354 ADULTERATION OF WINE. 



"We should speak untruly if we maintained that 

 science is able, by comparing an adulterated with a 

 genuine wine of the same name, to prove that the adul- 

 terated wine was made in imitation of the genuine wine. 



Such things cannot be required from science, be- 

 cause no single kind of wine is exactly the same year 

 after year ; and also to express it as accurately as 

 possible, because the composition of no two grapes in 

 the whole vineyard is exactly alike. 



But if such kinds of wine as are distinguished in 

 trading (and it is usual now to give different names 

 to wines produced from vineyards lying close together) 

 were always of uniform composition, there would still 

 be such resemblance between the sorts that are related 

 as would render chemical discrimination impossible. A 

 trifling difference in the time of the vintage, in the 

 care with which the grapes are gathered, in pressing, 

 in the size of the fermenting vats, and in many other 

 details, may occasion varieties perceptible to the 

 senses, but connected with no real chemical difference. 

 There may even be a difference in chemical composition, 

 but in such wines as we speak of this difference would 

 be less than exists between different kinds of wine. 



In such case the chemist, with his eyes open, finds 

 himself in the same position as the genuine con- 

 noisseur of wine with his eyes shut both make mis- 

 takes, and take a for 5. 



I say this to shield science from the friendly re- 

 proach sometimes levelled at her, that she cannot do 



