1863 The manufacture of liquors, wines, and cordials

TANNIN.

183

barrel can be used for the same purpose. ther particulars see Filtering Apparatus.)

(For fur-

Boiled Milk possesses decolorizing properties, and is very useful in wines. A pint of boiled milk added while warm to a pipe of red wine, will discharge the color completely, rendering it transparent. The action of the milk is mechanical ; the particles of milk, combining with the minute particles that con- stitute the coloring, fall to the bottom or subside. As tannin is extensively used in one form or another, viz. as tanning oak bark, catechu, and terra japonica, for the bitter and astringent principle and coloring matter that it yields, which is well adapted to brandies, whiskey, and some wines it requires that it should have more than a passing notice. The term tannin was originally applied to a principle existing in many vegetables having a very astringent taste, and the property of producing a white, floe- culent precipitate, with a solution of gelatine and black precipitate, with the salts of the sesquioxide of iron. As obtained, however, from different plants, it was found to exhibit some difference of properties, und chemists have recognised two kinds ; one exist TANNIN.