In the French ‘Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistry,’ vol. vi. pp. 118-123 (1882), is a paper, by P. Carles, in which the chemical and hygienic results of plastering are discussed. His general conclusion is, that the use of gypsum in clearing wines ‘renders them hurtful as beverages;’ that the gypsum acts ‘on the potassium bitartrate in the juice of the grape, forming calcium tartrate, tartaric acid, and potassium sulphate, a large proportion of the last two bodies remaining in the wine.’ Unplastered wines contain about two grammes of _free acid_ per litre; after plastering, they contain ‘double or treble that amount, and even more.’ A German chemist, Griessmayer, and more recently another, Kaiser, have also studied this subject, and arrive at similar conclusions. Kaiser analysed wines which were plastered by adding gypsum to the must, that is to the juice before fermentation, and also samples in which the gypsum was added to the ‘finished wine,’ _i.e._ for fining, so-called. He found that ‘in the finished wine, by the addition of gypsum, the tartaric acid is replaced by sulphuric acid, and there is a perceptible increase in the calcium; the other constituents remain unaltered.’ His conclusion is that the plastering of wine should be called adulteration, and treated accordingly, on the ground that the article in question is thereby deprived of its characteristic constituents, and others, not normally present, are introduced. This refers more especially to the plastering or gypsum fining of finished wines. (Biedermann’s ‘Centralblatt,’ 1881, pp. 632, 633.) In the paper above named, by P. Carles, we are told that ‘owing to the injurious nature of the impurities of plastered wines, endeavours have been made to free them from these by a method called “deplastering,” but the remedy proves worse than the defect.’ The samples analysed by Carles contained barium salts, barium chloride having been used to remove the sulphuric acid. In some cases excess of the barium salt was found in the wine, and in others barium sulphate was held in suspension. Closely following the abstract of this paper, in the ‘Journal of the Chemical Society,’ is another from the French ‘Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistry,’ vol. v. pp. 581-3, to which I now refer, by the way, for the instruction of claret-drinkers, who may not be aware of the fact that the phylloxera destroyed all the claret grapes in certain districts of France, without stopping the manufacture or diminishing the export of claret itself. In this paper, by J. Lefort, we are told, as a matter of course, that ‘owing to the ravages of the phylloxera among the vines, substitutes for grape-juice are being introduced for the manufacture of wines; of these, the author specially condemns the use of beet-root sugar, since, during its fermentation, besides ethyl alcohol and aldehyde, it yields propyl, butyl, and amyl alcohols, which have been shown by Dujardin and Audigé to act as poisons in very small quantities.’