370 Scientific Intelligence. — Chemistry. 



taneously disappears. It is rare that greased wines thus 

 treated are not cured in passing through the cold of one winter. 

 The attention of chemists has been much engaged with the 

 nature of this quahty in wine. M. Francois of Chalons-sur- 

 Marne, ascribes it to a substance which is found also in thp. 

 gluten of wheat flour, and which M. Taddei, an Italian chemist, 

 discovered and named GHadine. It is the portion which is 

 soluble in alcohol, the insoluble portion he. called Zimome. If 

 an alcoholic solution of gliadine be added to clear wine, it be- 

 comes milky, and assumes, according to M. Francois, the aspect 

 of greased wines. Berzelius, however, does not believe in the 

 gliadine of Taddei. He considers it to be gelatine, and the 

 zimome to be albumen, both of which have been long known to 

 exist in the gluten. The same chemist has proved that vege- 

 table and animal gelatine are identical in the properties of unit- 

 ing with tannin and forming an insoluble precipitate. However 

 this may be, M. Francois has been induced to regard tannin as a 

 remedy for the grease of wine. He accordingly makes an ob- 

 servation which seems to have escaped all those who had pre- 

 viously examined the subject, that red wines are never subject 

 to the grease. Now, the difference between red and white wine 

 is, that the red always ferments in presence of the husk and 

 seeds of the grape, substances which contain tannin in abun- 

 dance, while white wine remains in contact with the husk but 

 a very short time. It is also a fact, that light wines made of 

 grapes deprived of their seeds are more subject to this disease 

 than others. Hence it is probable, that the presence of tannin 

 may, by precipitating the gelatine, prevent the phenomena of 

 the grease. The following are Mr Francois's directions : By 

 adding tannin to wine a month or six weeks prior to bottling, it 

 may be preserved from the grease ; and this substance being one 

 of those which exist in wine, it may be added without fear, for 

 it communicates no unnatural odour or taste. Twenty grains of 

 tannin to a bottle of wine, or three and a half ounces to a hun- 

 dred bottles previously well decanted from all sediment, is the 

 proper dose, although in frequent cases this dose must be re- 

 peated. If any sediment remain in the wine, a much larger 

 dose of tannin becomes necessary. M. Francois affirms that 

 this malady in wine, when once destroyed, never returns. As 

 the tannin of chemists is an expensive article, obtained from the 



