August 24, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



The Plastering of Wine. 



The latest of the Uniled States consular reports published by the 

 State department contains a report by Walter T. Griffin, commer- 

 cial agent, upon the plastering of wines. Since the great reduc- 

 tion in the amount of wines manufactured in the Bordeaux and 

 Burgundy districts, the inferior wines of the central departments of 

 France are being substituted for them, and recourse is had to 

 chemical addition for the purpose of increasing their market-value. 

 So important is this matter considered, that the question whether 

 the plastering of wine is injurious to public health or not is now 

 being discussed by the Academy of Medicine at Paris. 



The plastering of wine consists in adding sulphate of lime after 

 the first fermentation, or while the wine is in the vat ; it is also 

 mixed with the grape-must. The general rule is to put in five 

 hundred grams of the plaster to the hectolitre of wine, but the 

 greater number of wine-makers throw in the lime without weigh- 

 ing. The advantages said to be gained by the use of sulphate of 

 lime are, that fermentation is greatly increased, is more rapid and 

 complete, the color is brighter and more permanent, and the wine 

 will keep for a much longer period. The objections are, that the 

 addition of sulphate of lime causes chemical changes that render 

 the wine injurious to health. The reasons given are these : 

 wine, in its normal condition, contains a certain amount of bi-tar- 

 trate of potash, which, when brought in contact with sulphate of 

 lime, forms an acid sulphate of potash, and there is precipitated an 

 insoluble bi-tartrate of lime, varying according to its degree of 

 alcohol, the wine dissolving a portion of the sulphate of lime. 



Natural wine contains, at a maximum, about half a gram of 

 sulphate of potash per litre. This quantity is increased from five 

 to ten fold by the action of the lime, and at the same time the pro- 

 portion of the bi-tartrate of potash diminishes to such a degree that 

 it may be said that the lime substitutes for this salt the acid sul- 

 phate of potash. Finally, m wine treated with lime, sulphuric acid 

 is found in a free state, also the sulphate of magnesia. There are 

 three parties to the contest, — the proprietors and wine-merchants, 

 who increase their profits by the plastering of the wine ; the hygien- 

 ists, who have always insisted upon the injurious effects of the 

 practice ; and the chemists, who have never given a final decision. 

 The present discussion in the Academy of Medicine is the out- 

 growth of advice asked by the government of it and of the hygienic 

 committees. A report of the progress thus far made in its inquiry 

 by the academy has been made by M. Marty, who was designated 

 to prepare it. 



The paper is largely historical, and only a brief notice of that 

 part of it will be made here. The hygienic committee, in 1856, 

 reported in favor of plastering. The following year numerous evil 

 consequences resulted from the plastered wines at St. Affrique, in 

 the department of Aveyron. The doctors state that those who 

 drank of this wine had an unquenchable thirst (cephalalgy) and an 

 insupportable dryness of the throat. These are only the super- 

 ficial symptoms and lesions that plastered wines produce in the 

 organism. About the same time the Chamber of Commerce em- 

 ployed a committee of chemists to inquire into the matter, and they 

 sustained the opinion given by the hygienic committee. In 1858 

 M. Poggiale, after new researches, found in the ashes of plastered 

 wines an almost entire absence of bi-tartrate of potash, and an 

 entirely abnormal proportion of sulphate of potash. He concluded 

 that the practice of plastering had better be abandoned, as he con- 

 sidered it injurious to health. The conseih generaux entered into 

 the lists after the decision given by the court at Roanne, which 

 was against plastered wine. They demanded a new scientific 

 inquiry. For a second time the hygienic committee, in spite of a 

 spirited protestation from Michel Levy, declared in favor of plaster- 

 ing. M. Buignet and M. Bussy re-analyzed the plastered wine by a 

 new process, and found free sulphuric acid, which was formed by 

 the action of bi-tartrate of potash and sulphate of lime. The result 

 was a compromise by the chemists, who considj^red that plastering 

 might be done with moderation. In 1879 this question was brought 

 for a third time before the committee, who did not admit the harm- 

 lessness of plastering, but said that two grams per litre were not 

 ■dangerous. 



