Adulteration of Wine.

The action of the sulphuretted hydrogen test, when applied in this manner, is astonishingly great; for one part of acetate of lead may be detected by means of it, in 20000 parts of water.[24]

Another test for readily detecting lead in water, is sulphuretted chyazate of potash, first pointed out as such by Mr. Porret. A few drops of this re-agent, added to water containing lead, occasion a white precipitate, consisting of small brilliant scales of a considerable lustre.

Sulphate of potash, or sulphate of soda, is likewise a very delicate test for detecting minute portions of lead. Dr. Thomson[25]discovered, by means of it, one part of lead in 100000 parts of water; and this acute Philosopher considers it as the most unequivocal test of lead that we possess. Dr. Thomson remarks that "no other precipitate can well be confounded with it, except sulphate of barytes; and there is no probability of the presence of barytes existing in common water."

Carbonate of potash, or carbonate of soda, may also be used as agents to detect the presence of lead. By means of these salts Dr. Thomson was enabled to detect the presence of a smaller quantity of lead in distilled water, than by the action of sulphuretted hydrogen. But the reader musthere be told, that the use of these tests cannot be entrusted to an unskilful hand; because the alkaline carbonates throw down also lime and magnesia, two substances which are frequently found in common water; the former tests, namely, water impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and nascent sulphuretted hydrogen, are therefore preferable.

It is absolutely essential that the water impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, when employed as a test for detecting very minute quantities of lead, be fresh prepared; and if sulphate of potash, or sulphate of soda, be used as tests, they should be perfectly pure. Sulphate of potash is preferable to sulphate of soda. It is likewise advisable to act with these tests upon water concentrated by boiling. The water to which the test has been added does sometimes appear not to undergo any change, at first; it is therefore necessary to suffer the mixture to stand for a few hours; after which time the action of the test will be more evident. Mr. Silvester[26]has proposed gallic acid as a delicate test for detecting lead.

FOOTNOTES:[11]Dalton, Manchester Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 55.[12]Marsden's History of Sumatra.[13]Manchester Memoirs vol. x. 1819.[14]Observations on the Water with which Tunbridge Wells is chiefly supplied for Domestic Purposes, by Dr. Thomson; forming an Appendix to an Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. Scudamore.[15]It is absolutely essential that the tests should be pure.[16]Philosophical Magazine, vol. xv. p. 252.[17]Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. viii. p. 259.[18]Sir G. Baker, Med. Trans. vol. i. p. 280.[19]Lamb on Spring Water.[20]Medical Trans. vol. i. p. 420.[21]Van Swieten ad Boerhaave, Aphorisms, 1060. Comment.[22]Medical Comment. Dec. 2, 1794.[23]Lambe on Spring Water.[24]See An Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. Scudamore, p. 55.The application of the sulphuretted hydrogen test requires some precautions in those cases where other metals besides lead may be expected; because silver, quicksilver, tin, copper, and several other metals, are affected by it, as well as lead; but there is no chance of these metals being met with in common water.—SeeChemical Tests, third edition, p. 207.[25]Analysis of Tunbridge Wells Water, by Dr. Scudamore, p. 55.[26]Nicholson's Journal, p. 33, 310.

FOOTNOTES:

[11]Dalton, Manchester Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 55.

[12]Marsden's History of Sumatra.

[13]Manchester Memoirs vol. x. 1819.

[14]Observations on the Water with which Tunbridge Wells is chiefly supplied for Domestic Purposes, by Dr. Thomson; forming an Appendix to an Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. Scudamore.

[15]It is absolutely essential that the tests should be pure.

[16]Philosophical Magazine, vol. xv. p. 252.

[17]Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. viii. p. 259.

[18]Sir G. Baker, Med. Trans. vol. i. p. 280.

[19]Lamb on Spring Water.

[20]Medical Trans. vol. i. p. 420.

[21]Van Swieten ad Boerhaave, Aphorisms, 1060. Comment.

[22]Medical Comment. Dec. 2, 1794.

[23]Lambe on Spring Water.

[24]See An Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. Scudamore, p. 55.The application of the sulphuretted hydrogen test requires some precautions in those cases where other metals besides lead may be expected; because silver, quicksilver, tin, copper, and several other metals, are affected by it, as well as lead; but there is no chance of these metals being met with in common water.—SeeChemical Tests, third edition, p. 207.

[24]See An Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. Scudamore, p. 55.

The application of the sulphuretted hydrogen test requires some precautions in those cases where other metals besides lead may be expected; because silver, quicksilver, tin, copper, and several other metals, are affected by it, as well as lead; but there is no chance of these metals being met with in common water.—SeeChemical Tests, third edition, p. 207.

[25]Analysis of Tunbridge Wells Water, by Dr. Scudamore, p. 55.

[26]Nicholson's Journal, p. 33, 310.

It is sufficiently obvious, that few of those commodities, which are the objects of commerce, are adulterated to a greater extent than wine. All persons moderately conversant with the subject, are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose of brightening their colour; that Brazil wood, or the husks of elderberries and bilberries,[27]are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red Port of a pale, faint colour; that gypsum is used to render cloudy white wines transparent;[28]that an additionalastringency is imparted to immature red wines by means of oak-wood sawdust,[29]and the husks of filberts; and that a mixture of spoiled foreign and home-made wines is converted into the wretched compound frequently sold in this town by the name ofgenuine old Port.

