20 VINEGAR, CIDER, AND FRUIT-WINES. 



a large scale, but the article produced at the present time may be 

 almost designated as u chemically pure" in the true sense of the 

 word, it containing, besides acetic acid, only water, and the most 

 accurate analysis cannot detect a trace of the products of tar, which 

 render unpurified wood vinegar unfit for use. 



For consumption on a large scale, especially where only a body 

 of an acid taste is required, the use of so-called " vinegar essence" 

 (?'. c., pure 80 to 90 per cent, acetic acid) prepared from wood, 

 and which, when properly diluted, furnishes ordinary vinegar, 

 will undoubtedly gradually supersede vinegar prepared from 

 alcohol, it being considerably cheaper. And notwithstanding 

 that the price of vinegar essence is decreasing every year, in 

 regions where wood is plentiful and cheap, its manufacture is a 

 well-paying industry on account of the many valuable by-products 

 (tar, wood-spirit, charcoal) obtained besides acetic acid. Even at 

 the present time for all industrial purposes where acetic acid is 

 required, as, for instance, in the manufacture of tar colors, that 

 obtained from wood is used, and the quantities consumed in the 

 fabrication of table vinegar become larger every year. 



But the manufacture of vinegar from alcohol and alcoholic fluids 

 will nevertheless continue to flourish because the product obtained 

 from them actually possesses different properties from the pure 

 acetic acid prepared from wood. Vinegar obtained from pure 

 alcohol, and, still more so, that from fermented fruit juices, as 

 wine, cider, skins of pressed grapes, or from malt, contain, besides 

 acetic acid and water, small quantities of bodies, which on account 

 of their being analogous to those occurring in wine, may be 

 designated as u bouquet-bodies," and which give to the vinegar 

 an agreeable smell and taste entirely wanting in acetic acid pre- 

 pared from wood. These properties are so characteristic that any 

 one gifted with a sensitive and practised sense of smell can at 

 once distinguish pure acetic acid vinegar from that prepared from 

 wine, cider, beer, etc. 



By the addition of volatile oils or compound ethers an agree- 

 able odor can, of course, be imparted to vinegar obtained by 

 diluting pure wood acetic acid with water, but it is impossible to 

 produce the harmonious bouquet peculiar to vinegar prepared 

 from alcohol or fruit juices, a similar relation existing here as 



