grapes prepared by suffering them to remain on the vine till they are perfectly ripe, and then drying them in the sun, or by the heat of an oven. The difference between raisins dried in the sun and those dried in ovens, is very obvious: the former are sweet and pleasant, but the latter have a latent acidity with the sweetness that renders them much less agreeable.

The common way of drying grapes for raisins, is to tie two or three bunches of them together while yet on the vine, and dip them into a hot liquor of woodashes, with a little of the oil of olives in it. This dries them to shrink and wrinkle; and after this they are left on the vine three or four days separated on sticks in an horizontal situation, and then dried in the sun at leisure, after being cut from the tree. The finest and best raisins are those called in some places Damascus and Jude raisins; which are distinguished from the others by their size and figure: they are flat and wrinkled on the surface, soft and juicy within, and near an inch long; and, when fresh and growing on the bunch, are of the size and shape of a large olive.

The raisins of the sun, and jar-raisins, are all dried by the heat of the sun; and these are the sorts used in medicine. However, all the kinds have much the same virtues: they are all nutritive and balsamic; they are allowed to be attenuant, are said to be good in nephritic complaints, and are an ingredient in pectoral decoctions: in which cases, as also in all others where affluency is not required of them, they should have the stones carefully taken out.

Raisin-Wine. See Wine.