4403. Paris Test for Lead in Wine

4403.    Paris Test for Lead in Wine. Expose equal parts of sulphur and powdered oyster shells to a white heat for 15 minutes, and, when cold, add an equal quantity of cream of tartar; these are to be put into a strong bottle, with common water, to boil for an hour, and the solution is afterwards to be decanted into ounce phials, adding 20 drops muriatic acid to each. Both the above tests will throw down the least quantity of lead from wines, as a very senible black precipitate. As iron might be accidentally contained in the wine, the muriatic acid is added, to prevent the precipitation of that metal. This acts in the same manner as Hahnemann's test. (See No. 4402 (Hahnemann's Test for Lead in Wine).)

4404. To Distinguish Artificially-Colored Wines

4404.      To Distinguish Artificially-Colored Wines. As the real coloring matter of wine is of difficult solubility in water free from tartaric acid, Blume proposes to make this fact of practical use in testing the purity of wine. A crumb of bread saturated in the supposed wine is placed in a plate of water; if artificially colored, the water soon partakes of the color; but if natural, a slight opalescence only will be perceptible after a quarter of an hour.

4405. To Detect Logwood in Wine

4405.    To Detect Logwood in Wine. M. Lapeymere, having observed that haema-tine, the coloring principle of logwood, gives a sky-blue color in the presence of salts of copper, proposes the following test for logwood in wines: Paper is saturated with a strong solution of neutral acetate of copper, and dried. A strip of this is dipped into the suspected liquor, and, after removal, the adhering drops are made to move to and fro over tho paper, which is finally to bo carefully dried. If the wine contain logwood, the paper will assume a violet-blue color; but if the wine possess its natural coloring matter the paper will have a grey tint.

4406. To Detect Artificial Coloring in Wine

4406.    To Detect Artificial Coloring in Wine. Use, as test liquid, a solution of potash and a solution of liquid ammonia and potash.

If the wine is colored by the coloring matter of tho grape, potash changes the red color to a bottle green or brownish-green; ammonia changes the color to brownish-green or greenish-brown; a solution of alum to which some potash has been added gives a dirty grey precipitate.

If the wine is artificially colored, potash gives the following colored precipitates: Dwarf elder, mulberry, or beet root give a violet precipitate; pokeweed berries, a yellow; Indian wood, a violet red; pernambuco, a red; litmus, a violet blue; orchil or cudbear, a dirty lees color.

Or: Pour into tho wine to be tested a solution of alum, and precipitate tho alumina it contains, by adding potash, and the precipitates will have the same characteristic colors as above.

4407. Test for Rum

4407.    Test for Rum. Dr. Wiederbold proposes tho following method for distinguishing between true rum and the factitious liquid sold under this name : Mix a little of the rum to bo tested with about a third of its bulk of sulphuric acid, and allow the mixture to stand. If the rum is genuine its peculiar odor remains after the liquid has cooled, and even after 24 hours' contact may still be distinguished. If, on the contrary, the rum is not genuine, contact with sulphuric acid promptly and entirely deprives it of all its aroma.