On the Distillation of Spirits, &'c. in Holland. 3 1 7 



again, but after having thoroughly cleared them from the 

 ftrment, which sticks to the sides of the tubs from the last 

 icniientation, because they know from experience, that the 

 kast remains of this matter gives the following liquor a bad 

 taste ; for this purpose they clean them with lime water, and 

 never with soap, because the caustic alkali contained in the 

 soap would not fail to give the liquor an urinous taste. 



By all these precautions ihey obtain a pure spirit, without 

 being obliiied to employ any noxious articles in order to de- 

 stroy the bad and offensive taste, and at the same time a 

 wholesome spirit. One circumstance, which contributes 

 nuich to its sahibrity, is this, that it is rectified over juniper 

 berries, which possess a balsamic and aromatic virtue. It 

 is at least averred by the most celebrated physicians both of 

 Holland and other countries, that the juniper berries possess 

 great medicinal virtue, for which reason aqueous decoctions 

 of juniper berries are so frequently prescribed by physicians 

 of acknowledged celebrity in inveterate rheumatims, which;, 

 after having baffled all other remedies, are commonly cured 

 by a continued use of these decoctions ; and if the juniper 

 berries actually possess this virtue, who can then call in 

 question the great benefits which the spirit, rectified over 

 Juniper berries, must afford the inhabitants of a cold and 

 humid country, where the temperature of tTie air is so un- 

 settled, that in the course of one day you experience several 

 changes of heat and cold, and where,' for this reason, rheu- 

 matic complaints cannot but be very common ? I have ex- 

 perienced very generally that turpentine is substituted for 

 joniper berries in the malt spirits distilled in this country in 

 imitation of Duch geneva. It remains with physicians to 

 decide, whether turpentine in this state, and taken in such 

 quantities, must not prove highly detrimental to health. ], 

 for my part, am at a loss to conceive that an article as re- 

 sinous as turpentine (the residue of which, after the distilla- 

 tion, is colophonium) should not be highly prejudicial to 

 health ; and I am apt to think, that for this'reason it would 

 be certainly worth while for parliament to prohibit the use 

 of turpentine, and enact that juniper berries be substituted 

 in its place*; the more so, as the substitution of turpentine 

 ior the purpose of imitating the flavour of juniper berries, 

 merely arises from the avarice of the distillers, and as Hol- 



• The author, pcrl,ip, from crromous inf')im:ir'on, s'.ipposcs that di- 

 ytillers make use of what is commonly known by the n^meot tuipentine; 

 but it it the csstuiiil oil that it inade'utc of, w'hi«h contiJns no resin.— 

 Ei)ir. 



land 