Various expedients are resorted to for the purpose of communicating particular flavours to insipid wines. Thus anuttyflavour is produced by bitter almonds; factitious Port wine is flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins; and the ingredients employed to form thebouquetof high-flavoured wines, are sweet-brier, oris-root, clary, cherry laurel water, and elder-flowers.

The flavouring ingredients used by manufacturers, may all be purchased by those dealers in wine who are initiated in the mysteries of the trade; and even a manuscript recipe book for preparing them,and the whole mystery of managing all sorts of wines, may be obtained on payment of a considerable fee.

The sophistication of wine with substances not absolutely noxious to health, is carried to an enormous extent in this metropolis. Many thousand pipes of spoiled cyder are annually brought hither from the country, for the purpose of being converted into factitious Port wine. The art of manufacturing spurious wine is a regular trade of great extent in this metropolis.

"There is, in this city, a certain fraternity of chemical operators, who work underground in holes, caverns, and dark retirements, to conceal their mysteries from the eyes and observation of mankind. These subterraneous philosophers are daily employed in the transmutation of liquors; and by the power of magical drugs and incantations, raising under the streets of London the choicest products of the hills and valleys of France. They can squeeze Bourdeaux out of the sloe, and draw Champagne from an apple. Virgil, in that remarkable prophecy,

Incultisque ruhens pendebit sentibus uva.Virg. Ecl. iv. 29.The ripening grape shall hang on every thorn.

Incultisque ruhens pendebit sentibus uva.

Virg. Ecl. iv. 29.

The ripening grape shall hang on every thorn.

seems to have hinted at this art, which can turn a plantation of northern hedges into a vineyard. These adepts are known among one another by the name ofWine-brewers; and, I am afraid, do great injury, not only to her Majesty's customs, but to the bodies of many of her good subjects."[30]

The following are a few of the recipes employed in the manufacture of spurious wine:

To makeBritish Port Wine.[31]—"Take of British grape wine, or good cyder, 4 gallons; of the juice of red beet root two quarts; brandy, two quarts; logwood 4 ounces; rhatany root, bruised, half a pound: first infuse the logwood and rhatany root in brandy, and a gallon of grape wine or cyder for one week; then strain off the liquor, and mix it with the other ingredients; keep it in a cask for a month, when it will be fit to bottle."British Champagne.—"Take of white sugar, 8 pounds; the whitest brown sugar, 7 pounds, crystalline lemon acid, or tartaric acid, 1 ounce and a quarter, pure water, 8 gallons; whitegrape wine, two quarts, or perry, 4 quarts; of French brandy, 3 pints.""Put the sugar in the water, skimming it occasionally for two hours, then pour it into a tub and dissolve in it the acid; before it is cold, add some yeastand ferment.Put it into a clean cask and add the other ingredients. The cask is then to be well bunged, and kept in a cool place for two or three months; then bottle it and keep it cool for a month longer, when it will be fit for use. If it should not be perfectly clear after standing in the cask two or three months, it should be rendered so by the use of isinglass. By adding 1 lb. of fresh or preserved strawberries, and 2 ounces of powdered cochineal, thePINKChampagne may be made."Southampton Port.[32]—"Take cyder, 36 gallons; elder wine, 11 gallons; brandy, 5 gallons; damson wine, 11 gallons; mix."

British Champagne.—"Take of white sugar, 8 pounds; the whitest brown sugar, 7 pounds, crystalline lemon acid, or tartaric acid, 1 ounce and a quarter, pure water, 8 gallons; whitegrape wine, two quarts, or perry, 4 quarts; of French brandy, 3 pints."

"Put the sugar in the water, skimming it occasionally for two hours, then pour it into a tub and dissolve in it the acid; before it is cold, add some yeastand ferment.Put it into a clean cask and add the other ingredients. The cask is then to be well bunged, and kept in a cool place for two or three months; then bottle it and keep it cool for a month longer, when it will be fit for use. If it should not be perfectly clear after standing in the cask two or three months, it should be rendered so by the use of isinglass. By adding 1 lb. of fresh or preserved strawberries, and 2 ounces of powdered cochineal, thePINKChampagne may be made."

Southampton Port.[32]—"Take cyder, 36 gallons; elder wine, 11 gallons; brandy, 5 gallons; damson wine, 11 gallons; mix."

The particular and separate department in this factitious wine trade, calledcrusting, consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine-bottles, in part, with a red crust of super-tartrate of potash, by suffering a saturated hot solution of this salt, colouredred with a decoction of Brazil-wood, to crystallize within them; and after this simulation of maturity is perfected, they are filled with the compound called Port wine.

Other artisans are regularly employed in staining the lower extremities of bottle-corks with a fine red colour, to appear, on being drawn, as if they had been long in contact with the wine.

The preparation of an astringent extract, to produce, from spoiled home-made and foreign wines, a "genuine old Port," by mere admixture; or to impart to a weak wine a rough austere taste, a fine colour, and a peculiar flavour; forms one branch of the business of particular wine-coopers: while the mellowing and restoring of spoiled white wines, is the sole occupation of men who are calledrefiners of wine.

