HOW ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ARE MADE. 79 



the time for improving the spirits desired before payment of the tax. 

 2. Prohibiting the withdrawal of alcoholic liquors from bond until 

 they have been in the warehouse at least twelve months ; for the rea- 

 son that new spirits, although they may be pure, are not fit for internal 

 use, and should not be placed upon the market for sale until their con- 

 stituent elements are thoroughly combined by age. 3. Prohibiting (if 

 it can be done constitutionally) the mixing or compounding different 

 kinds of alcoholic liquors, particularly those made from grain with 

 those made from fruit, or the adulteration of the same by the addition 

 of any deleterious or injurious substances. Heavy penalties to follow 

 every violation and conviction. 



Various contrivances have been adopted, both in this and foreign 

 countries, for the purpose of producing a kind of artificial age, and 

 various compounds have been used to accomplish the desired result, 

 and to a certain extent have been successful in deceiving the novice or 

 uninitiated ; but, on the whole, you might as well try to put a mature 

 brain, developed in all its manly proportions, upon the shoulders of a 

 youth, as to try to make new spirits old, minus the element of time, 

 and the necessary accompanying environments. 



A company in Boston, Massachusetts, claim to purchase the oldest 

 liquors they can find in distillery bonded warehouses (three years old), 

 and to purify and increase their mellowness by forcing warm air 

 through them, thereby oxidizing the fusel-oil (or heavier alcohols), 

 and expelling into the open air the light, poisonous ethers, leaving the 

 liquors free from the aldehydes which stupefy and destroy the brain- 

 tissues. The air is first passed through a chemical solution (Professor 

 Tyndall's well-known method), which deodorizes as well as destroys all 

 germs of animal or vegetable origin ; and after being thus treated, 

 analysis shows it to be pure atmospheric air, 79 parts nitrogen, and 21 

 parts oxygen. This purified air is then heated to a certain temper- 

 ature, and, with the aid of a pump, forced through pipes with almost 

 infinitesimal perforations, so as to bring the greatest amount of sur- 

 face of air in contact with the greatest amount of surface of liquor in 

 the shortest space of time, warming the liquors and producing a vio- 

 lent agitation, which process, undoubtedly, accelerates the union and 

 assimilation of the constituent elements, and, they also claim, elimi- 

 nates the poisonous gases. The liquors are then filtered by the best- 

 known methods to free them from any remaining debris. 



But to return to the distillery : you will see that the processes 

 which the grain has gone through of mashing, fermenting, and the ex- 

 traction of the spirits from the beer by distillation, and the placing of 

 the completed product in the distillery bonded warehouse, are all done 

 under the supervision of a Government officer, and thus far the distiller 

 has had no opportunity, even if he had any desire, to adulterate the 

 liquor. Any distiller who wishes to establish a reputation for manu- 

 facturing a fine article, is as much interested in keeping his liquor 



