On Waters distilled from inodorous Plants. 7 
faction when they have been distilled in B. M.; and I hope 
to be able to prove by and by, that the putrefaction to which 
even, waters distilled from aromatic plants are subject, is 
owing to a portion of the decoction of the plants being ex= 
travasated, or forced into the tubes of the apparatus, when 
distillation in the open fire is made use of. 
Before proceeding to explain some of the probabilities 
upon which I rest my opinion, that down to the present 
moment the greater part of such waters as are distilled from 
plants in the open fire have been adulterated with their re- 
spective extracts, 1 consider it my duty to say a few words 
on the subject of alembics.. My hints are the results of a 
course of reflections and experiments oa the improvement 
of the above apparatus, in which I have been constantly oc- 
‘cupied since the year 1775, a space of more than 30 years. 
The old chemists had certainly observed, that during the 
ebullition of water a part of that fluid is thrown to a height 
of more than 30 centimetres in a multitude of small drops 
er globules, which can with difficulty be perceived by the 
naked eye. They must have also observed, that during the 
time of distillation the decoction of plants has the property 
of swelling up when boiling, and of being raised with the 
greatest facility into the neck of the cucurbits; they conse- 
quently contracted their distilling apparatus to moderate the 
tendency of the boiling liquor to bubble up, and they inter- 
posed between the cucurbit and the head cylindrical tubes, 
either straight or spiral, or zigzag, &c., and of a length 
equally inconvenient and unreasonable. 
Baumé, to whom, in spite of his obstinacy in rejecting the 
theory of pneumatic chemistry, we are indebted for a great 
number of useful observations, has particularly contributed 
to the reform of the construction of alembics; but in bring- 
ing the head so near the body of the alembic as he has done, 
he has fallen into an opposite extreme, the inconvenience of 
which did not occur to me until within these two years, 
At the above period I interposed between the body and the 
head of my alembic a cylindrical funnel 40 centimetres 
high. Besides, I gave an inverse inclination the length of 
a decimetre to the beak, at the place where it is soldered to 
Ad .. the 
