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The fining of white wines is so simple a 

 process, and attended with so little expense, 

 that there can be no inducement to use 

 poisonous drugs, as has been stated by 

 a late publication to be a common prac- 

 tice. It is well known to every house- 

 keeper, that isinglass dissolved in Hock or 

 Rhenish wine will fine the most obsti- 

 nate white wines. It is correctly stated, 

 that there are persons who prepare finings 

 for the wine-merchants at a cheap rate ; 

 but as this is publicly sold, any person has 

 an opportunity to analyze it, and ascertain 

 if it consists of poisonous drugs : indeed it 

 would have been more honourable to have 

 analyzed the wines of any suspected person, 

 and to have exposed them to the public, were 

 they guilty of so injuring the constitutions 

 of their benefactors. A wine-merchant sel- 

 dom does more himself to the fining of his 

 wines than to give directions to his cellar- 

 man : were he to use pernicious finings, how 

 often should we hear of his being betrayed 

 by his discharged servants ! 



For red wines, the whites of eggs, with 

 sometimes a part of the shells pulverized, is 

 the universal and only finings used. A few 

 years back, when there was so great a demand 

 for pale sherry, the wine-merchants dis- 

 charged the colour with the assistance of a 



