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y 



251 



CULTIVATION of the VINE. 



4 



With the wine, gives it that vile tafte : But then againft 

 this there is a ftrong ohje£lion, i. e. that this defe£t only 

 feizes the wine at a particular feafon, viz, September, over 

 which, if it gets, it will keep good many years : fo that 

 the cafe is worthy the inquiry of naturalifts, fince it is evi- 

 dent that moft wines are more or lefs afFedled v^ith this 

 diftemper, during the firft year after making. 



" XTpon receiving this information from Italy, I con- 

 fulted the Revd. Dr. Hales of Teddington, who was then 

 making feveral experiments on fermenting liquors, and 

 received from him the curious folution of the caufe of this 

 change in wine, which I fent over to my friend in Italy, 

 who has tried the experiment, and it has accordingly an- 

 fwered his expectation, in preferving the wine, he thus 



managed, perfectly good. He has alfo communicated the 

 cxperifnent to feveral vigneronsin Italy, who are repeating 



the fame J which take in Dr. Hales own words, viz. 



*' From many experiments which I made the laft fum- 

 mier, I find that all fermented liquors do generate air in 

 large quantities, during the time of their fermentation; for 

 from an experiment made on twelve cubic inches of Ma- 

 laga raifins, put into eighteen cubic inches of water the 

 beginning of March, there were four hundered and eleven 

 cubic inches of air generated by the middle of April; but 



afterward, when the fermentation was over, it reforbed a 



great quantity of this air ; and from forty two cubic inches 

 of ale from the ton (which had fermented forty four hours 

 before It was put into the bolt head) there were generated 

 fix hundred and thirty-nine cubic inches of air from the 

 beginning of March to the middle of June, after which it 

 reforbed thirty-two cubic inches of the fame air; from 

 whence it is plain, that fermented liquors do generate air 

 during the time of their fermentation, but afterwards they 

 are in an imbibing ftate, which may perhaps account for 





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