The solvent-induced potentials of mean torsion of four short n-alkanes
were obtained by a simple statistical method proposed by Robertus, Berne 
and Chandler and based on molecular dynamics simulation. It was shown
that, unlike the gas phase, the water induced C1-C2-C3-C4 torsional
profile in not transferable from n-butane, where the gauche configuration
is stabilized by the polar solvent, to longer n-alkanes, where the
solvent effect becomes practically negligible.