and the Method of making Wines* 359 
It is not the most saccharine must that furnishes the 
most gaseous acid, nor is it that employed in general for 
making the briskest wines. If the fermentation of this 
kind of grapes were checked by shutting them up in 
casks or jars to preserve the gas disengaged from them, 
the saccharine principle, which abounds in them, would 
not be decomposed, and the wine would be sweet, lus- 
cious, thick, and disagreeable. There are some wines 
all the alcohol of which is dissolved in the gaseous prin- 
ciple : that of Champagne furnishes a proof of it. 
It is difficult to obtain wine red and brisk at the same 
time ; especially as, to make it acquire colour, it must be 
suffered to ferment over the skins, stalks, &c. ; and as by 
these means the acid gas is dissipated. 
There are some wines the slow fermentation of which 
continues for several months. These, if put into bottles 
at the proper time, become brisk : there are none, strictly 
speaking, but wines of this kind capable of acquiring 
that property. Those the fermentation of which is na- 
turally tumultuous terminate this process too soon, and 
would break the vessels in which they are enclosed. 
This acid gas is dangerous to be respired. All animals 
exposed to it are suffocated. Such melancholy accidents 
are much to be apprehended when the vintage is made to 
ferment in low places where the air is not renewed. This 
gaseous fluid displaces the atmospheric air, and at last 
fills the whole cellar. It is the more dangerous as it is 
invisible like air ; anti too much precaution cannot be ta- 
ken against its fatal effects. To ascertain whether there 
be any danger, those who enter a place where vintage is 
in a state of fermentation ought to cause a lighted candle 
to be carried before them : if the candle continues burn- 
ing, there is no danger ; but if it is seen to grow dim, 
and then to go out, it will be prudent to retire. 
This danger may be prevented bv saturating the gas 