M. Marty, in his report just published, settles the question from 

 a hygienic view. He reports upon several experiments which have 



been made to show the harmlessness of wine plastered to 4°. All 

 these experiments fail for want of precision or exactness in their 

 method. It is an incontestable fact that plastered wines have 

 occasioned functional troubles and organic injuries. All familiar 

 with medical science know that a solution of acid sulphate of 

 potash, in which sulphuric acid is in a free state, acts as a purgative, 

 and a caustic in certain cases. In regard to the abolition of 

 plastering, the hygienic committee are not unanimous in their decis- 

 ion. It is the opinion that a moderate plastering is necessary for 

 the utilization, preservation, and transportation of a certain class of 

 the poorer grades of wine, whose loss would be a disastrous thing 

 for the wine-growers. But producers and merchants are warned, 

 that, if they should continue the practice, the proportion of acid 

 sulphate should not exceed two grams per litre. This proportion 

 is sufficient to obtain the commercial advantages for which the lime 

 is used. In conclusion, M. Marty examines and refutes certain 

 arguments recently produced in favor of plastering. He recognizes 

 the fact that the conditions of the non-combination of the neutral 

 sulphate and the acid sulphate of potash are not well known, but 

 says we have a law of nature that will guide the hygienists in the 

 study of this question ; viz., that natural wines never contain more 

 than {'^^ of a gram of the sulphate of potash per litre. The hygien- 

 ists, on their side, do not ignore the fact that this is the maximum 

 dose, and if it is surpassed it will certainly injure public health. In 

 conclusion, the academy gave it as its unanimous opinion that 

 plastering wine was a custom detrimental to health, and petitions 

 that the law of 1880 be rigorously enforced. 



MOTIONS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.' 



No other hypothesis has been suggested which offers such direct 

 and complete answers to most of the questions which relate to the 

 origin, structure, and unity of the universe, as Newton's law of 

 gravity. It is but natural, therefore, that the majority of the prob- 

 lems which arise in regard to the motions of the solar system should 

 have their origin in an effort to confirm that law. 



The first attempt to apply Newton's law to all the motions of the 

 solar system was made by Laplace. When, however, Lindenau 

 and Bouvard undertook to compute their tables of the motions of 

 the planets, a complete revision of Laplace's theory was found 

 necessary. So enormous is the labor involved, that there exists, 

 besides those mentioned, only one other complete set of theories 

 and tables of the motions of the principal planets, — that of Lever- 

 rier. Leverrier's tables of the inner planets are now nearly thirty 

 years old. His tables of the outer planets are much later, having 

 employed his attention almost to the day of his death. His tables 

 of Jupiter and Saturn were published in 1876, and those of Uranus 

 and Neptune in the year following. Newcomb's tables of Neptune 

 were published in 1865 ; those of Uranus, in 1874. Hill's theory 

 of Jupiter and Saturn, which has for years occupied his attention, 

 has at last been completed, and he is now engaged in preparing 

 tables therefrom. These are intended to form a part of a com- 

 plete series of tables of the principal planets now being prepared 

 under the direction of Professor Newcomb at Washington. An- 

 other such series is also being prepared by Professor Gylden at 

 Stockholm. 



The values of the co-efficients of the terms of short period in 

 the motions of the principal planets are now pretty well known ; 

 and the same might be said of the secular variations, were it not 

 for the difference between theory and observation which exists 

 in regard to the motion of the perihelion of Mercury, which was 

 discovered by Leverrier, and has been confirmed by Newcomb, in 

 a discussion of the observations of the transits of Mercury, extend- 

 ing over a period of more than two centuries. The cause of this 

 difference still remains unknown. The completion and compari- 

 son with observations of the new theory of the four inner planets, 

 now being prepared under the direction of Professor Newcomb, 

 will be awaited with interest, with the hope that it may throw new 

 light on this interesting subject. 



The only recent original tables of the moon's motions are those 



* Abstract of an address before the Section of Matticmatics and Astronomy of the 

 American As-ociation for the Adv.nncetncnt of Science, at Cleveland, O., Aug. i5-3a» 

 i883. by Ormond Stone, vice president of the section. 



