364 ADULTERATION OF WINE. 



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the volume of the wine has been trebled by water, 

 and the same amount of turbidity is produced in 

 genuine wine by chloride of barium as is perceived in 

 the diluted adulterated wine, then we may assume that 

 the adulterated wine contains three times as much sul- 

 phuric acid as the genuine. This rough computation is 

 quite satisfactory in such a case. It is still, however, 

 a question, how much of this sulphuric acid must be 

 ascribed to sulphurising. 



Adulteration with colouring matters is very common, 

 especially when red wine is prepared from white wine, 

 and from currants, darker from light wine, and also 

 when the object is to impart to one sort of wine the 

 shade peculiar to some other kind. Also in cases of 

 spoiled wine. 



Strangely enough, people have endeavoured to 

 detect adulterations by means of reagents which were 

 to act upon the colouring matter, and have not even 

 selected for this end the safest and most character- 

 istic. But even if the colouring matter have been 

 tampered with, it is no proof that the rest of the 

 wine is adulterated. 



Indeed it is not very difficult to separate the colour- 

 ing matter of wine in the manner detailed (p. 218), 

 and then to re-act upon it. And those who will not 

 take the trouble to do more than to add alumina 

 and potash to the wine, to see what comes of it, are 

 not fit to give an opinion upon adulteration. 



In the meantime much has been written about the 

 colour which precipitates from genuine red wine ought 



