114 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



liquid ; the test of separation being known by the liquid becom- 

 ing clear. 



But this method of removing the acidifying substance from 

 wine by fermenting in cellars of this uniform low temperature is 

 not applicable to domestic wine making, because such cellars are 

 very uncommon. The domestic maker of a " palatable and keep- 

 ing wine," must add sugar to the juice of ripe grapes of temperate 

 climates in the proportion judged necessary by the amount of 

 gluten, and by the desire to have a dry or a sweet wine, so that 

 a more or less quantity of sugar shall remain in the wine after 

 all the gluten has been transformed or separated. Or another 

 method may be followed which has many advantages, and which 

 is indeed the only one applicable in such a State as New York, 

 where it is said grapes scarcely ever ripen, which is, to add sugar 

 and water to mature but unripe grapes. . 



The consideration, however, of the superiority of the economi- 

 cal and important method of wine making must be deferred until 

 my next, when I will consider it in connection with what is 

 termed pure wine, and its physiological influence upon the human 

 system. 



What constitutes pure wine is a vexed question. The ^nolo- 

 gists, that is, the men practically versed in wine-making, and the 

 men who have scientifically studied the chemistry of the art, hold 

 totally opposite opinions. The wine manufacturers, of Ohio for 

 instance, regard pufe wine as consisting of the fermented juice 

 of the grape only ; any addition whatever thereto, being consid- 

 ered an adulteration, which renders the product unworthy of the 

 name of wine. Mulder, the celebrated professor of organic chem- 

 istry, favors this opinion, and is disposed to regard everything 

 that is added to, or taken from fermented grape juice as an adul- 

 teration. Not only is he disposed to regard such substances as 

 sugar, when added to the juice of unfavorable seasons which is 

 deficient in sweetness, as an adulteration ; but such substances 

 as isinglass, when used for the purpose of merely clearing the 

 wine. He admits, hoAvever, that this practice is not generally so 

 understood ; and that, therefore, he has not the right, which he 

 regrets, to stigmatize the practice. 



We have, then, the admission of Mulder that the practice of 

 adding sugar to grape juice deficient in sweetness, is not gene- 

 rally understood by ^nologists, to be an adulteration; and, in 

 support of the opinion, that the addition of sugar is not an adul- 



