176 Mr. Colquhoun on the Life and Writings [March, 



portion of his water casks, and after a few months' experience, 

 he subjected them all to this process. The comfort which he 

 enjoyed from it he mentions in a letter to a scientific friend, 

 dated Kamschatka, July 8, 1805 : — "Our water," says he, "has 

 been constantly as pure and good as that of the best spring. 

 We shall thus have had the honour of being the first to put in 

 practice a process so simple and so useful, and the French che- 

 mist will perhaps receive pleasure from learning the happy issue 

 of the method he proposed." 



It is a little harassmg to be obliged to state now in 1825, that 

 neither the simplicity, nor the manifest advantage of this system, 

 has yet introduced it into general use. But it has been found 

 of as much benefit to char the interior of casks in which wine is 

 kept, as of those for containing water. Wine possesses also the 

 property of dissolving an extractive matter from the wood, which 

 mjures its flavour, and peculiarly exposes it to the acetous 

 fermentation. It is in consequence of this, that tveil-seasoned 

 wine casks are much preferable to new; but, for the same reason, 

 charred casks are much preferable to either. Berthollet himself 

 was the first to suggest this application of his process, and at his 

 request, M. Paris, an intelligent wine merchant, put his proposal 

 to the test of experience. In a few years he wrote to inform 

 M. Berthollet that the wine preserved in these casks was more 

 rich and generous than it could have been under any other 

 treatment. It is really difficult to say whether M. Berthollet is 

 most to be admired for the profoundness and originality of his 

 scientific views, or for his tact and felicity in applying discovery 

 to useful practice. 



As we advance towards the latter periods of the life of Berthol- 

 let, it is delightful to find, even under his silver hairs, the same 

 ardent and unremitted zeal in the cause of science, which had 

 glowed in his earliest youth, accompanied by the same generous 

 warmth of heart that he had ever possessed, and which displayed 

 itself in his many intimate friendships still subsisting, though 

 now mellowed by the hand of time. 



At this period. La Place, beyond comparison the profoundest 

 astronomer and mathematician of his day, lived in or near 

 Arcueil, a small village situated three or four miles from Paris. 

 Between this great man and Berthollet, there had long subsisted 

 a warm affection, founded on mutual esteem. In order therefore 

 to be near each other, and enjoy the more frequent intercourse, 

 the chemist purchased a country-seat in the village. Here he 

 estabhshed a very complete laboratory, fit for conducting all 

 kinds of experiments in every branch of natural philosophy ; and 

 there soon flocked around him a number of distinguished young 

 philosophers, most of whom had been the pupils of Berthollet, 

 and who knew that in his house their ardour would at once 

 receive fresh impulse and direction from the example and coun- 