We have stated that a crystalline crust is formed on the interior surface of bottles, for the purpose of misleading the unwary into a belief that the wine contained in them is of a certain age. A correspondent operation is performed on the wooden cask; the whole interior of which is stained artificially with a crystalline crust of super-tartrate of potash, artfully affixed in a manner precisely similar to that before stated.Thus the wine-merchant, after bottling off a pipe of wine, is enabled to impose on the understanding of his customers, by taking to pieces the cask, and exhibiting the beautiful dark coloured and fine crystalline crust, as an indubitable proof of the age of the wine; a practice by no means uncommon, to flatter the vanity of those who pride themselves in their acute discrimination of wines.

These and many other sophistications, which have long been practised with impunity, are considered as legitimate by those who pride themselves for their skill in the art ofmanaging, or, according to the familiar phrase,doctoringwines. The plea alleged in exculpation of them, is, that, though deceptive, they are harmless: but even admitting this as a palliation, yet they form only one department of an art which includes other processes of a tendency absolutely criminal.

Several well-authenticated facts have convinced me that the adulteration of wine with substances deleterious to health, is certainly practised oftener than is, perhaps, suspected; and it would be easy to give some instances of very serious effects having arisen from wines contaminated with deleterious substances, were this a subject on which I meant to speak. Thefollowing statement is copied from the Monthly Magazine for March 1811, p. 188.

"On the 17th of January, the passengers by the Highflyer coach, from the north, dined, as usual, at Newark. A bottle of Port wine was ordered; on tasting which, one of the passengers observed that it had an unpleasant flavour, and begged that it might be changed. The waiter took away the bottle, poured into a fresh decanter half the wine which had been objected to, and filled it up from another bottle. This he took into the room, and the greater part was drank by the passengers, who, after the coach had set out towards Grantham, were seized with extreme sickness; one gentleman in particular, who had taken more of the wine than the others, it was thought would have died, but has since recovered. The half of the bottle of wine sent out of the passengers' room, was put aside for the purpose of mixing negus. In the evening, Mr. Bland, of Newark, went into the hotel, and drank a glass or two of wine and water. He returned home at his usual hour, and went to bed; in the middle of the night he was taken so ill, as to induce Mrs. Bland to send for his brother, an apothecary in the town; but before that gentleman arrived, he was dead. An inquest was held, and the jury, after the fullestenquiry, and the examination of the surgeons by whom the body was opened, returned a verdict of—Died by Poison."

The most dangerous adulteration of wine is by some preparations of lead, which possess the property of stopping the progress of acescence of wine, and also of rendering white wines, when muddy, transparent. I have good reason to state that lead is certainly employed for this purpose. The effect is very rapid; and there appears to be no other method known, of rapidly recovering ropy wines. Wine merchants persuade themselves that the minute quantity of lead employed for that purpose is perfectly harmless, and that no atom of lead remains in the wine. Chemical analysis proves the contrary; and the practice of clarifying spoiled white wines by means of lead, must be pronounced as highly deleterious.

Lead, in whatever state it be taken into the stomach, occasions terrible diseases; and wine, adulterated with the minutest quantity of it, becomes a slow poison. The merchant or dealer who practises this dangerous sophistication, adds the crime of murder to that of fraud, and deliberately scatters the seeds of disease and death among those consumers who contribute to his emolument. If to debase the currentcoin of the realm be denounced as a capital offence, what punishment should be awarded against a practice which converts into poison a liquor used for sacred purposes.

Dr. Watson[33]relates, that the method of adulterating wine with lead, was at one time a common practice in Paris.

Dr. Warren[34]states an instance of thirty-two persons having become severely ill, after drinking white wine that had been adulterated with lead. One of them died, and one became paralytic.

In Graham's Treatise on Wine-Making,[35]under the article ofSecrets, belonging to the mysteries of vintners, p. 31, lead is recommended to prevent wine from becoming acid. The following lines are copied from Mr. Graham's work:

"To hinder Wine from turning."Put a pound of melted lead, in fair water, into your cask, pretty warm, and stop it close.""To soften Grey Wine."Put in a little vinegar wherein litharge has been well steeped, and boil some honey, to draw out the wax. Strain it through a cloth, and put a quart of it into a tierce of wine, and this will mend it."

"To hinder Wine from turning.

"Put a pound of melted lead, in fair water, into your cask, pretty warm, and stop it close."

"To soften Grey Wine.

"Put in a little vinegar wherein litharge has been well steeped, and boil some honey, to draw out the wax. Strain it through a cloth, and put a quart of it into a tierce of wine, and this will mend it."

The ancients knew that lead rendered harsh wines milder, and preserved it from acidity, without being aware that it was pernicious: it was therefore long used with confidence; and when its effects were discovered, they were not ascribed to that metal, but to some other cause.[36]When the Greek and Roman wine merchants wished to try whether their wine was spoiled, they immersed in it a plate of lead;[37]if the colour of the lead were corroded, they concluded that their wine was spoiled.Wine may become accidentally impregnated with lead.

