Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Sept.,  1882.  J 
Analysis  of  Wine. 
451 
has  completely  fermented  its  addition  to  tlie  must  can  no  longer  be 
detected  by  optical  means. 
The  question  whether  an  addition  of  caramel  to  a  wine  exercises  any 
influence  upon  its  optical  behavior  has  been  answered  in  the  negative 
by  the  authors'  experiments,  caramel  proving  to  be  optically  inactive. 
III.  Chlorine  Determination  and  the  Amount  of  Chloinne  in  Wine. — 
It  is  known  that  in  the  estimation  of  wine  by  experts  an  essential  value 
is  placed,  among  other  things,  upon  the  amount  of  ash  found  in  it,  and 
that  manipulations  for  increasing  its  bulk  considerably  lower  the  pro- 
portion of  incombustible  substances  that  it  yields.  In  order  to  cover 
this  poverty  of  ash  constituents  an  addition  is  often  made  of  such  salts 
as  will  remain  completely  dissolved  in  the  wine  and  hence  not  raise 
.suspicions,  and  for  this  purpose  an  addition  of  common  salt  to  a  sophis- 
ticated wine  is  not  very  extraordinary.  But  it  is  more  common  to  use 
water  from  a  spring  rich  in  residual  matter,  by  which  means  the  low- 
-ering  of  the  ash  constituents  through  dilution  of  the  wine  is  nuich  less- 
■ened.  Such  waters,  however,  are  often  very  rich  in  chlorine  com- 
})ounds,  and  therefore  the  estimation  of  chlorine  in  wines  is  not 
unfrequently  of  especial  interest.  But  isinglass  occasionally,  though 
not  very  often,  contains  some  added  salt,  so  that  the  presence  of  a 
sophistication  cannot  be  assumed  with  certainty  upon  the  single  ground 
of  the  occurrence  of  a  somewhat  too  large  quantity  of  salt. 
All  wines  that  contain  abnormal  quantities  of  common  salt  are  dis- 
tinguished by  the  ash  not  burning  white  so  easily  as  that  of  most  other 
wines :  it  pertinaciously  retains  carbon,  and  upon  using  a  very  strong 
heat  in  incinerating  it  probably  fuses  and  a  large  portion  of  the  alka- 
line constituents  is  volatilized.  If  the  incineration  residue  be  left  to 
cool,  treated  with  water  so  as  to  separate  the  salt  from  the  carbonaceous 
particles,  and  then  heated  carefully  so  as  to  avoid  spirting  (a  charac- 
teristic of  common  salt),  a  pure  wliite  ash  will  probably  be  obtained, 
but  it  will  not  contain  all  the  salt.  Further,  if  the  extract  be  simply 
carbonized  and  then  treated  with  water,  the  residue  from  the  evapora- 
tion of  the  liquor  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  containing  all  the  sodium 
chloride  as  such;  because  the  organic  a(;ids  of  the  wine,  immediately 
upon  being  heated,  and  before  they  are  de(;om[)osed,  expel  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  hydrochloric  acid  and  eventually  form  carbonates. 
Consequently  a  (chlorine  determination  of  ash  produced  as  carefully  as 
possible  gives  the  amount  of  chlorine  compounds  in  a  wine  too  low. 
In  the  estimation  of  chlorine  in  original  wines  those  quantitative 
