452 AMERICAN GRAPE CULTURE. 



which is as follows : That all the changes that 

 wine undergoes find their appropriate cause in a 

 specific vegetable fungus. Thus, " souring " or 

 " acetification," " mould," etc., are each produced 

 by a different vegetable parasite or fungus, which, 

 if allowed to go on to mature growth, will spoil 

 the wine. Before the germs of these fungi are 

 called into active life, no harm has been done, 

 according to his theory. His remedy is to de- 

 stroy them by heating the wine. For this pur- 

 pose he submitted wines to a degree of heat 

 reaching two hundred and fifty or more de- 

 grees ; but his latest experiments would seem 

 to show that one hundred and fourteen degrees 

 of Fahrenheit are quite sufficient to insure the 

 destruction of the parasite. The question will 

 naturally arise, whether this degree of heat will 

 not injure the wine. M. Pasteur answers it by 

 saying that, so far from injuring the wine, it 

 hastens its ripening, and brings forth in a few 

 hours those fine qualities that we have been in 

 the habit of expecting only from many years 

 of careful keeping in good cellars. The pro- 

 cess is applicable to all kinds of wines, and ren- 

 ders them capable of long, if not indefinite, 

 preservation. There is good reason to suppose, 

 however, that these fungi will make their ap- 



