76 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ANALYSIS OF CAHOON'S RHUBARB WINE. 



BY PKOF. E. N. HOKSPOBD. 



The wine has the hue of pale brown sherry, and a bouquet and taste 

 which several connoisseurs of wine, to whom it has been submitted, pro- 

 nounce to be peculiarities of the same wine. Some have perceived also a 

 resemblance to Teneriffe. It is dry, slightly acid, and slightly astringent- 

 It is clear, and free from sediment. 



The quantity received, being a little less than a tenth of an imperial gal- 

 lon, made the determination of some of the ingredients difficult, and of 

 others quite impossible. 



Qualitative analysis showed the wine to contain alcohol, sugar, gum, 

 slight traces of volatile essential oil, coloring matter, tannin (?), free organic 

 add, organic acid combined ivith potassa and traces of other inorganic sub- 

 stances, but no oxalic acid. 



Quantitative analysis gave the following results : — 



Specific gravity, ... 0.99837 



Mcohol. — The wine was subjected to distillation, and the total alcohol 

 and most of the water separated from the gum, sugar, and other organic 

 and inorganic matters, and its specific gravity determined, as in the case of 

 the wine, by weight ; and the alcohol calculated from this weight. 



The result gave of alcohol, by weight, 13.15 per cent. 

 Corresponding with, by volume, 16.56 " " 



Sugar. — The sugar was determined by the method of the reduction of 

 oxide of copper, and gave in three analyses, 

 1.80 ^ 



1.86 > average - - _ 1.80 per cent. 



1.74 > 

 ^cid. — The acid was determined by neutralizing, with a graduated solu- 

 tion of soda, a given volume of wine. The soda, calculated as anhydrous, 

 neutralized by 100 cubic centimetres of wine, was 0.1530 grms. 



This weight of soda would neutralize .2961 grrrs. of acetic acid, or 



.3306 " of malic acid, or 

 .2106 " of citric acid, or 

 .3701 " of tartaric acid. 

 Acetic acid may have been present as a product of fermentation ; malic 

 and citric acids are known to be present in the juice of rhubarb, and tar- 

 taric acid is the form in which the acid of acid wines is usually expressed. 

 It is proper to add that slow concentration of the wine, to see if any bitar- 

 trate of potassa (cream tartar) might crystallize out, gave no indication of 

 the presence of this salt. Examination for oxalic acid proved it to be 

 wanting. 



The taste suggested the presence of tannin, but the wine at command 

 was too small in quantity to permit the satisfactory determination of this 

 point. 



