The use of sulphurous acid in the making of wines in France, as has been described, is quite universal, though there are many individual makers who would be glad to see the use of this re-agent entirely eliminated. That it has been abused is well recognized by the French themselves, and in consequence thereof, by virtue of a decree issued on the third of December, 1907, under the French Food Law, the limit of sulphurous acid in white wine was fixed at 350 milligrams per liter, either free or combined.

Discussion in regard to the amount of sulphurous acid allowed in wines has not existed much over 30 years. The first regulations due to the discussion, appear to have been made in Austria, in 1885. In 1895, Switzerland undertook the delimitation of sulphurous acid in its wines, and fixed the maximum quantity which should exist in the free state at 20 milligrams per liter, and the total, that is, the free and combined together, at 200 milligrams per liter. In France, soon afterward, the Committee of Hygiene of the Siene, in 1901, provisionally fixed the total limit of sulphurous acid at 200 milligrams per liter, without specifying the quantities which might be free and combined.1 In spite of this arrangement, many protestations were raised against it in France, and in consequence the limits fixed by the Council on Hygiene were not enforced. According to a French account, the movement spread gradually from France to other states of Europe, almost all of which undertook the regulation of the quantity of sulphurous acid which should be used in vinification.

When the food inspection laws of the United States went into effect, in 1907, the French rule which was then in existence, of 200 milligrams to the liter, was enforced against imported wines. Owing to protestations on the part of French exporters the Government appointed a new commission, which, after deliberation, agreed to double the quantity tolerated by the Committee on Hygiene, fixing it at 400 milligrams per liter. This involved a discussion of the toleration of sulphurous acid in wine with the authorities of the United States, and in order to promote national comity the United States finally agreed to a maximum limit of 350 milligrams per liter.

The question was further discussed in France, both by hygien-ists and by the wine makers, with a view to securing larger tolerations, and it was urged that the sole excess of sulphurous acid which could possibly be considered as threatening health was that of the free state, and that the regulations should simply limit the quantity of this acid, and not that of the combined. It was suggested, in the interests of the manufacturers, that the limit of free acid be fixed at 100 milligrams per liter, but this suggestion has never been enacted into law.