90 FERMENTATION. 



The separation of these substances increases propor- 

 tionately to the increase of alcohol, and continues till 

 fermentation is at an end. These substances at first 

 make the wine turbid, but speedily deposit themselves 

 at the bottom as a crust, and form raw tartar. 



Young wine contains, therefore, less of the salts 

 which have been mentioned than the grape juice from 

 which it is produced, and the poorer the wine is in gum 

 and sugar and the richer it has become in alcohol, the 

 smaller will be the proportion of these salts namely, 

 phosphate, sulphate, and tartrate of lime, double 

 racemate of potash, sulphate of potash, and tartrate 

 of magnesia. At the same time, the albumen and 

 the gum (the latter in the form of cellulose), are 

 separated, and appear partly as ferment ; and in 

 place of the albumen which, after being converted 

 into ferment, is afterwards decomposed, the products 

 of that decomposition enter into wine in the shape of 

 extractive matters, with the nature and quality of 

 which we are at present, however, but imperfectly 

 acquainted. 



Braconnot is the only person who has analysed 

 the sediment which first forms in wine. It is a mix- 

 ture, in which both the above-mentioned salts and 

 the ferment, which has been separated, occur. He 

 found 21 per cent, albuminous matter, more than 61 

 per cent, cream of tartar, besides 5 per cent, tartrate 

 of lime, 6 per cent, phosphate of lime, 2 per cent- 

 sulphate of lime, the rest alumina ; and, moreover, a 



