Volume 5

Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek / uitgegeven, geïllustreerd en van aanteekeningen voorzien door een Commissie van Nederlandsche geleerden.

  • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Date:
1939-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek / uitgegeven, geïllustreerd en van aanteekeningen voorzien door een Commissie van Nederlandsche geleerden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    wine to our tongues and palates, not being able to make the same harmonious impression upon them as would the larger number of very much smaller particles of salt. I have been studying Sherris Sack46), which was better and more Salts in Sherry. palatable than we have had for some years in our country, and have discovered in it those particles of salt to which I drew attention in the French wine No. 3, Fig. A, but in addition some oblong figures fig. ///. as shown in fig. G. Yet all the figures in the sack were few in number compared to those in vinegar or French wine. I imagine that if the sack had been as thin as the French wine, I should have found far more particles of salt, for I saw many very small particles lying in the wine without being able to distinguish their shapes on account of the thick matter surrounding them47). Yet when I had left the sack standing in my study for three days and three nights, I saw a large number of tiny particles, several of which hung 46) Sherris sack is the 18th century English form of sherry, a name derived from Xeres or Jerez de la Frontera, near Cadiz. Cf. Sewel: “Sherry -— Sireese Sek”. [M.] It is an completely fermented wine — French: vin sec — called a “dry wine” in the wine trade. In using the word “thin”, L. probably means pure, without much cloudiness caused by crystals or impurities. In current vintners’ terminology a “thin wine” contains comparatively little alcohol, has not much colour and has a low content of extract substances. [Fe.] 47) This thick matter possibly consisted of protein-like components separating out of the young wine, but it may be that L. was examining older wine, which contained alien components. In his time it was not an uncommon practice to add auxiliaries as flavouring. See F. Bassermann-Jordan, Ge- schichte des Weinbaus, 1907. [Fe.]