It is well known that bottles in which wine has been kept, are usually cleaned by means of shot, which by its rolling motion detaches the super-tartrate of potash from the sides of the bottles. This practice, which is generally pursued by wine-merchants, may give rise to serious consequences, as will become evident from the following case:[38]

"A gentleman who had never in his life experienced a day's illness, and who was constantly in the habit of drinking half a bottle of Madeira wine after his dinner, was taken ill, three hours after dinner, with a severe pain in the stomach and violent bowel colic, which gradually yielded within twelve hours to the remedies prescribed by his medical adviser. The day following he drank the remainder of the same bottle of wine which was left the preceding day, and within two hours afterwards he was again seized with the most violent colliquative pains, headach, shiverings, and great pain over the whole body. His apothecary becoming suspicious that the wine he haddrank might be the cause of the disease, ordered the bottle from which the wine had been decanted to be brought to him, with a view that he might examine the dregs, if any were left. The bottle happening to slip out of the hand of the servant, disclosed a row of shot wedged forcibly into the angular bent-up circumference of it. On examining the beads of shot, they crumbled into dust, the outer crust (defended by a coat of black lead with which the shot is glazed) being alone left unacted on, whilst the remainder of the metal was dissolved. The wine, therefore, had become contaminated withlead and arsenic, the shot being a compound of these metals, which no doubt had produced the mischief."

TEST FOR DETECTING THE DELETERIOUS ADULTERATIONS OF WINE.

A ready re-agent for detecting the presence of lead, or any other deleterious metal in wine, is known by the name of thewine test. It consists of water saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, acidulated with muriatic acid. By adding one part of it, to two of wine, or any other liquid suspected to contain lead, a dark colouredor black precipitate will fall down, which does not disappear by an addition of muriatic acid; and this precipitate, dried and fused before the blowpipe on a piece of charcoal, yields a globule of metallic lead. This test does not precipitate iron; the muriatic acid retains iron in solution when combined with sulphuretted hydrogen; and any acid in the wine has no effect in precipitating any of the sulphur of the test liquor. Or a still more efficacious method is, to pass a current of sulphuretted hydrogen gas through the wine, in the manner described, p.70, having previously acidulated the wine with muriatic acid.

The wine test sometimes employed is prepared in the following manner:—Mix equal parts of finely powdered sulphur and of slacked quick-lime, and expose it to a red heat for twenty minutes. To thirty-six grains of this sulphuret of lime, add twenty-six grains of super-tartrate of potassa; put the mixture into an ounce bottle, and fill up the bottle with water that has been previously boiled, and suffered to cool. The liquor, after having been repeatedly shaken, and allowed to become clear, by the subsidence of the undissolved matter, may then be poured into another phial, into which about twenty drops of muriatic acid have been previously put.It is then ready for use. This test, when mingled with wine containing lead or copper, turns the wine of a dark-brown or black colour. But the mere application of sulphuretted hydrogen gas to wine, acidulated by muriatic acid, is a far more preferable mode of detecting lead in wine.

M. Vogel[39]has lately recommended acetate of lead as a test for detecting extraneous colours in red wine. He remarks, that none of the substances that can be employed for colouring wine, such as the berries of the Vaccinium Mirtillus (bilberries), elderberries, and Campeach wood, produce with genuine red wine, a greenish grey precipitate, which is the colour that is procured by this test by means of genuine red wines.

Wine coloured with the juice of the bilberries, or elderberries, or Campeach wood, produces, with acetate of lead, a deep blue precipitate; and Brazil-wood, red saunders, and the red beet, produce a colour which is precipitated red by acetate of lead. Wine coloured by beet root is also rendered colourless by lime water; but the weakest acid brings back the colour. As the colouringmatter of red wines resides in the skin of the grape, M. Vogel prepared a quantity of skins, and reduced them to powder. In this state he found that they communicated to alcohol a deep red colour: a paper stained with this colour was rendered red by acids and green by alkalies.

M. Vogel made a quantity of red wine from black grapes, for the purpose of his experiments; and this produced the genuine greyish green precipitate with acetate of lead. He also found the same coloured precipitate in two specimens of red wine, the genuineness of which could not be suspected; the one from Chateau-Marguaux, and the other from the neighbourhood of Coblentz.

SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES, AND COMPONENT PARTS OF WINE.

Every body knows that no product of the arts varies so much as wine; that different countries, and sometimes the different provinces of the same country, produce different wines. These differences, no doubt, must be attributed chiefly to the climate in which the vineyard is situated—to its culture—the quantity of sugar contained in thegrape juice—the manufacture of the wine; or the mode of suffering its fermentation to be accomplished. If the grapes be gathered unripe, the wine abounds with acid; but if the fruit be gathered ripe, the wine will be rich. When the proportion of sugar in the grape is sufficient, and the fermentation complete, the wine is perfect and generous. If the quantity of sugar be too large, part of it remains undecomposed, as the fermentation is languid, and the wine is sweet and luscious; if, on the contrary, it contains, even when full ripe, only a small portion of sugar, the wine is thin and weak; and if it be bottled before the fermentation be completed, part of the sugar remains undecomposed, the fermentation will go on slowly in the bottle, and, on drawing the cork, the wine sparkles in the glass; as, for example, Champagne. Such wines are not sufficiently mature. When the must is separated from the husk of the red grape before it is fermented, the wine has little or no colour: these are calledwhitewines. If, on the contrary, the husks are allowed to remain in the must while the fermentation is going on, the alcohol dissolves the colouring matter of the husks, and the wine is coloured: such are calledredwines. Hence white wines are often prepared fromred grapes, the liquor being drawn off before it has acquired the red colour; for the skin of the grape only gives the colour. Besides in these principal circumstances, wines vary much in flavour.

