The doctor at home, and nurse's guidebook ... / edited by George Black.

  • Black, George
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The doctor at home, and nurse's guidebook ... / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/908 (page 25)
    Alcoholic Beverages. mineral acids. It is fotmd dissolved in the blood, where it exists in the proportion o£ abont four per cent. It constitutes the chief compound of nerve matter, out of which the nerves are formed. It enters into the composition of the eggs of all animals. Its property of coagulating when boiled, forming the whit© of the egg, is well known. Fibrine is found in small quantities in the blood, but is principally distributed over the body, of the muscular tissues of which it constitutes a large pro' portion. Alcoholic Beverages (Fr. alcohol; from Arabic, al kohol, fine powder of anti- mony, used for painting the eyebrows. Later the term was applied to highly rectified spirits, to which the Arabic term has really no application or reference).—Alcohol is a colourless limpid fluid, possessed of a faint but pleasant odour and a hot pungent taste. It constitutes the characteristic compound in all fermented liquors, and it is to alcohol that they owe their intoxicating property. The fermentation of sugar, and other sac- charine matter, is the only means of obtain- ing alcohol, and the best vegetable substances from which it is to be got are naturally those'containing most sugar or most starch, which starch can be converted into sugar. The principal alcoholic drinks in ordinary use are shown in the table on tliis page, which exhibits the proportions of alcohol and carbon contained in each. This table is taken from Dobell’s book on “Diet and Regimen.” In the table on the following page, ex- tracted from “Health Lectures for the People” (Edinburgh, 18S1), we have the percentage by volume of absolute alcohol in several common alcoholic beverages, with the quantity of the beverage representing about one ounce of absolute alcohol. It has been said by Dr. Graham that “ ardent spirits of every description are, in their nature and ordinary effects, extremely unfriendly to the human constitution, and the art of distillation is, beyond all doubt, the most fatal discovery, in respect of the health of the community, which the inge- nuity of man ever devised.” Alcohol Table. The weight of absolute alcohol (sp. gr. 796 at 680° F.) and of carbon, dissolved, in measured quantities of spirituous liquors. 1] Spirituous Liquors. 102. Avoir, lbs. Alcoliol is contained in fluid 02. 1 02. Avoir. Carbon contained in fluid 02. Ardent Spirits— 4-3 Proof Spirit . . . 2-26 Whisky 26 50 Brandy 27 5‘0 Rum 28 5'3 Arrack ..... 30 5-8 Gin 32 5*5 Wines— 8-6 Roussilon .... 6*4 Sherry 6-6 10-2 Gape Madeira . . . 6-8 110 South African Port . 6-8 10-0 Port 6-9 10-2 Bucellas 7-3 11-2 Marsala . . . . « 7-5 11-7 East India Madeira . 7-6 11-3 Frontignac .... 90 7-8 Champagne. . . • 12-6 11-3 Hock . . • • • • 13-4 20*4 HungarianRed V oslau 141 21-2 Burgundy .... 15’2 23-8 Moselle . . . . • 15-2 23-3 Claret 16-3 23-4 Sauternc. . . • _ • 19-0 27-2 Hungarian White \ 19-0 28-8 Neszmely. * . .5 Cider 640 40'0 Malt Liquors— 12-5 90 Ale,Barton,Bass(l)8'l/ „ » (3)60/ 14-2 130 ;; Pale „ (.) 0 190 17-5 „India(Gardner, x 54/) 230 280 (Scotch \ „Bottled< (Edin.)) 19-0 13-1 (.Pale . . 25-0 20'5 „ “Eightpenny” . 22-7 22 2 ,, Family, 1/- gall. . „ “Fourpenny” . 249 22*0 25-4 23 0 Stout,Dublin(bottled) 20-8 167 ,, London . . . 21*6 18 9 Porter, London . . 35-6 266