115 / 174
mixed drinks.
115
Chemical analysis shows that in red wines there
are present tannic acid and coloring matters, while in
white wines there is only a trace of the foi'mer. In
wine generally the principal ingredients are alcohol and
water; then sugar, gum, extractive and albuminous
matters;then free organic acids,such as tartaric,racemic,
malic and acetic acids; and salts, such as the tartrates
of potash,of lime and of magnesia,sulphate of potash,
cloride ofsodium and traces of phosphate oflime; also,
especially in old wines,substances imparting aroma as
cenanthic and acetic ethers and other volatile odorif
erous matters. In all red wines and in many others, a
little iron and possibly some alumina may be found.
Most of the essential dietetic and therapeutic properties
of wine depend upon the alcohol, sugar and free acids,
especially tartaric acid, contained in it.
We have before us the statistical tables of Bence
Jones and others showing the percentage of alcohol in
various wines. Each of these analysts gives a range of
from one to nine per cent, between their minimum and
maximum figures. We name the lowest and highest
figures any of them have offered, leaving it to the
reader, or the sampler of wine, to judge of the actual
per cent, of alcohol or stimulating substance that may
practically he found in any wine named: