residue." Here let me repeat a story told by the newspapers apropos. A wine grower sold three-fourths of his crop and then filled up the casks with sweetened water. His neighbor twitted him that the mélange was not wine. "Why not?" demanded he, il tache le linge"-" it will stain the tablecloth." It seems to be considered as wine through all its dilutions and ablutions while it will continue "tacher le linge. The Revue, same page, gives thus the total production of wine for 1881, as follows: One of the consuls of France in the United States, I believe at San Francisco, sent a report to his Government concerning the falsification of French wines imported into the United States. This report was deemed of sufficient importance to be made the basis of communications between the ministers of foreign affairs and of commerce, and by the latter to the chambers of commerce at Rheims and Bordeaux. The two former I have not seen, but the latter is published in the Revue des Vins: MINISTRY OF COMMERCE, MONSIEUR LE PRÉSIDENT: It appears from a communication which has been made to me through the ministry of foreign affairs that the imports of champagne wines into the United States from 123,574 baskets during the first six months of 1881 have fallen to 104,755 during the corresponding six months of the current year, a diminution of 28,219. This result, according to American papers, is due not only to the competition of California wines, but is also due to the bad quality of the articles imported into the United States by our manufacturers of champagne, who, after having made a mark appreciated by the public, only send wines of an inferior quality. Under these circumstances consumers fall back on imitations, which are not much worse than the imported article, and cost less. The same remarks would apply, though in a less degree, to the wines of all growths. As to the California wines, it is considered that the white wines especially are improving in quality. The red wines, notwithstanding the peculiar taste due to the soil or the process of manufacture, are preferred by many to the Bordeaux wines, called cargo wines, which are of middling quality and relatively high price. The Minister of Commerce, * * * PIERRE LEGRAND. I have nothing to do with the quarrel which grew out of this communication in Rheims, nor yet with the champagne wines to which it refers, but as to Bordeaux the Revue explains, page 670: "The part of the circular relative to Bordeaux wines is partly (well) founded, as cargo wines can no longer be shipped at same prices as before for similar qualities, owing to bad crops and the phylloxera, which would have no sense if referring to champagne wines." The Belgian Government has taken substantially the same view I have tried to present, and has attempted in some degree to provide a remedy by a bill introduced on March 24, 1882, by the minister of finance, under the title of "Excise duties on the fabrications of wines from dried fruits." It was a blow aimed at all manufactured wines. Monsieur Girard, director of the Laboratoire Municipal at Paris, of which I shall have occasion to speak further on, commenting on this subject of adulteration of wines, says in his report for 1881, just published, p. 40: "Fraud alone, fraud on a vast scale, furnishes the key to this enigma. It is by the illicit operations that certain manufacturers (or dealers) come to make their fortune at the expense of the public health, at the expense of the interest of the State and its cities, at the expense of the agricultural and commercial prosperity of France." THE MANUFACTURE OF WINE-ITS FALSIFICATION AND ADULTERATION. Wine, properly defined, is that alcoholic liquor which results from the fermentation of the juice of fresh grapes. Falsification or adulteration is the addition of any substance which changes the composition of the natural wine. A French chemist once said: "Wine is a mixture of alcohol and sugar andwater; but," added he, “mixing alcohol and sugar and water will not make wine." He who supposes that the juice of the grape is wine, or that by letting it ferment it will always make wine, is much mistaken. As well might he say that to open the throttle-valve of a locomotive a given distance it would make the run between two cities or stations by itself. Both the grapes and wines have their maladies and their peculiarities, which sometimes are intricate and unmanageable, and need the utmost care and attention. After the juice has been expressed, and in the cask, the most difficult and delicate portion of the task begins. To make good and palatable wine, keeping it pure and healthful, and to do this continuously, without loss, is as much a trade or profession as any. To do it well requires aptitude, study, and patient, intelligent labor, long continued. The palate must be educated to the same degree of fineness as is required by a singer of his voice or by a musician of his ear. I give all credit to the honest wine