82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



azotized albuminous substance which produces spontaneous vinous fer- 

 mentation, so that artificial yeasts or ferments are unnecessary. About 

 fifty per cent more brandy can be made from ripe than from green 

 fruit, and late fruit will produce much more brandy than early fruit. 

 Brandy-distillers ought to devote more attention to filtration than they 

 are in the habit of doing ; it is a moral obligation which they owe 

 to society. 



Some people are so credulous that they believe all imported liquors 

 are pure and perfectly straight. By paying a very high price, pure 

 imported liquors can be obtained, but the superiority of the best arti- 

 cle consists mainly in great age. Some imported liquors are mixed, 

 compounded, and artificially flavored before shipment to this country, 

 and are again mixed with so-called pure spirit after their arrival here. 

 Trois-six French spirit, when originally produced, was the pure spirit 

 of grape-wine ; now it is mainly manufactured from potatoes and the 

 cereals, and forms the basis of many of the liquors imported into this 

 country under the brand of French brandies and wines, and sold to a 

 credulous public as the product of the pure juice of the grape. 



The duty on imported liquors is two dollars per proof-gallon, and 

 on imported wines fifty cents per wine-gallon, while the United States 

 internal revenue tax is only ninety cents per proof-gallon on domestic 

 spirits, and none on domestic wines. People can judge for themselves 

 whether the imported article is worth the difference in price. 



Chemists, in their analysis of anhydrous, absolute, or pure alcohol 

 (200), do not exactly agree in their results. However, there is only a 

 slight variation from the following statement in the proportions of 

 the three constituent elements : 



Carbon 52-32 



Oxygen 34*38 



Hydrogen 13-30 



100-00 



Alcohol showing the foregoing analysis acts as a caustic on the living 

 tissues of the body, and by injection into the veins it causes sudden 

 death by coagulating the blood. By introduction into the stomach it 

 generally causes death. 



Commercial alcohol is principally made from Indian corn, and gen- 

 erally indicates twelve degrees less in strength, being 188, than the 

 preceding analysis. This commercial alcohol is reduced to any degree 

 desired by the addition of water, and known to the trade as French, 

 pure, cologne, or neutral spirits, while in fact it is nothing but dilute 

 alcohol. 



This spirit forms the bulk of nearly all the low-priced alcoholic 

 liquors, whether called rum, gin, whisky, domestic or foreign brandies, 

 that are placed upon the market, and this neutral corn-spirit enters 

 largely into many of the better brands. Some wholesale liquor-deal- 