All wines contain one common and identical principle, from which their similar effects are produced; namely,brandyoralcohol. It is especially by the different proportions of brandy contained in wines, that they differ most from one another. When wine is distilled, the alcohol readily separates. The spirit thus obtained is well known under the name ofbrandy.

All wines contain also a free acid; hence they turn blue tincture of cabbage, red. The acid found in the greatest abundance in grape wines, is tartaric acid. Every wine contains likewise a portion of super-tartrate of potash, and extractive matter, derived from the juice of the grape. These substances deposit slowly in the vessel in which they are kept. To this is owing the improvement of wine from age. Those wines which effervesce or froth, when poured into a glass, contain also carbonic acid, to which their briskness is owing. The peculiar flavour and odour of different kinds of wines probably depend upon the presence of avolatile oil, so small in quantity that it cannot be separated.

EASY METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE QUANTITY OF BRANDY CONTAINED IN VARIOUS SORTS OF WINE.

The strength of all wines depends upon the quantity of alcohol or brandy which they contain. Mr. Brande, and Gay-Lussac, have proved, by very decisive experiments, that all wines contain brandy or alcohol ready formed. The following is the process discovered by Mr. Brande, for ascertaining the quantity of spirit, or brandy, contained in different sorts of wine.

EXPERIMENT.

Add to eight parts, by measure, of the wine to be examined, one part of a concentrated solution of sub-acetate of lead: a dense insoluble precipitate will ensue; which is a combination of the test liquor with the colouring, extractive, and acid matter of the wine. Shake the mixture for a few minutes, pour the whole upon a filtre, and collect the filtered fluid. It contains the brandy or spirit, and water of the wine, together with a portion of the sub-acetate oflead. Add, in small quantities at a time, to this fluid, warm, dry, and pure sub-carbonate of potash (not salt of tartar, or sub-carbonate of potash of commerce), which has previously been freed from water by heat, till the last portion added remains undissolved. The brandy or spirit contained in the fluid will become separated; for the sub-carbonate of potash abstracts from it the whole of the water with which it was combined; the brandy or spirit of wine forming a distinct stratum, which floats upon the aqueous solution of the alkaline salt. If the experiment be made in a glass tube, from one-half inch to two inches in diameter, and graduated into 100 equal parts, theper centageof spirit, in a given quantity of wine, may be read off by mere inspection. In this manner the strength of any wine may be examined.

Tabular View, exhibiting the Per Centage of Brandy or Alcohol[40]contained in various kinds of Wines, and other fermented Liquors.[41]

Proportion of Spiritper Cent.by measure.Lissa26,47Ditto24,35Average25,41Raisin Wine26,40Ditto25,77Ditto23,30Average25,12Marcella26,03Ditto25,05Average25,09Madeira24,42Ditto23,93Ditto (Sercial)21,40Ditto19,24Average22,27Port25,83Ditto24,29Ditto23,71Ditto23,39Ditto22,30Ditto21,40Ditto19,96Average22,96Sherry19,81Ditto19,83Ditto18,79Ditto18,25Average19,17Teneriffe19,79Colares19,75Lachryma Christi19,70Constantia (White)19,75Ditto (Red)18,92Lisbon18,94Malaga (1666)18,94Bucellas18,49Red Madeira22,30Ditto18,40Average20,35Cape Muschat18,25Cape Madeira22,94Ditto20,50Ditto18,11Average20,51Grape Wine18,11Calcavella19,20Ditto18,10Average18,65Vidonia19,25Alba Flora17,26Malaga17,26Hermitage (White)17,43Roussillon19,00Ditto17,20Average18,13

Proportion of Spiritper Cent.by measure.Claret17,11Ditto16,32Ditto14,08Ditto12,91Average15,10Malmsey Madeira16,40Lunel15,52Sheraaz15,52Syracuse15,28Sauterne14,22Burgundy16,60Ditto15,22Ditto14,53Ditto11,95Average14,57Hock14,37Ditto13,00Ditto (old in cask)8,68Average12,08Nice14,62Barsac13,86Tent13,30Champagne (Still)13,80Ditto (Sparkling)12,80Ditto (Red)12,56Ditto (ditto)11,30Average12,61Red Hermitage12,32Vin de Grave13,94Ditto12,80Average13,37Frontignac12,79Cote Rotie12,32Gooseberry Wine11,84Currant Wine20,55Orange Wine aver.11,26Tokay9,88Elder Wine9,87Cyder highest aver.9,87Ditto lowest ditto5,21Perry average7,26Mead7,32Ale (Burton)8,88Ditto (Edinburgh)6,20Ditto (Dorchester)5,50Average6,87Brown Stout6,80London Porter aver.4,20Do. Small Beer, do.1,28Brandy53,39Rum53,68Gin51,60Scotch Whiskey54,32Irish ditto53,99

CONSTITUTION OF HOME-MADE WINES.

Besides grapes, the most valuable of the articles of which wine is made, there are a considerable number of fruits from which a vinous liquor is obtained. Of such, we have in this country the gooseberry, the currant, the elderberry, the cherry, &c. which ferment well, and affords what are calledhome-made wines.

