That certain wines were occasionally liable to produce endemic colics, is a fact which has been long known; although the disease was universally ascribed to a mistaken origin, until the publication of the elaborate researches[354] of _Sir George Baker_, into the cause of the Devonshire colic; which, like the same disease observed in other countries, was attributed to the acidity of the liquor so abundantly drunk[355] in these districts. This celebrated physician, however, was early led to entertain doubts with respect to the truth of this doctrine: “when I consider,” says he, “that this colic of Devonshire is precisely the same disease as that which is the specific effect of all saturnine preparations, and that there is not the least analogy between the juice of apples and the poison of lead, it seems to me very improbable that two causes, bearing so little relation to one another, should make such similar impressions on the human body.” The investigation of the subject completely established the justness of these views; and no doubt remains, but that the endemic colic, which harrassed the cyder drinkers in Devonshire for some years, was the effect of saturnine impregnation, derived from the lead used in the construction of the apple mills and cyder presses; and in some cases, from the pernicious practice of introducing a leaden weight into the cask, or even racking the cyder into leaden cisterns, where the liquor fretted too much, and was thereby in danger of becoming acetous. _Sir G. Baker_ also states that the custom of boiling the _must_ in vessels capped with lead, affords another source of saturnine impregnation; and he informs us that, a few years ago, this very practice produced the _Devonshire colic_ in the county of Kent. Some cyder, which had been made in a gentleman’s family, being thought too sour, was boiled with honey in a brewing vessel, capped with lead. All, who drank this liquor, were seized with this disease; some more, others less violently; one of the servants died very soon in convulsions: several others were cruelly tortured a long time. The master of the family, notwithstanding all the assistance which art could give him, never recovered his health; but died miserably, after having for nearly three years languished under a tedious and incurable malady. _Dr. Lambe_ observes, that the saturnine colic is not endemial in Devonshire, or the other cyder countries, during the whole year, but is confined to those months when the liquor is still new, crude, and the fermentation incomplete. When the liquor becomes fine, the noxious matter in a great measure separates, and is carried to the bottom of the vessel, as the feculencies subside. Tartar is generated during the vinous fermentation, the acid of which, uniting with the lead, forms a salt, scarcely, if at all, soluble in water; and hence the purification which the liquor receives. But although this new salt is insoluble in water, it is otherwise in regard to vinegar; for