CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 255 



system, fatal effects would doubtless follow from the introduction of such 

 oils into the stomach. 



As a general statement, the spirits produced in this country to serve as 

 beverages are remarkable for their purity and freedom from any substances 

 which careful rectification can remove. When, through age and suitable 

 exposure, the oils contained in them have passed into ethereal bodies, and 

 thus ripened the spirits, they become equal in soundness and purity to any 

 products imported from abroad, and far less deleterious than most of the so- 

 called brandies of the present time. 



There is, however, present in the newly distilled, and in most cases in the 

 older spirits, a source of danger which, so far as I can learn, has been over- 

 looked, or possibly attributed to criminal intention, which should be publicly 

 known, and is of especial interest to the medical profession. 



Newly distilled spirits, of the most common kind, often contain salts of 

 copper, of lead, or tin, derived from the condensers in which the vapors are 

 reduced to a fluid form. The quantity of copper salt contained in the bulk 

 usually taken as a draught is sufficient to produce the minor effects of 

 metallic poisoning; the cumulative character of these poisons may even lead 

 to fatal consequences. With a knowledge of the fact now stated, instead of 

 resting on a supposition of the existence of an organic poison in the spirits 

 which have caused sickness, the physician may notice the symptoms of 

 metallic poisoning in persons addicted to the habit of consuming newly 

 distilled spirits, and interpose his aid in preventing the fatal termination of 

 vicious indulgence. 



Since I first demonstrated the fact of the frequent occurrence of these 

 metallic salts in the more recently manufactured spirits, the investigation 

 has taken a wider range, and the results have proved that as all spirits at 

 one time were new, so with few exceptions, arising from peculiar rectifi- 

 cations, most spirits have been, or are, more or less contaminated by 

 metallic compounds. Old or more matured spirits have generally lost every 

 particle of the salts once held in solution. Changes in the organic solvent 

 have caused the deposition of the metallic compound, accompanied by the 

 organic matter from obvious sources, and in such spirits the metallic oxide 

 is always found, if it has been present, in the dark-colored matter which 

 has been deposited at the bottom of a cask at rest. This dark deposit has 

 the appearance of, and has been mistaken for, charcoal, detached from the 

 charred staves of the casks in which the spirits have been stored. 



Of this dark deposit every sample has, on examination, afforded abun- 

 dance of copper, copper and tin, or copper and lead, even when taken from 

 the finer qualities of foreign spirits. 



Observations have been made on the nature of this change from a soluble 

 to an insoluble state. Samples of new spirits have been kept in glass ves- 

 sels until the whole metallic salt has fallen in dark flocks, leaving the clear 

 fluid free from an}- metallic compound and perfectly pure. 



It appears, therefore, that matured spirits lose their poisonous impregna- 

 tion during the time necessary to adapt them for use as beverages, and that 

 while the clear, transparent fluid contains no metallic impregnation, a turbid 

 though ripened spirit may prove deleterious through its suspended metallic 

 compounds. 



In order to avoid the poisonous effects of these salts, perfectly well- 

 ripened and clear spirits only should be used in the preparation of medicines, 

 and when ordered as restoratives, no new or turbid alcoholic fluids should 



