Inside the book

The dissertation unites classical learning, contemporary chemical discussion, and medical theory. The text opens with wine history (references to Noah, Georgia and Armenia, Syria, Egypt, Homeric vineyards), and the vine's spread into Germany and Gaul; then treats production and fermentation (ripe grapes, must, carbonic gas) and the diversity of wines by locality, cultivation, storage, age, and Galenic qualities. it moves into medical efficacy with citations to Homer, Plato, Galen, Pliny, and Avicenna. Later sections treat artificial improvement and a forensic chapter on adulteration (arsenic, corrosive sublimate, alum, vegetable colourants, brandy, aromatics, belladonna, excess sulphur) with detection methods; the dissertation concludes with the author's curriculum vitae.