from several of our Garden Fruits. 295 



gar. Currants at all times possess enough of that acidity j 

 but if gooseberries be too ripe they are apt to want it, and 

 become insipidly sweet at an early period, thougli they soon 

 become vinegar. It ousiht to be remarked, that the native 

 acidity of the fruit is different from the acidity of vinegar, 

 and possesses qualities extremely dissimilar. The sourness 

 of vinegar, when it hasLonce begun to be formed, continues 

 to augment with age ; but the native vegetable acid, when 

 combined with saccharine matter, is gradually diminished 

 as the fermentation proceeds, till it is totally lost in the 

 vinous zest into which both this and the sugar are com- 

 pletely converted before any vinegar is produced, if the fer- 

 mentation be properly conducted. 



" This, 1 believe, is a new opinion, which experience 

 alone enabled me to adopt not very long ago. Eut I have 

 had so many experimental proofs of this fact, independent 

 of the support it derives from reasoning, that I am satisfied 

 it is well founded. I am satisfied further, that the wines of 

 this country are debased cliiefly by not adverting to it, and 

 of which- 1 think you will be convinced also by a moderate 

 degree of attention. 



'* Every person knows that an insipid sweetness is the 

 prevailing taste in liquors when they begin to ferment, and 

 that it is gradually changed into a pungent vinosity as the 

 process proceeds; but few persons have had occasion to re- 

 mark that the native acid of fruit undergoes a similar change 

 by the fermentatory process. Every one who tastes made 

 wines, however, soon after the process has commenced, per- 

 ceives that sour to a certain degree is mixed with the sweet. 

 It chances, indeed, that the sweet is sooner blended than the 

 sour ; so that when the liquor is tasted a few months after 

 it has been made, it hath lost some part of its sweetness, 

 but still retains nearly the whole of the sourness of the native 

 acid of tlie fruit. And as the vinous flavour is yet but weak, 

 the liquor appears to be thin and weak, and running into 

 acidity. It is therefore feared, that if it be not then drank, 

 it will soon run on to the state of vinegar; on this account 

 it is often used in this state, when it forms a very insipid 

 beverage. Frequently also, with a view to check the ace- 

 tous 



