[H] Many persons believe they have corked well, when they have forced the cork even with the mouth of the bottle; but this is a great mistake. On the contrary, whenever the whole of the cork, instead of withstanding the blows of the bat, is forced into the bottle, it is adviseable to draw it out and substitute another in its place. Thus the believing that a bottle corked very low is well corked, because no liquor escapes when the bottle is turned with its neck downwards, is an error, which, joined to the use of bad corks, causes a number of losses. He who corks with care and judgment is satisfied that the operation has been performed well by the resistance of the cork to the blows of the bat, and never thinks of turning the neck of the bottle downwards. It is besides sufficient to reflect on the punctures met with in cork, and on all the hidden defects which may subsist in the interior even of the finest cork, by means of which, the air may be introduced; in order to be convinced of the propriety of making use of none but the very best corks, and that, after having well compressed them in the machine for that purpose; and also of corking them so closely that they become very much compressed in the middle.
It is in this way only, that losses can be prevented from frequently taking place, which have often no other cause than bad corking; for, if a bottle does not instantly run when carelessly corked, it proceeds from this circumstance, that the air has not had time to penetrate through the apertures which may be in the interior of the cork: and, in fact, how different is the quality of wine, drawn from the same cask! and how many bottles do we meet with, which have lost more or less of their contents!
[I] Jellies, essences of meat, the substance of ice and portable soups, which are prepared from the soft and white parts of animals, preserved at a great expence by means of evaporation, and drying in stoves with the aid of hartshorn and isinglass, furnish merely factitious aliments, without flavour or any other than a burnt or mouldy taste.
[J] The celebrated Chaptal says, in his Elémens de Chimie, discours préliminaire, p. cxxxi. “We hear in manufactories of nothing but the caprice of experiment, but this vague phrase has its origin only in the ignorance in which the workmen are of the true principles of their art; for nature does not act according to any principle of discernment, but obeys constant laws. The dead matter which we employ in our manufactories, exhibits necessary effects in which the will can have no share, and consequently can have no caprice. Make yourself acquainted, we should say to the manual operator, with the substance on which you are to operate, study better the principles of your art, and you will be able to foresee, predict and calculate every thing. It is your ignorance alone which renders your operations a constant groping in the dark, and a discouraging alternation of success and disappointment.”
In fact, the operator who proceeds with a perfect knowledge of the principles of his art, and of the results of its application, will never ascribe the failure of his process to caprice, but will impute it to the neglect of some indispensable precaution in the application of his principle; and his disappointment will serve as a guide for him to calculate better and improve his preparatory process. Convinced that the effects that flow from his principle are invariable, he knows that every kind of loss and damage can proceed only from an error in the application of his principle.
[K] This operation performed on a great scale, that is in a larger boiler, would require too much exactness, as it would be more difficult to command just the due degree of heat in such a boiler than in a small water-bath which may be set on and taken off at pleasure.
[L] That is, of Reamur, or 200 of Fahrenheit, in like manner, the 80 of Reamur, or boiling point mentioned below, is 212 of Fahrenheit. T.
[M] For this reason the translator adds the original names of the vegetables spoken of. It may happen that some of the kinds of fruits and roots mentioned by the author, do not exactly correspond with those which are considered as the same in this country. Whatever peculiarities there may be in the articles themselves, these will hardly affect the treatment they have to undergo in the process of preserving them. T.
[N] A species of the Bella-donna very generally made use of as an ingredient in French soups. T.
[O] The mode of extracting the juice of plants by means of water has more or less inconvenience. All those juices which have a principle that is very volatile and easy to evaporate, lose infinitely, even in warm water; much more so therefore, when the heat of the water is raised to a higher degree, and when the plants have been left for a long time in digestion.