54 FEKMENTATION. 



many parts of France the infamous custom (for how 

 else can I designate it ?) prevailed of allowing a 

 naked man to go into the wine-tub, who not only 

 stirred up everything, but promoted fermentation by 

 the temperature of his body, (37 C. 98 F.). According 

 to Thenard, several individuals have been killed in 

 this way, the atmosphere of carbonic acid in which 

 they found themselves proving fatal to them. 



After some days the whole mass reaches its highest 

 point of effervescence, and at this it remains for 

 three or four days ; it then begins to diminish, and 

 by forming a precipitate at the bottom allows the 

 wine to become gradually clearer. 



The wine is now removed into another vessel, the 

 sediment being left behind. Fermentation continues, 

 but more quietly ; and this is called after-fermentation. 

 Sugar is constantly being converted into alcohol and 

 carbonic acid, and a fresh .precipitate is continually 

 forming and depositing itself at the bottom. 



After the wine has undergone this after-fermen- 

 tation for several months, (and the fermentation 

 generally increases again during the next spring, at 

 the time it is said when the vines blossom, that is, 

 when . the warmth of the air excites fermentation 

 again,) and has been drawn off from time to time into 

 other vessels, in order to free it from the sediment 

 which has been continually forming, it is transferred 

 into casks in which it can be exported. Five conditions 

 are necessary to the fermentation of wine ; the three 



