoal removed, and a new charge of wood is introduced. The average product of crude vinegar, or pyroligneous acid, is thirty-five gallons. It is much contaminated with tar, is of a deep brown color, and has a specific gravity of 1.025. Its total weight is therefore about three hundred pounds. But the residuary charcoal is found to weigh no more than one fifth of the wood employed. Hence nearly one half of the ponderable matter of the wood is dissipated in incondensable gases. The crude acid is rectified by a second distillation, in a copper still, in the body of which about twenty gallons of viscid tarry matter are left from every hundred. After this treatment, it presents the appearance of a transparent, brown vinegar, having a considerable empyreumatic smell, and a specific gravity of 1.013. Its acid powers are superior to those of the best household vinegar, in the proportion of three to two. By redistillation, saturation with quicklime, evaporation of the liquid acetate to

dryness, and gentle torrefaction, the empyreumatic matter is so completely dissipated, that, on decomposing the calcareous salt by sulphuric acid, a pure, perfectly colorless, and grateful vinegar rises in distillation. Its strength will be proportional to the concentration of the decomposing acid. The acetic acid of the chemist may be prepared as follows: 1. Two parts of fused acetate of potash, with one of the strongest oil of vitriol, yield, by slow distillation from a glass retort into a refrigerated receiver, concentrated acetic acid. A small portion of sulphurous acid, which contaminates it, may be re-, moved by redistillation from a little acetate of lead. 2. Or four parts of good sugar of lead, with one part of sulphuric acid, treated in the same way, afford a slightly weaker acetic acid. Or, without distillation, if one hundred parts of welldried acetate of lime be cautiously added to sixty parts of strong sulphuric acid, diluted with five parts of water, and digested for twenty-four hours, and strained, a good acetic acid, sufficiently strong for every ordinary purpose, will be obtained. Acetic acid is composed of

Acetic acid dissolves resins, gum-resins, camphor and essential oils. Its odor is employed in medicine to relieve nervous headache, fainting fits, or sickness occasioned by crowded rooms. In a slightly dilute state, its application has been found to check hemorrhagy from the nostrils. Its anti-contagious powers are now little trusted to. It is very largely used in calico printing.

Moderately rectified pyroligneous acid is much employed for the preservation of animal food. Sulphuric acid is sometimes fraudulently mixed with acetic acid and common vinegar, to increase their acidity. This adul teration may be detected by the addition of a little chalk. With pure vinegar, the lime forms a limpid solution, but with sulphuric acid, a white, insoluble gypsum. Muriate of barytes is a still nicer test. British fermented vinegars are allowed by law to contain a little sulphuric acid; but the quantity is frequently exceeded. Copper is discovered in vinegars by supersaturating them with ammonia, when a fine blue color is produced; and lead, by sulphate of soda, hydrosulphurets, and sulphureted hydrogen. None of these should produce any change on genuine vinegar. Salts consisting of the severel

and most common of all stringed instruments played with the bow. Of its origin little is known; but it seems that it grew out of the ancient viola. (q. v.) Some place its invention in the times of the crusades. Probably it was first perfected in Italy, in which country, and the neighboring Tyrol, the finest violins are still produced. Those of Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari, are from the former country; those of Stainer, Klotz, &c., from the latter. The violin now common consists of three chief parts-the neck, the table, and the sound-board. At the side are two apertures, and sometimes a third towards the top. Its bridge, which is below the aperture, bears up the strings, which are fastened to the two extremes of the instrument at one of them by screws which stretch or loosen them at pleasure. The arrangement is nearly the same, only on different scales, in the viol, violoncello and the double bass. The violin has four catgut strings, of different sizes, of which the largest is wound round with wire. They are tuned thus :—g, d, ā, ē. The is also called simply the quinta, or fifth (in French, chanterelle). This string should be about half the thickness of D. The nearer the finger is placed towards the bridge, the quicker become the vibrations, and the higher the tone. Music for the violin is always set in the G key, which, on that account, is called violin key. The compass of the good tones of the violin ex

a,

tends from g to about ā. It is only in our days, however, that performers have ascended to this height: formerly, the high

C.

est note was g or a; and, in the sixteenth century, they hardly rose to e. All the tones comprised in the above compass, nay, even the most delicate enharmonic relations, are produced merely by the playing of the finger on the strings: hence the violin, as well for this reason as for its delightful and penetrating sound, is one of the most perfect and most agreeable instruments. The excellence of a violin consists in its purity and distinctness, strength, and fulness of tone. The art of playing on the violin has been carried to a perfection which it is not probable will be much surpassed, as it already often degenerates into useless artifices. The most esteemed instructions for playing on the violin are those of Löhlein (with additions by Reichardt), Leopold, Mozart, Geminiani, Rode, Kreutzer and Baillot (adopted by the conservatory, q. v.,

of Paris), Campagnoli, and others. The most celebrated living violin players are Paganini (q. v.), Rode (q. v.), Spohr (q.v.), Lafont, Kreutzer, Viotti (q. v.), Polledro, Lipinski (q. v.), Maurer, Fränzel, Mayseder, Rovelli, Molique, Rolla, Möser, Matthải, &c.

VIOLONCELLO comes between the viola di braccio and the double bass, both as to size and tone. It is constructed entirely on the same plan with the violin. (q. v.) The player holds it between his knees. It has four strings of catgut: the two deepest-toned are covered with wire. The tuning is C, G, d, a; hence like that of the viola di braccio, only an octave deeper. Its notes are written in the F or bass clef; and it generally accompanies the double bass; but modern composers, as Cherubini, Beethoven, Weber and Spontini, often let the violoncello take an independent part. For tones above ☎ and e, the tenor clef is generally used, or the violin clef, the latter especially for the highest notes in concertos, &c. But in this case the notes must always be written an oc tave higher, as the violoncello is a whole octave lower than the violin. The violoncello, properly, is but a modification of the old viola di gamba (see Viola), and has but lately been used as a solo instru ment. The inventor of it was Tardieu, a clergyman of Tarascon, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At first it had five strings, viz, C, G, d, a, ā. In 1725, the d was omitted as superfluous. The most distinguished living violoncello players are Romberg (in Berlin), Kraft (in Stuttgart), Merk (in Vienna), Knoop (in Meiningen), Bohrer (in Paris), Dotzauer (Dresden), who have also written for this instrument. Instructions for playing on the violoncello have been written by Baillot, Levasseur, Catel, Baudiot, Alexander, and others. Before the double bass came into use, the violoncello was called violono, which name was afterwards given to the former instrument.

VIOLONO (Italian; the English double bass; in French, contrebasse; violon signifying, in that language, the violin) is the largest of the bow instruments, and is principally used to sustain the harmony. Some performers, of late, have played solos on it (for example, Hindle, of Vienna, and Dall' Occa, an Italian), but not without some changes, which diminish the strength of its tones. In the Italian orchestra, it still has generally but three strings, by which, however, its compass is too much limited. In Germany, it has generally four, in some places five, strings.