The wine of Saint Raphael / by Xavier Blanchin.

  • Blanchin, Xavier.
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wine of Saint Raphael / by Xavier Blanchin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It was the natural result of this state of things that every care should be taken to multiply and to vary the medicinal wines. This has been done to such an extent that it becomes difficult for the medical practitioner who knows them all to fix his choice on the one best suited to the case he is treating. If we consider the special composition of many of these pharmace’ wines, we see that they are designed to act on some particular organ, or affection. One object however is common to them all. They have the general intention of giving tone to the organism; they are aperitive and they contribute to good digestion ; for it is, after all, on the digestion of the aliments that the restoration of the strength depends. \ \ - jx . While doing justice to the learned preparation of these wines, the doctors who know that they are, more or less, artificial, are preoccupied by the desire to find a na¬ tural wine possessing the same medical qualities. Just as in the case 01 mineral waters, the most learned chemists might employ all their skill in making a bi-carbonated sodaic water, still the doctor would prefer, beyond all comparison, the waters of Vais or Vichy. It is on these grounds that the preference has been given to the wine ot St. Raphael which comes entirely from the fruit of the vine, and is made with all the care that can preserve its natural properties. Its success in the i>*i autggt*.- ' hospitals where its virtues have been tested by clinical experience is due to this cause only. When the analysis of this wine showed that it contained an exceptional dose of tannin and of alcohol its tonic quali¬ ties were accounted for, as also the activity it imparts to the gastric functions of those who have been advised to make regular use of it.