WINES. 359 



The coloring matter may also be extracted by means of arnyl alcohol, 

 which color will be discharged from the solvent by ammonia if the aniline 

 dye used be of an acid nature, in which case the amyl alcohol will dis- 

 solve little coloring matter from the wine>iu presence of ammonia. 



The diseases of wine may be considered in the light of an adulteration, 

 as it is a fraud to offer wines for sale as pure wines which have under- 

 gone a change which alters their composition and renders them unfit 

 for use. The researches of Pasteur on fermentation have shown that 

 nearly all of the diseases of wine are due to the development in them of 

 microscopical vegetable growths, whose germs are carried in the air. 

 Each disease has its own special organism peculiar to itself, which may 

 be detected by the microscope. These different organisms produce the 

 souring, molding, bittering, cloudiness, blackening, &c., of wine. The 

 best wines are said to be the most subject to these alterations ; every 

 year large quantities of the finest wines of Burgundy are spoiled by the 

 disease called bittering (Vainer}. 



In wines that have become entirely unfit for use through the develop- 

 ment of one of these diseases the fact is rendered sufficiently evident 

 by the senses, especially to an expert taster. To detect the first begin- 

 ning of such alteration, however, is more readily done by means of the 

 microscope in the hands of an expert. 



EXAMINATION FOE ADULTERATION OF THE WINES ANALYZED BY THE 



DEPARTMENT. 



In the absence of any well-defined national standard as to what shall 

 constitute a pure wine in the United States, or definitions and limita- 

 tions as to the nature of the liquids which can lawfully be sold as such, 

 I have had recourse to the well- defined and carefully worded laws of 

 Germany and France which deal with the adulteration of wines, some 

 of which, together with the accepted methods for the detection of adul- 

 teration, as agreed upon by chemists of prominence in those countries, 

 I have collected together and inserted at the close of the Bulletin, un- 

 der the heading of Appendix B. 



The only State law I have been able to find which deals specifically 

 with wine is a recent enactment in New York, which is also given in 

 full in Appendix C. 



The nature and extent of the different kinds of adulteration as shown 

 by the samples examined may conveniently be taken up in the same 

 order as was pursued in treating of the methods for detecting them, 

 and of these the first is the dilution or watering of wine. 



THE DILUTION OR WATERING OF WINE. 



It would seem natural that in American wines, which can be pro- 

 duced so cheaply and in such great abundance, this adulteration, which 

 is such a favorite one with the manufacturers of the costly wines of 

 Bordeaux, Burgundy, &c., would be very rare. The fraud is so simple, 

 however, so easy of execution, and so difficult of detection, that it will 



