Whether it should be allowed to artificially improve wines, and whether such improvement is to be called adulteration depends entirely on our definition of the word " wine." Wine is either fermented grape-juice, or it is a delicious beverage obtained from fermented grape-juice. These two definitions differ very widely. The first one forbids absolutely the application of any means that might alter the wine, of any substance that is not grown with the grape; according to it wine must neither be blended nor purified, as the very smallest quantities of any stuff used for such a purpose that would and will remain with the wine alters the same, while alcohol, added for blending, originates from the potato and not from the grapefruit. This definition, to our opinion, is perfectly absurd; the acceptance of it would entitle any judge to condemn any wine-dealer for adulteration as soon as legal proceedings were instituted against him.

The main weight is to be laid on wine being a delicious beverage from grape-juice. It may not always be obtained from simple fermentation of grape-juice; there is many a year when the warming sunrays fail to ripen the fruit of the vine, when the must is sour, and the wine, therefore, turns vapid and pungent, so as to create sadness and grief instead of gladness and joy, when taken by us poor mortals.

Depriving such must of its surplus of acids, and enhancing its percentage of sugar means to produce a wine agreeable to the palate, and not injurious to the health, while the taste of the natural wine would have filled every one with disgust.

Adulteration of any article may only be spoken of in case the value of said article be diminished, or substances be added that are likely to injure the health.

In improving wine the following methods are mainly adopted, and named after their inventors:

I. Chaptalizing: The surplus of acids in wine is neutralized, and the deficient sugar is added. Carbonate of calcium is used for neutralizing, in the proportion of 100 parts of chalk to 150 parts of acids. To add the missing sugar we first determine by a saccharometer what percentage of sugar is contained in the wine. Let this be 15%, then we will increase the sugar from 20 - 24%2. Gallizing: Gall has, immediately after the picking, the ripe berries separated from the less ripe ones. The first ones are worked with alone. From the unripe ones he obtains a juice which he does not neutralize, but which he dilutes with water until a certain degree of acid is reached, when he corrects also the lack of sugar.

Beyse states of gallized wines: 1. A constantly good wine may be obtained, even in poor years. 2. They stand transportation without change. 3. They require only a year's attention and care. 4. They contain more alcohol. 5. The quantity is increased, while the quality is improved.

Of other methods we only name that of Petiot.

Wines are, especially right after fermentation, liable to many changes which alter them for the worse, or may even utterly ruin them. Pasteur, the eminent French chemist, has taught us the nature of these diseases, which are due to the presence of bacilli or germs.

As general hints for protection are to be minded:

Try to stop the development of these germs by the most careful cleanliness of all vessels and rooms by utmost scouring and extensive ventilating. Infected vessels, barrels, tubs, etc., are to be removed from the cellars, and, be this impossible, the disinfection must be done there.

The percentage of alcohol, as far as it is not due to blending, is in closest connection with the quantity of sugar in the must; no wine can contain more than seventeen vol. per cent of alcohol, as with this degree the transformation of sugar into alcohol by fermentation is stopped, and any surplus is caused by blending. All southern wine-growers are fond of increasing the sugar in their wines, thus, Australia produces hardly any wine below 26%.

The coloring of wines offers many chances for adulteration. Immense quantities of white wines are thus made red wines, and even liquids that can boast of no relationship to the grape-juice at all are transformed into red wines by coloring materials.

Dyestuffs mainly used for this purpose are: berries from sambucus niger, sambucus ebulus, Vaccinium myrtillus, ligustrum vulgaris, Phytolacca decandra, the flowers of malva arborea, althea rosea, and malva silvestris, beets, logwood and Brazilwood, cochineal, indigo, fuchsine, and other aniline colors.

Of these dyestuffs the aniline colors are easiest to detect, while natural colors, having very great similarity to the natural dyestuff of wine, sometimes render it, even to an expert, difficult to prove their presence.