258 ALBUMINOUS MATTER. 



flocculent precipitate possessing all the properties of a 

 compound of chlorine and albumen (albumen-chloride). 



As in many wines which have not been subjected 

 to evaporation this precipitate is not observed, 

 it is difficult to determine the amount of albumen 

 present in wine by weight. Still I consider the deter- 

 mination by no means unnecessary. Liebig entirely 

 denies the presence of albumen in wine, and yet the 

 quantity contained in it is such that it can hardly 

 escape the examiner, though in Madeira and Tene- 

 riffe the amount is certainly small. If chlorine be 

 conducted through fresh grape-juice which has been 

 filtered, and in which the presence of free tartaric 

 acid has prevented the albumen from coagulating 

 by heat, a copious precipitate of chloride of albumen 

 will be the result, which agrees entirely with the 

 statements already made in treating of grape-juice 

 (p. 37). 



Considering the matter dietetically, the presence of 

 this trace of albumen in wine might be completely 

 disregarded, and I have not yet been able to ascertain 

 the exact nature of the albuminous body indicated by 

 such traces. We may assume that it arises under 

 the influences of ferment, and therefore no longer 



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belongs to the unaltered albuminous bodies which 

 appear in the plant itself. 



I should not dwell so long on the existence of this 

 trace of albuminous matter, were not its presence of 

 importance on two accounts first, that it gives us 



