Desultory notes on the origin, uses, and effects of ardent spirit / by a physician.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Desultory notes on the origin, uses, and effects of ardent spirit / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    rious chemical processes we have mentioned, were first attempted or ensued. The separation of alcohol, which is the ardent spirit, from its various combinations, requires a further action upon the re- sults of fermentation. The process of distillation is simple; nothing more is absolutely necessary than to boil fermented liquors in a still. The first portion that comes over is an ardent spirit, (combined with water and a va- riety of extraneous substances,) which receives various names, accord- ing to the nature of the ingredients employed in the distillation; as wines, cider, molasses, the fermented infusion of barley, rice, corn, rye, potatoes, &c, which produce brandies, whiskey, rum, gin, spirits, arrack, &c. &c. These, when again distilled and properly purified, form alcohol, ardent spirit, or rectified spirits of wine, (names which are synonymous,) and the various ethers, according to their chemical combinations. It is certain that the method of procuring ardent spirit, by distilla- tion, was known in Europe during what have been called the dark ages; and, it is probable, that it was practised there much earlier. It is mentioned expressly by the early alchemists. Al-ka-hol is an Arabian word, which was used to designate the impalpable powder of a preparation of lead, which the eastern women employed to tinge their hair and the edges of the eye-lids. This name was afterwards applied by the alchemists to the purely spirituous part of liquors that had un- dergone the vinous fermentation. As a general term, it implies the purer part of a substance separated from its impurities. The title of w ardent spirit, is derived from the Latin, ardeo, to bum. As inflam- mability was one of its most distinguishing characteristics, by which its strength is often tested,* it may have served the early chemists as a convenient means of heating their alembics, as it does the present generation of bon-vivans in the preparation of a delicate repast. In the chemical works of Caspar Newman, M. D., professor of chemistry at Berlin, (1759) he employs the phrase inflammable spirit. The word spirit, has also its origin from the Latin; being, in this instance, a translation of the German geist, a ghost; whence, we have also the term gas, which was first employed by Van Helmont to express the spirit which rises from fermenting liquors. He also was the first who introduced the word fermentation, into modern chemistry.—[See note, in Appendix.] * There are various methods used in the arts to judge of the degree of concen- tration of spirit of wme. Gun-powder is put into a spoon, and moistened with the spirit, which is set on fire: if the powder takes fire, the spirit is considered to be good; but the contrary, if this effect does not take place. But this method is fallacious, because the effect depends on the proportion in which the spirit of wine is used; a small quantity always inflames the powder; and a strong dose never produces this effect, because the water which remains soaks into the pow- der, and defends it from the combustion. » The ardent spirit sold in London by the name of spirit of wine, or lamp spirit, is made by the rectifiers of malt and molasses spirit, by distillation of the residues of their compounded spirits. It is pretty constantly of the specific gravity of 0 845 at the temperature of 60° Fahrenheit; and may, by careful rectification be brought nearly up to 0.820. Dry alkali deprives it of more of its water. 'On the subject of the strength of spirits, consult Blagden in Philosophical Transac- tions, vol. lxxxi.—Chaptal, Elements of'Chemistry, p. 5;J9.