They differ chiefly from foreign wines in containing a much larger quantity of acid. Dr. Macculloch[42]has remarked that the acid in home-made wines is principally the malic acid; while in grape wines it is the tartaric acid.

The great deficiency in these wines, independent of the flavour, which chiefly originates, not from the juice, but from the seeds and husks of the fruits, is the excess of acid, which is but imperfectly concealed by the addition of sugar. This is owing,chiefly, as Dr. Macculloch remarks, to the tartaric acid existing in the grape juice in the state of super-tartrate of potash, which is in part decomposed during the fermentation, and the rest becomes gradually precipitated; whilst the malic acid exists in the currant and gooseberry juice in the form of malate of potash; which salt does not appear to suffer a decomposition during the fermentation of the wine; and, by its greater solubility, is retained in the wine. Hence Dr. Macculloch recommends the addition of super-tartrate of potash, in the manufacture of British wines. They also contain a much larger proportion of mucilage than wines made from grapes. The juice of the gooseberry contains some portion of tartaric acid; hence it is better suited for the production of what is calledEnglish Champagne, than any other fruit of this country.

FOOTNOTES:[27]Dried bilberries are imported from Germany, under the fallacious name ofberry-dye.[28]The gypsum had the property of clarifying wines, was known to the ancients. "The Greeks and Romans put gypsum in their new wines, stirred it often round, then let it stand for some time; and when it had settled, decanted the clear liquor. (Geopon, lib. vii. p. 483, 494.) They knew that the wine acquired, by this addition, a certain sharpness, which it afterwards lost; but that the good effects of the gypsum were lasting."[29]Sawdust for this purpose is chiefly supplied by the ship-builders, and forms a regular article of commerce of the brewers' druggists.[30]Tatler, vol. viii. p. 110, edit. 1797. 8vo.[31]Dr. Reece's Gazette of Health, No. 7.[32]Supplement to the Pharmacopœias, p. 245.[33]Chemical Essays, vol. viii. p. 369.[34]Medical Trans. vol. ii. p. 80.[35]This book, which has run through many editions, may be supposed to have done some mischief.—In the Vintner's Guide, 4th edit. 1770, p. 67, a lump of sugar of lead, of the size of a walnut, and a table-spoonful of sal enixum, are directed to be added to a tierce (forty-two gallons) of muddy wine,to cure it of its muddiness.[36]Beckman's History of Inventions, vol. i. p. 398.[37]Pliny, lib. xiv. cap. 20.[38]Philosophical Magazine, 1819, No. 257, p. 229.[39]Journ. Pharm. iv. 56 (Feb. 1818.) and Thomson's Annals, Sept. 1818, p. 232.[40]Of a Specific Gravity. 825.[41]Philosophical Trans. 1811, p. 345; 1813, p. 87; Journal of Science and the Arts, No. viii. p. 290.[42]Macculloch on Wine. This is by far the best treatise published in this country on the Manufacture of Home-made Wines.

FOOTNOTES:

[27]Dried bilberries are imported from Germany, under the fallacious name ofberry-dye.

[28]The gypsum had the property of clarifying wines, was known to the ancients. "The Greeks and Romans put gypsum in their new wines, stirred it often round, then let it stand for some time; and when it had settled, decanted the clear liquor. (Geopon, lib. vii. p. 483, 494.) They knew that the wine acquired, by this addition, a certain sharpness, which it afterwards lost; but that the good effects of the gypsum were lasting."

[29]Sawdust for this purpose is chiefly supplied by the ship-builders, and forms a regular article of commerce of the brewers' druggists.

[30]Tatler, vol. viii. p. 110, edit. 1797. 8vo.

[31]Dr. Reece's Gazette of Health, No. 7.

[32]Supplement to the Pharmacopœias, p. 245.

[33]Chemical Essays, vol. viii. p. 369.

[34]Medical Trans. vol. ii. p. 80.

[35]This book, which has run through many editions, may be supposed to have done some mischief.—In the Vintner's Guide, 4th edit. 1770, p. 67, a lump of sugar of lead, of the size of a walnut, and a table-spoonful of sal enixum, are directed to be added to a tierce (forty-two gallons) of muddy wine,to cure it of its muddiness.

[36]Beckman's History of Inventions, vol. i. p. 398.

[37]Pliny, lib. xiv. cap. 20.

[38]Philosophical Magazine, 1819, No. 257, p. 229.

[39]Journ. Pharm. iv. 56 (Feb. 1818.) and Thomson's Annals, Sept. 1818, p. 232.

[40]Of a Specific Gravity. 825.

[41]Philosophical Trans. 1811, p. 345; 1813, p. 87; Journal of Science and the Arts, No. viii. p. 290.

[42]Macculloch on Wine. This is by far the best treatise published in this country on the Manufacture of Home-made Wines.

This is one of the sophistications of the articles of food most commonly practised in this metropolis, where the goodness of bread is estimated entirely by its whiteness. It is therefore usual to add a certain quantity of alum to the dough; this improves the look of the bread very much, and renders it whiter and firmer. Good, white, and porous bread, may certainly be manufactured from good wheaten flour alone; but to produce the degree of whiteness renderedindispensableby the caprice of the consumers in London, it is necessary (unless the very best flour is employed,) that the dough should bebleached; and no substance has hitherto been found to answer this purpose better than alum.

