THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 519 



tains naturally, the more tartrate it contains, and the greater the lia- 

 bility to this source of sickness. 



This, then, is the temporary sickness to which I have referred. I 

 have proved the truth of this theory by filtering such sickened wine 

 through laboratory filtering paper, thereby rendering it transparent, 

 and obtaining on the paper all the guilty disturbing matter. I found 

 it to be a kind of argol, but containing a much larger proportion of 

 extractive and coloring matter, and a smaller proportion of tartrate, 

 than the argol of commerce. I operated upon rich new Catalan wine. 



This brings me at once to the source or origin of a sort of wine- 

 cookery by no means so legitimate as the Pastcuring already described, 

 as it frequently amounts to serious adulteration. 



The wine merchants are here the victims of their customers, who 

 demand an amount of transparency that is simply impossible as a 

 permanent condition of unsophisticated grape-wine. To anybody who 

 has any knowledge of the chemistry of wine, nothing can be more 

 ludicrous than the antics of the pretending connoisseur of wine who 

 holds his glass up to the light, shuts one eye (even at the stage before 

 double vision commences), and admires the brilliancy of the liquid, 

 this very brilliancy being, in nineteen samples out of twenty, the evi- 

 dence of adulteration, cookery, or sophistication of some kind. Genu- 

 ine wiue made from pure grape-juice without chemical manipulation 

 is a liquid that is never reliably clear, for the reasons above stated. 

 Partial precipitation, sufficient to produce opalescence, is continually 

 taking place, and therefore the brilliancy demanded is obtained by 

 substituting the natural and wholesome tartrate by salts of mineral 

 acids, and even by the free mineral acid itself. At one time I deemed 

 this latter adulteration impossible, but have been convinced by direct 

 examination of samples of high-priced (mark this, not cheap) dry sher- 

 ries that they contained free sulphuric and sulphurous acid. 



The action of this free mineral acid on the wine will be understood 

 by what I have already explained concerning the solubility of the 

 bitartrate of potash. This solubility is greatly increased by a little of 

 such acid, and therefore the transparency of the wine is by such addi- 

 tion rendered stable, unaffected by changes of temperature. 



But what is the effect of such mineral acid on the drinker of the 

 wine ? If he is in any degree predisposed to gout, rheumatism, stone, 

 or any of the lithic-acid diseases, his life is sacrificed, with preceding 

 tortures of the most horrible kind. It has been stated, and probably 

 with truth, that the late Emperor Napoleon III drank dry sherry, and 

 was a martyr of this kind. I repeat emphatically that high-priced dry 

 sherries are far worse than cheap Marsala, both as regards the quantity 

 they contain of sulphates and free acid. 



Anybody who doubts this may convince himself by simply pur- 

 chasing a little chloride of barium, dissolving it in distilled water, and 

 adding to the sample of wine to be tested a few drops of this solution. 



