Temporary check to the popularity of sparkling Champagne--Doctors disagree--The champions of Champagne and Burgundy--Péna and his patient--A young Burgundian student attacks the wine of Reims--The Faculty of Reims in arms--A local Old Parr cited as an example in favour of the wines of the Champagne--Salins of Beaune and Le Pescheur of Reims engage warmly in the dispute--A pelting with pamphlets--Burgundy sounds a war-note--The Sapphics of Benigné Grenan--An asp beneath the flowers--The gauntlet picked up--Carols from a coffin--Champagne extolled as superior to all other wines--It inspires the heart and stirs the brain--The apotheosis of Champagne foam--Burgundy, an invalid, seeks a prescription--Impartially appreciative drinkers of both wines--Bold Burgundian and stout Rémois, each a jolly tippling fellow--Canon Maucroix's parallel between Burgundy and Demosthenes and Champagne and Cicero--Champagne a panacea for gout and stone--Final decision in favour of Champagne by the medical faculty of Paris--Pluche's opinion on the controversy--Champagne a lively wit and Burgundy a solid understanding--Champagne commands double the price of the best Burgundy--Zealots reconciled at table 47 V. /Progress and Popularity of Sparkling Champagne./ Sparkling Champagne intoxicates the Regent d'Orléans and the _roués_ of the Palais Royal--It is drunk by Peter the Great at Reims--A horse trained on Champagne and biscuits--Decree of Louis XV. regarding the transport of Champagne--Wine for the _petits cabinets du Roi_--The _petits soupers_ and Champagne orgies of the royal household--A bibulous royal mistress--The Well-Beloved at Reims--Frederick the Great, George II., Stanislas Leczinski, and Marshal Saxe all drink Champagne--Voltaire sings the praises of the effervescing wine of Ay--The Commander Descartes and Lebatteux extol the charms of sparkling Champagne--Bertin du Rocheret and his balsamic molecules--The Bacchanalian poet Panard chants the inspiring effects of the vintages of the Marne--Marmontel is jointly inspired by Mademoiselle de Navarre and the wine of Avenay--The Abbé de l'Attaignant and his fair hostesses--Breakages of bottles in the manufacturers' cellars--Attempts to obviate them--The early sparkling wines merely _crémant_--_Saute bouchon_ and _demi-mousseux_--Prices of Champagne in the eighteenth century--Preference given to light acid wines for sparkling Champagne--Lingering relics of prejudice against _vin mousseux_--The secret addition of sugar--Originally the wine not cleared in bottle--Its transfer to other bottles necessary--Adoption of the present method of ridding the wine of its deposit--The vine-cultivators the last to profit by the popularity of sparkling Champagne--Marie