Without this salt it is impossible to make bread, from the kind of flour usually employed by the London bakers, so white, as that which is commonly sold in the metropolis.

If the alum be omitted, the bread has a slight yellowish grey hue—as may be seen in the instance of what is calledhome-made bread, of private families. Such bread remains longer moist than bread made with alum; yet it is not so light, and full of eyes, or porous, and it has also a different taste.

The quantity of alum requisite to produce the required whiteness and porosity depends entirely upon the genuineness of the flour, and the quality of the grain from which the flour is obtained. The mealman makes different sorts of flour from the same kind of grain. The best flour is mostly used by the biscuit bakers and pastry cooks, and the inferior sorts in the making of bread. The bakers' flour is very often made of the worst kinds of damaged foreign wheat, and other cereal grains mixed with them in grinding the wheat into flour. In this capital, no fewer than six distinct kinds of wheaten flour are brought into market. They are called fine flour, seconds, middlings, fine middlings, coarse middlings, and twenty-penny flour. Common garden beans, and pease, are also frequently ground up among the London bread flour.

I have been assured by several bakers, on whose testimony I can rely, that the small profit attached to the bakers' trade,and the bad quality of the flour, induces the generality of the London bakers to use alum in the making of their bread.

The smallest quantity of alum that can be employed with effect to produce a white, light, and porous bread, from an inferior kind of flour, I have my own baker's authority to state, is from three to four ounces to a sack of flour, weighing 240 pounds. The alum is either mixed well in the form of powder, with a quantity of flour previously made into a liquid paste with water, and then incorporated with the dough; or the alum is dissolved in the water employed for mixing up the whole quantity of the flour for making the dough.

Let us suppose that the baker intends to convert five bushels, or a sack of flour, into loaves with the least adulteration practised. He pours the flour into the kneading trough, and sifts it through a fine wire sieve, which makes it lie very light, and serves to separate any impurities with which the flour may be mixed. Two ounces of alum are then dissolved in about a quart of boiling water, and the solution poured intothe seasoning-tub. Four or five pounds of salt are likewise put into the tub, and a pailful of hot-water. When this mixture has cooled down to the temperature of about84°, three or four pints of yeast are added; the whole is mixed, strained through the seasoning sieve, emptied into a hole in the flour, and mixed up with the requisite portion of it to the consistence of a thick batter. Some dry flour is then sprinkled over the top, and it is covered up with cloths.

In this situation it is left about three hours. It gradually swells and breaks through the dry flour scattered on its surface. An additional quantity of warm water, in which one ounce of alum is dissolved, is now added, and the dough is made up into a paste as before; the whole is then covered up. In this situation it is left for a few hours.

The whole is then intimately kneaded with more water for upwards of an hour. The dough is cut into pieces with a knife, and penned to one side of the trough; some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it is left in this state for about four hours. It is then kneaded again for half-an-hour. The dough is now cut into pieces and weighed, in order to furnish the requisite quantity for each loaf. The loaves are left in the oven about two hours and a half. When taken out, they are carefully coveredup, to prevent as much as possible the loss of weight.[43]

The following account of making a sack, of five bushels of flour into bread, is takenfrom Dr. P. Markham's Considerations on the Ingredients used in the Adulteration of Bread Flour, and Bread, p. 21:

The theory of the bleaching property of alum, as manifested in the panification of an inferior kind of flour, is by no means well understood; and indeed it is really surprising that the effect should be produced by so small a quantity of that substance, two or three ounces of alum being sufficient for a sack of flour.

From experiments in which I have been employed, with the assistance of skilful bakers, I am authorised to state, that without the addition of alum, it does not appear possible to make white, light, and porous bread, such as is used in this metropolis, unless the flour be of the very best quality.

Another substance employed by fraudulent bakers, is subcarbonate of ammonia. With this salt, they realise the important consideration of producing light and porous bread, from spoiled, or what is technically calledsour flour. This salt which becomes wholly converted into a gaseous state during the operation of baking, causes the dough to swell up into air bubbles, whichcarry before them the stiff dough, and thus it renders the dough porous; the salt itself is, at the same time, totally volatilised during the operation of baking. Thus not a vestige of carbonate of ammonia remains in the bread. This salt is also largely employed by the biscuit and ginger-bread bakers.

Potatoes are likewise largely, and perhaps constantly, used by fraudulent bakers, as a cheap ingredient, to enhance their profit. The potatoes being boiled, are triturated, passed through a sieve, and incorporated with the dough by kneading. This adulteration does not materially injure the bread. The bakers assert, that the bad quality of the flour renders the addition of potatoes advantageous as well to the baker as to the purchaser, and that without this admixture in the manufacture of bread, it would be impossible to carry on the trade of a baker. But the grievance is, that the same price is taken for a potatoe loaf, as for a loaf of genuine bread, though it must cost the baker less.

I have witness, that five bushels of flour, three ounces of alum, six pounds of salt, one bushel of potatoes boiled into a stiff paste, and three quarts of yeast, with the requisite quantity of water, produce a white, light, and highly palatable bread.

