150 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO ]685. 



as N° 6, fig. A. When the greatest salts were got together, the smaller par- 

 ticles, swimming in the wine, cleave to them. Now and then there was a 

 figure, that seemed the half of the former, asB; also some small figures 

 which were diaphanous, and whose points were not so sharp as the large ones, 

 as fig. C. There were also some diaphanous particles, greater than the last 

 mentioned, having a small figure in the middle, as D: and a few that were 

 blunt at the ends, as E. There were also some resembling dried branches 

 of a tree, as beforementioned in wine of a year old, which branch-like figures 

 consisted of small salts, hanging together. 



From these observations, I may guess what may be the cause that Rhenish 

 wine, not only keeps good a great many years, in a well-stopped vessel, but 

 also loses its sourish taste, and takes one that is sweeter and milder ; namely, 

 because the salt particles in the Rhenish wine adhere together, and then stick 

 to the bottom and sides of the cask, forming tartar; and so the older the wine, 

 the fewer the salts. But the nature of French wines is contrary ; for the salts 

 in a well-stopped vessel do not run together, and therefore they never get a 

 milder or sweeter taste: but in wines that come from Nantes, though the salts 

 run more together, yet the sweetness is presently lost. 



I bought some wine or Rinco, very pleasant, and of the growth of 1 683. 

 But it proved to be of the Palatinate. At first T observed few salts in it; but 

 when it had stood open 24 hours, I discovered many that were sharp at each 

 end, as N° 7, fig. A, having a division running along them, but being other- 

 wise diaphanous, and appearing by the microscope of the same size here 

 drawn ; but there were an innumerable quantity of a less sort, which were 

 of the same figure. I perceived also some that resembled a wine vessel, but 

 they proved to have two sides rolled up, as fig. B; so also may the salt figures, 

 which I have described as blunt at one or both ends, be like C and D. I saw 

 also figures, as A, which had both their sharp points rolled up together, as at 

 C. Also figures with one end not rolled, as at D. Some few figures had a 

 square base, with the sides rising up pyramidal, like a pointed diamond, as E. 

 Sometimes one of these figures was in the middle of another, as at E, as well 

 as in the former wines. Some salt figures had their sides rolled up, so as the 

 ends did not touch one another; but left an opening in the middle, as at F. 

 Whereas others, that were more shut, seemed only to have a line on the back 

 of them. Sometimes there appeared figures long and slender, as G. But, 

 above all, a sort of small soft particles was in greatest numbers, of a globular 

 figure, the whole body of the wine, except the salt particles, seeming to consist 

 of them, and the sweetness to take thence its rise. 



I took a little Rinco wine, which had worked in the cask all the foregoing 



