14£ On the Cultivation of the Vine , 
salt with acetous acid, is exceedingly dangerous. This 
criminal adulteration may be easily detected by pouring 
hydro- sulphuret of potash (liver of sulphur) into the wine. 
There will be immediately formed an abundant and black 
precipitate. Sulphurated hydrogen gas may also be 
made to pass through this altered liquor : this will pro 
duce a blackish precipitate, which is nothing but sulphuret 
of lead. 
The works of oinologists abound with recipes, of great 
er or less value, for correcting the acidity of wine. 
Bidet says, that about a fiftieth of skimmed milk added 
to sour wine restores it ; and that it may be drawn off in 
five days. 
Others take four ounces of the best wheat, boil it in 
water till it bursts ; and, when it has cooled, put it into 
a small bag which is immersed in the cask, shaking it 
with a stick. 
Some recommend also the seeds of leeks, fennel, &c. 
To show the futility of the greater part of these reme- 
dies, it will be sufficient to observe, that it is impossible 
to make fermentation proceed in a retrograde manner, 
and that it can at most be suspended ; that the whole of 
the acid then formed may be seized, or its existence may 
be concealed, by sweet and saccharine principles. 
But besides these alterations there are others, which, 
though less common and dangerous deserve to be noticed. 
Wine sometimes contracts what is called a taste of the 
cask. This malady may arise from two causes : first, 
when the wine is put into casks, the wood of which is 
rotten or damaged ; secondly, when lees have been left to 
dry in the casks into which new wine is put. Willermoz 
proposes lime water, carbonic acid, and oxygenated 
muriatic acid, to correct the bad taste arising from the 
cask : others recommend mixing the wine with isinglass, 
drawing it carefully off, and infusing roasted wheat in it 
for two or three days. 