Such are the artifices practised in the preparation of bread,[45]and it must be allowed, on contrasting them with those sophistications practised by manufacturers of other articles of food, that they are comparatively unimportant. However, some medical men have no hesitation in attributing many diseases incidental to children to the use of eating adulterated bread; others again will not admit these allegations: they persuade themselves that the small quantity of alum added to the bread (perhaps upon an average, from eight to ten grains to a quartern loaf,) is absolutely harmless.

Dr. Edmund Davy, Professor of Chemistry, at the Cork Institution, has communicated the following important facts to the public concerning the manufacture of bread.

"The carbonate of magnesia of the shops, when well mixed with flour, in the proportion of from twenty to forty grains to a pound of flour, materially improves it for the purpose of making bread.

"Loaves made with the addition ofcarbonate of magnesia, rise well in the oven; and after being baked, the bread is light and spongy, has a good taste, and keeps well. In cases when the new flour is of an indifferent quality, from twenty to thirty grains of carbonate of magnesia to a pound of the flour will considerably improve the bread. When the flour is of the worst quality, forty grains to a pound of flour seem necessary to produce the same effect.

"As the improvement in the bread from new flour depends upon the carbonate of magnesia, it is necessary that care should be taken to mix it intimately with the flour, previous to the making of the dough.

"Mr. Davy made a great number of comparative experiments with other substances, mixed in different proportions with new bread flour. The fixed alkalies, both in their pure and carbonated state, when used in small quantity, to a certain extent were found to improve the bread made from new flour; but no substance was so efficacious in this respect as carbonate of magnesia.

"The greater number of his experiments were performed on the worst newsecondsflour Mr. Davy could procure. He also made some trials onsecondsandfirstsof different quality. In some cases theresults were more striking and satisfactory than in others; but in every instance the improvement of the bread, by carbonate of magnesia, was obvious.

"Mr. Davy observes, that a pound of carbonate of magnesia would be sufficient to mix with two hundred and fifty-six pounds of new flour, or at the rate of thirty grains to the pound. And supposing a pound of carbonate of magnesia to cost half-a-crown, the additional expense would be only half a farthing in the pound of flour.

"Mr. Davy conceives that not the slightest danger can be apprehended from the use of such an innocent substance, as the carbonate of magnesia, in such small proportion as is necessary to improve bread from new flour."

METHOD OF DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF ALUM IN BREAD.

Pour upon two ounces of the suspected bread, half a pint of boiling distilled water; boil the mixture for a few minutes, and filter it through unsized paper. Evaporate the fluid, to about one fourth of its original bulk, and let gradually fall into the clear fluid a solution of muriate of barytes. If acopiouswhite precipitate ensues, which does not disappear by the addition ofpurenitric acid, the presence of alum may be suspected. Bread, made without alum, produces, when assayed in this manner, merely a very slight precipitate, which originates from a minute portion of sulphate of magnesia contained in all common salt of commerce; and bread made with salt freed from sulphate of magnesia, produces an infusion with water, which does not become disturbed by the barytic test.

Other means of detecting all the constituent parts of alum, namely, the alumine, sulphuric acid, and potash, so as to render the presence of the alum unequivocal, will readily suggest itself to those who are familiar with analytical chemistry; namely: one of the readiest means is, to decompose the vegetable matter of the bread, by the action of chlorate of potash, in a platina crucible, at a red heat, and then to assay the residuary mass—by means of muriate of barytes, for sulphuric acid; by ammonia, for alumine; and by muriate of platina, for potash[46]. The above method of detectingthe presence of alum, must therefore be taken with some limitation.

There is no unequivocal test for detecting in aready mannerthe presence of alum in bread, on account of the impurity of the common salt used in the making of bread. If we could, in the ordinary way of bread making, employ common salt, absolutely free from foreign saline substances, the mode of detecting the presence of alum, or at least one of its constituent parts, namely, the sulphuric acid, would be very easy. Some conjecture may, nevertheless, be formed of the presence, or absence, of alum, by assaying the infusion of bread in the manner stated, p.109, and comparing the assay with the results afforded by an infusion of home-made or household bread, known to be genuine, and actually assayed in a similar manner.

EASY METHOD OF JUDGING OF THE GOODNESS OF BREAD CORN, AND BREAD-FLOUR.

Millers judge of the goodness of bread corn by the quantity of bran which the grain produces.

Such grains as are full and plump, that have a bright and shining appearance, withoutany shrivelling and shrinking in the covering of the skin, are the best; for wrinkled grains have a greater quantity of skin, or bran, than such as are sound or plump.

Pastry-cooks and bakers judge of the goodness of flour in the manner in which it comports itself in kneading. The best kind of wheaten flour assumes, at the instant it is formed into paste by the addition of water, a very gluey, ductile, and elastic paste, easy to be kneaded, and which may be elongated, flattened, and drawn in every direction, without breaking.

For the following fact we are indebted to Mr. Hatchet.

"Grain which has been heated or burnt in the stack, may in the following manner be rendered fit for being made into bread:

"The wheat must be put into a vessel capable of holding at least three times the quantity, and the vessel filled with boiling water; the grain should then be occasionally stirred, and the hollow decayed grains, which float, may be removed. When the water has become cold, or in about half an hour, it is drawn off. Then rince the corn with cold water, and, having completely drained it, spread it thinly on the floor of akiln, and thus thoroughly dry it, stirring and turning it frequently during this part of the process."[47]

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