makers. What I condemn are the wine falsificators-those who make unhealthy and impure wine by unlawful and improper means. Wine has been falsified and adulterated in all ages, but until twenty years ago it was done so clumsily that its detection was easy. Most wine dealers would detect it by its taste, or, if not, at the expense of a piece of cream of tartar. All this has been changed. Now the falsificators profit by and make use of all the progress of modern chemistry, and the art of making wine without the juice of the grape has attained such a degree of perfection and skill that experts, epicures, and chemists alike are baffled and hesitate before pronouncing. Monsieur Girard, director of the Laboratoire Municipal at Paris, probably the foremost authority in Europe, or the world, who denounces adulteration, in his last report (for 1881), p. 93, follows the same line I have pursued concerning the importation of Spanish and Italian wines, and gives a table, such as mine, showing the progression from 1875 to the first nine months of 1881, and then says: "These wines, rich in alcohol and extracts, are mixed with inferior, in an operation called coupage. "The coupage practiced by honest dealers who sell their wines for what they are is perfectly lawful, for their aim is to ameliorate and render proper for consumption those wines which can not be easily utilized as they are. ‘Unhappily, the greater part of the heavy wines of Spain, Italy, and the south of France serve for a coupage in which water takes a large place; this operation takes the name of mouillage, and is the plague of the commerce in wines. "The syndicate of wholesale wine and liquor merchants of France has energetically demanded its repression. (Session of June 16, 1881, p. 66.) Generally the mouillage is not made alone. Those who practice it almost always find themselves compelled to go further in their fraudulent operations. The water is clear; when they add too much to the wine it weakens the color so that it is perceptible, which, in its turn, must be corrected by the addition of heavy wines or some of the many coloring matters used for that purpose. "After attempting to pass a large quantity of water under the name of wine they add to the mouillage the alcohol, of an inferior quality, of potatoes or beets, which contains alcohol amylique, which produces a drunkenness far worse than that produced by the alcohol of wine. These, with all their ramifications, are not the only falsifications: the body, the aroma, the bouquet of the finest qualities of grand wines are imitated on a large scale by scientific processes. * * * "The ethers, ananthique, pelargonique, etc., of the wine are counterfeited by the mixing of other ethers and essences which are prepared artificially. The report of the Commissione Supérieure de l'Exposition de Vienne,' vol. 1, p. 289, tells of the institute at Closterneuberg, Austria, where they make the extracts or ethers ænanthiques which reproduce the bouquets of the most renowned wines. The fabrication of piquettes (poor sour wine) from dried fruits or raisins has still more complicated the problem; these piquettes, cut with one-half or twothirds of red wine from the south of France or Spain, whipped and filtered, con stitute the heavy merchantable wine which can be mixed with light wines, or, more frequently, with water. The piquette has completed the means of action for the falsificator; it gives him the extracts, tartaric acid, tannin, glycerin, etc., which before he had not been able to procure. Each day the chemist is met by new difficulties; he is obliged to labor without cessation to perfect his methods to combat those who dishonor science by using her to perpetrate frauds." I have said that I had introduced enough proof to raise a presumption of a wholesale adulteration of wine in France and to put the onus of explanation on her wine merchants and distillers. This last piece of testimony confirms and makes positive the charge against them. All that now remains to establish their guilt and complete this trial is to catch them in the act, which I now propose to do. CONVICTIONS FOR ADULTERATIONS. The offense proven, the law of France is very stringent against all deceit, fraud, adulteration, or misrepresentation as to anything sold. Article 423, Code Pénal, provides: Whoever shall cheat or deceive a buyer as to the title, etc., or as to the nature, etc., or (by false weights or measures) as to the quantities of anything sold shall be punished, etc. Law of March 27, 1855: Whoever falsifies or adulterates provisions or medicines, or sells or attempts to sell what has been falsified or adulterated shall be punished, etc. The fine is to be not less than 50 francs, the imprisonment from three months to one year. If the adulteration consists of anything unhealthy, the fine shall not be less than 150 francs and the imprisonment may be two years. For second offense, double maximum punishment. The articles sold are to be