Amelioration of Spirits by Jge.. 283 



r.*Urc of this change. Your obfervations on this fubje£l, and perhaps thofe of fome of 

 your correfpondents who have dire£led their attention this way, cannot fail to be. very 

 interefliiig and uieful to the Weft India merchants, and will be highly gratifying to 



SIR, 



Your humble fervant, 



J. A, 



P. S. As expofure to the atmofphere has been found to produce a premature old age in 

 rum, it has been prefumed that it was caufed by evaporation ; but. if this was the cafe, 

 reducing the ftrength of the fpirit with water ought to have an effeft nearly fimilar. 

 Whatever may be loft by expofure, I have formed the idea, and am clear in it (though I 

 have only the vague evidence of the fenfes, without any chemical experiment on my fide) 

 that a great part of the improvement fo obfervable arifes from fonrie abforption. At firft 

 I thought oxygen was abforbed ; but the increafe of a certain oily appearance does away 

 this idea. It has alfo occured that (agitation promoting the improvement) the particles of 

 liquor may undergo fome more intimate combination in confequence of fomething fimilar 

 to fri£lion. The particles of old liquor having been kept long in clofe contaft, may have 

 been by that means more afTimilatcd. Thefe ideas are, however, quite crude, and deferve 

 little attention. 



The changes which take place in ardent fpirits. and the other produfts of fermentation 

 by keeping, have not formed the fubjeft of diredl inveftigation. How far the flow 

 re-a(Stion of principles, the extrication of eflential oil by fubfidence or floating, the 

 abforption or combination oxygen from without, or of tannin or gallic acid from the 

 calk, &c. may be concerned, can only be collected from enquiry among intelligent 

 dealers in thefe articles. I fhall take the firft opportunities of doing this, and ftating 

 the refults. — W. N. 



X. 



Abjlrad of a Memoir on a Method of ufirg the Syphon for raifng Water in the Machine of 



C. Trouville, By Citizen Prosy*. 



A O a tube A B (Plate IX. fig. 4.) of any form, are adapted a number of vertical 

 branches ; one of them terminates in a refervoir E, filled with water, and diftinguilhed by 

 the name of the great afpirator, and the others lead to refervoirs C, full of air, named fmall 

 afpirators. Each fmall afpirator communicates by its tube, fuppofed to be filled with a 



• Bulletin de la Soclete Philomatique, II, 91, 



O o a refervoir 



