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XX. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE SIMULTANEOUS OCCURRENCE OF A SOLUBLE LEAD-SALT 

 AND FREE SULPHURIC ACID IN SHERRY WINE; WITH OBSER- 

 VATIONS ON THE SOLVENT ACTION OF ALCOHOLIC SALINE 

 SOLUTIONS UPON SULPHATE OF LEAD. BY PROFESSOR F. H. 

 STORER. 



OEVERAL years since, I was called upon by a wine-merchant of 

 O this city to examine a sample of pale sherry taken from a cask 

 which had been returned to him, on the certificate of a chemist that 

 the wine contained lead. The sample in question was perfectly 

 transparent and clear. There was nothing in the appearance or taste 

 of the wine to indicate the sophistication to which it had really been 

 subjected. 



On submitting this sherry to chemical analysis, I found not only 

 that it held in solution a considerable proportion of lead, but also a 

 decided trace of free sulphuric acid, besides an abundance of the 

 same acid combined with some alkaline base. When a portion of 

 the wine was evaporated in contact with slips of paper, the latter 

 soon became crumbly and friable. 



Regarded merely from the chemical point of view, without refer- 

 ence to its manifest bearing upon questions of hygiene and jurispru- 

 dence, the simultaneous occurrence of a lead-salt and of free sul- 

 phuric acid in alcoholic solution is a fact sufficiently important to 

 merit close attention. Unfortunately the small sample of wine given 

 me was completely exhausted in the severe confirmatory tests by 

 which the results above mentioned were controlled, and I have had 

 no opportunity to determine the precise manner in which the lead 

 was held in solution in that particular case. Several conjectures as 

 to the cause of the phenomenon will be discussed below. 



That lead compounds should still be employed in the treatment of 

 wine will surprise no one familiar with the tenacity with which tra- 

 ditions are held by successive generations of operatives in many of 

 the chemical arts. According to Taylor*, "litharge was formerly 

 much used to remove the acidity of sour wine and convey a sweet 

 taste. Acetate of lead, or some other vegetable salt of the metal, is 

 in these cases formed, and the use of such wine may be productive 

 of alarming symptoms. Many years since, a fatal epidemic colic 



prevailed in Paris owing to this cause ; the adulteration was 



discovered by Fourcroy, and was immediately suppressed." 



Beckmann, in his ' History of Inventions 'f, dwells at some length 

 on the antiquity and enduring character of the practice of neutralizing 

 the acid which spoils wine by means of litharge. According to this 

 author, the practice was forbidden by legal enactment in France as 



* On Poisons, p. 502 of the London edition, 

 t Chapter on Adulteration of Wine. 



