432 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



blanche, however, contains a relatively small quantity of sugar, or 

 only about 7 to 8 per cent. Again, the riper the grape the more 

 sugar it will contain, but experience has taught the vine-dressers 

 of the Deux Charentes that, if their grapes are allowed to thoroughly 

 ripen, the brandy produced is stronger, but proportionally inferior in 

 quality. So that all the facts lend confirmation to the statement just 

 made. 



It was remarked, a little while ago, that the quality, or " bouquet," 

 of the brandy that is, its peculiar odor was derived from cenanthic 

 ether. This ether is obtained from the seed of the grape, and, accord- 

 ing to Neubauer, is a combination of various substances, of which 

 caprylic and caproic acid ethers are the most important part. 



The sti'ength at which Cognac brandy is sold in England to con- 

 sumers is from 11 to 12 under proof, to which it is lowered by 

 the addition of water, after, it is said, it has passed into the hands of 

 wholesale and retail dealers. The standard recognized in the bran- 

 dy-trade is 10 under proof, and it is never lowered beyond 12 under 

 proof, except by special agreement. Below 11 under proof it is seiz- 

 able by the English excise. 



It is the opinion of those, who have investigated the matter, that 

 very little, if any, adulteration is practised before the brandy is 

 shipped from France. Heavy penalties, imposed by the tribunals on 

 certain Charente farmers, who some years ago were detected in the 

 practice of doubling the quantity of their brandy by sophistication, 

 have operated to prevent other farmers from falling into like prac- 

 tices ; and a still more powerful deterrent is that no farmer can adul- 

 terate his brandy without making it known to his neighbors. In 

 France no wine or spirit can be moved about without an official per- 

 mit, and a distiller in the Charente could not receive a cask without 

 everybody knowing it ; so that any one who procured a raw spirit 

 would at once become a marked man, and excluded from doing business 

 with shippers. It is said that the farmers now confine their attempts 

 to cheat to overstating the age of the brandy they offer for sale. 



Besides water, the adulteration is chiefly made with inferior spirit. 

 In addition to the dishonesty, there is much injury to health and life 

 involved in the practice. There is a kind of alcohol known as amylic, 

 or fusel-oil, contained in the spirits obtained from every substance 

 except the grape, but in particularly large quantities in the spirits of 

 potatoes, beet-root, and Jerusalem artichoke, which, being inferior, 

 are those chiefly used for adulteration. This fusel-oil is a deadly 

 poison. -Says Dr. G. O. Drewry, "The public would not drink such a 

 poison at any price if they were once awakened to a sense of its ter- 

 rible nature." It is never formed in the presence of tartaric acid, 

 which, as is well known, abounds in grape-juice; hence, spirits dis- 

 tilled from the pure juice of the grape contain no fusel-oil whatever. 



It remains, before closing this paper, to speak of the manner of 