confiscated, and, if not unhealthy, given to the bureau of charity; if unhealthy, destroyed, all false weights and measures to be broken. (Law of May 5, 1855.) The former laws are made applicable to all drinks. What has been the operation of this law? There have been convicted as follows: Yearly average of convictions: These have not all been condemned for adulteration of wines and liquors, nor yet for drinks, for it includes the adulteration and falsification of food and medicines, as well as drink. The adulteration of these articles is determined by analysis, and each department has its conseil of hygiene, which has control thereof. When a case is reported by the conseil or any of the inspectors, after analysis, the prosecuting officer of the Republic takes it before the court. Consequently the action is spasmodic, being determined by each department for itself. The department of Loire Inférieure became interested in the matter of adulteration of wine and liquors through the action of some of its influential citizens, more especially the doctors of medicine, who reported many cases of sickness which presented curious and unaccountable phases, from causes apparently undiscoverable, until their attention was attracted to the quality of the wine used at table and for daily drinks. This interest culminated in a general inspection, in 1876, of the restaurants and other places where wines and liquors were sold. This inspection was principally for wines colored with fuchsine, it being known or determined that no combination of that article but was poisonous. The result of that inspection was as follows: Number of establishments inspected Number of hectoliters confiscated.. All being wine fuchsine. 300 60 3,307 This wholesale confiscation satisfied the people and the authorities and frightened the wine dealers, so that no steps have been taken in that direction in a public or general way since. These wines were largely wines coming from Spain. Some of them were mixed with French wines, but they point with creditable pride to the fact that but one case was of Bordeaux wine. If this practice prevailed in Spain to the extent indi cated in the year 1876, when the harvest of wine was good and before there was any extensive importation of wine from Spain, what may we not expect it to be now, after four years of failure, when the imports have increased, as heretofore shown, and when Bordeaux has so changed as now to be the great receiving depot of Spanish wine, where it comes to breathe the air of the Garonne and be transformed into Medoc?" What may have been the action in other cities, except Paris, I have no means of finding out. ANALYZATION OF FOODS AND LIQUORS IN PARIS. In Paris there has been established the Laboratoire Municipal, a city laboratory, which has been in operation since March, 1881. It operates only for Paris. It receives and analyzes any article of food, medicine, or drink, requiring pay in certain cases, and without in certain others. As this establishment has met much approval, it has been recommended by several consuls for adoption in the United States, in which I heartily join. I may be pardoned for a short description: There were received 6,251 samples (in 1881), from which were made 37,506 trials or analyses. The cost of each sample was 10 francs. The cost of each analysis was 1.69 francs. The money received (as above) reduced these costs, respectively, to 7.48 and 1.25 francs. The operations of the bureau are purely scientific and advisory. It institutes no prosecutions. It makes its examinations and reports the results to those authorized by law to act. It inspects premises and analyzes samples therein found or which may be brought to it by private persons or by the police. The operations for the ten months of 1881 were as follows: Number of inspections made. Markets Bakers, pie and cake shops. Restaurants, wine and liquor merchants, creameries and milk shops. 3,869 10, 698 522 830 Groceries and fruit stands 4, 461 Of the above 24,655 visits the inspectors made 394 destructions of articles manifestly damaged and unfit for use. Wine All... 'Principally articles of perfumery. Proportion of samples found "bad" out of each 100 analyzed. Per cent. 59.17 50.66 50.43 The manner of procedure would be foreign to this report, however interesting it might be, and would extend it beyond bounds. I have given the foregoing in detail that the workings of the laboratory in its cost and its effects upon the public health may be appreciated. The operations for 1882 will be given with less detail. I am not able to give either the number of prosecutions, convictions, confiscations, or destructions for 1881. Operations for 1882. Aggregate of samples analyzed Of wine only (December, estimated): Good Passable Bad: Not poison Poison Total.. Proportion bad, 50 per cent. Operations for six months, from June to December, 1882. 11,000 888 1,603 2,208 2,621 5, 112 20,756 3,211 989 1,290 1,510 2,309 977 3,286 6,086 |