The rapidly increased consumption of ardent spirit in England and Scotland, in conjunction with its direful effects on individual and national welfare, has been elsewhere referred to. An eminent physician has well observed, that the art of extracting alcoholic liquors by distillation, must be regarded as the greatest crime ever inflicted on human nature.*† The preceding observations include a description of a large proportion of intoxicating drinks, known and used by the natives of those countries who have enjoyed the advantages of civilization and refinement. Many others might be included as principally used by barbarous nations. These, however, are too numerous to allow of extended notice. Most of them are prepared by fermenting different substances peculiar to the climate in which they are produced. Not a few, however, have been introduced by intercourse with European and other civilized nations. The Egyptians, even of the present day, prepare a fermented drink from barley, maize, and rice. The Nubians use an intoxicating liquor called bouza, in which they freely indulge, and which is extracted from dhourra, or barley.‡ The Abyssinians inebriate themselves with beer and mead. Honey, from which the latter is prepared, is found in great abundance in Africa. The Caffres and neighbouring people prepare an intoxicating compound by the fermentation of millet, a species of corn. In the language of that country, it is denominated pombie. The Congoese and natives of Ashantee, with various other nations in the warm climates of the torrid zone, ferment the juice of the palmtree, and thus obtain a highly intoxicating beverage. In the island of Formosa, rice is made use of for the same purpose. The natives of Kamschatka have a curious method of preparing a liquor, by means of a species of grass which they call slatkaiatrava. This grass, after it * Paris Pharmacologia. † Intemperance, by means of distilled liquors, began to prevail in France as a national vice, about the year 1678, although Louis XII. granted to a company of merchants permission to distil brandy as early as 1514. About the period first mentioned, the products of distillation began to be kept by taverns and shopkeepers, and drunkenness henceforth became much more prevalent in that kingdom than it had ever been before.-AM. ED. Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia, 4to. 1819, p. 143-4. Voyage to Congo, part. i. p. 564. Apud Churchill. Bowdich's Ashantee, page 386. Vide Candidus's Account of the Island of Formosa. Apud Churchill, vol. i. p. 405. has undergone some preliminary process, is steeped in hot water until fermentation takes place, when a liquor is afterward distilled from it, called raka. It is most pernicious in its effects on health, and produces sudden nervous disorders.* The natives of Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands obtain a strong spirit from the root of the tee. It first, of course, undergoes the several processes of fermentation and distillation. In the Chinese empire, much ingenuity is displayed in the production of intoxicating liquors. The natives of the province Quang-Tong, in particular, distil a liquor from the flowers of a variety of the lemon tree, which are said to possess a strong saccharine property. The inhabitants of the celestial empire, however, carry their inventive powers to a still greater extent. Sheep's flesh is subjected to fermentation. The liquor is then submitted to the still. The spirit thus extracted is said to be very strong.‡ Lamb wine, or as the natives called it, yan-yang-tskew, has long been a favourite beverage among the Tartars. The inhabitants of Tartary possess a variety of means by which they are enabled to procure inebriating liquors. Their principal beverage is prepared by fermenting mare's milk, and is called koumiss. This process was known in that country previous to any intercourse with Europeans. A similar practice is known to have existed among the inhabitants of Iceland and the Afghanistans, who manufacture a powerful drink from the fermented milk of sheep.§ The surprise created by these facts will be not a little increased when it is known that the Swedes, whose propensity for storng drink is well known, flavour their brandy by distilling over with it a large species of the black ant. These insects contain a resin, an oil, and an acid, which are highly valued for the flavour and potency which they impart to their brandy. They are found in abundance at the bottom of fir-trees, in small round hills, and are taken in that state for use. In addition to these methods of producing inebriating liquors, there are others which do not require special notice. They differ little, however, both in their com Cook, vol. iv. and Lessup's Travels, 8vo. Du Halde, vol i. p. 109. Grosier, vol. ii. p. 319. Du Halde, vol. i. p. 303. position, and mode of preparation, from those already mentioned. [The history of intoxicating drinks in the United States has been left unnoticed by our author: we have endeavoured, in the appendix to supply the deficiency, with a brief sketch, going back to the earliest settlement of the country. See Appendix A.-AM. ED.] CHAPTER X. NATURE AND COMBINATIONS OF ALCOHOL. Under the names of rum, brandy, gin, whiskey, usquebaugh; wine, cider, beer, and porter Alcohol, is become the bane of the Christian world.-Darwin's Zoonomia. Throughout the wide-spread kingdom of animal and vegetable nature, not a particle of alcohol, in any form or combination whatever, has been found, as the effect of a single living process; but it arises out of the decay, the dissolution, and the wreck of organized matter.-Dr. Mussey's Temp. Prize Essay. ALCOHOL, received its name from an Arabian physician, by whom it was first discovered. The phrase is said to be derived from the Arabic words Al the, and Kahol, a fine impalpable powder. With this substance, the ladies of Barbary were accustomed to tinge the hair and edges of their eyelids. Dr. Shaw remarks, that none of the women of Barbary think themselves completely dressed, until they have tinged their hair as well as the edges of their eyelids, with al-ka-hol, the powder of lead ore.* In course of time, however, this word appears to have been used to express the separation of any subtle or powerful substance, from the grosser materials with which it was connected. Hence, perhaps, its application to the refined and potent stimulus extracted from fermented liquors. The name of alcohol in the present day, is exclusively applied to the spirit or intoxicating liquor, contained in all fermented drinks. Alcohol was formerly supposed to be the generical product of distillation. It is now acknowledged, that distillation separates it only from fermented liquors where it had been previously formed. Alcohol in its pure state, is light and colourless, and of the specific gravity, 0.796 at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It has a powerful odour when submitted to the smell, and is highly pungent and irritating to the taste. Alcohol is exceedingly inflammable, and instantaneously burns when in * Travels through Barbary, p. 294. contact with ignited matter. The flame has a peculiar bluish appearance in the dark; the intenseness of which depends on the purity of the spirit which is ignited. On dead animal matter, this powerful fluid acts as an astringent and antiseptic, lessening the bulk of the substance to which it is applied, and preserving it from speedy decomposition. Alcohol is composed of three gases, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The following are the proportions of one hundred parts of pure alcohol, according to the calculations of Saussure, the eminent French chemist. The alcohol used in medicinal preparations, by direction of the London Pharmacopeia, is of specific gravity, 815 and contains 93 parts of pure or anhydrous alcohol, and 7 parts of water. The rectified spirit of the chemist, sp. gr. 835, contains 15 per cent. of water. COMBINATIONS OF ALCOHOL. The nature and results of fermentation, form an interesting and important subject for philosophical investiga tion. 1. The nature of fermentation.-Fermentation is now known to be one of the first results of the partial decomposition of vegetable matter. The several stages of fermentation through which decomposition passes previous to its completion, are denominated the vinous, the acetous, and the putrefactive. Each of which, is subject to certain. laws, which would go on to completion, were it not for the obstructing hand of man. Alcohol is the product of the first stage of decomposition, which is from thence termed the vinous. Vinous compounds, when subjected to a certain temperature, or exposed to the atmosphere, and unmixed with artificial and counteracting compounds, gradually run into the acetous or second stage of decay, a condition which is subsequently followed by putrefaction. In course of time, man, by the exercise of his ingenuity, Annal. de Chimie. |