208 On the Question, Wliether Alcohol he a Product 



tural heat of climate had formed it in the liquor : for, according* 

 to his experiments, a heat not exceeding l-i" Reaumur (64) is 

 sufficient totally to volatilize the spirit ''\ These opinions seem 

 to have gained but little confidence amongst modern chemists : 

 a kind of mean seems to have been adopted. Chaptal considers 

 the alcohol as formed, not insulated, but in combination with 

 colouring and extractive matter f. Berthollet states his opinion 

 hi a manner less precise; he considers wine as an uniform com- 

 pound, in which the properties of hydrogen are predominant ; 

 the alcohol conse(iucntly not existing in the insulated state J. 

 Fourcroy allowed that without doubt alcohol is not contained 

 exactlv and purely in wine with all its properties, and under the 

 same form as it is obtained by art : but he looks upon Fabroni's 

 experiments as quite insufficient to ))rove their object ; and ob- 

 serves that it is difficult to conceive how alcohol, which, accord- 

 ing to Lavoisier, is reduced to vapour at 64" Reaumur (176), 

 bliould in Fabroni's trials be volatilized at 14 §. 



No experimental objections of any importance were offered 

 to Fabroni's opinions luitil lately, when Mr. Brande published a 

 i-aper on the subject ||. Fabroni, when he failed in separating 

 alcohol from wine by mean.s of subcarbonate of potash, affirmed 

 that none was present. Mr. Brande shows clearly, that this is 

 no proof; for when he distilled so much as three ounces of 

 -strong spirit from a pint of wine, and mixed the distilled liquor 

 with the residue, he was not able to separate a particle of spirit 

 by subcarbonate of potash ; the latter combining with some of 

 the ingredients of the vvine, and the whole assuming the form of a 

 gelatinous compound. Fabroni asserted that by subcarbonate 

 (if potash he could separate a hundredth part of alcohol pur- 

 poselv added to wine. It must, as Mr. Murray remarks, be . 

 considered rather singular, that this portion should be separated 

 without loss from a fluid in which it is dissolved. Mr. Brande 

 has sliown that such a separation does not take place ; and so 

 far is Fabroni's result from coinciding with Mr. Brande's, that 

 not until two ounces of alcohol (S'25) were mixed with six of 

 wine, could he obtain a stratum of the former swimming on the 

 hurface of the alkaline solution. So far Mr. Brande's refutation 

 of Fabroni's opinions was complete; it v/as proved that the 

 grounds for objection to the common opinion were insufficient : 

 but it remained to be proved that the opposise opinion was un- 

 true. 



The latter question Mr. Brande made some experiments to 

 decide. His method was, to distil quantities of wine at different 



* A'inalcs de Chimie, tome xxxi. p. 304. t Pl'il. Mas;, vol. ix. 



t Chp.iii. Sriit, vol. ii. p. 12r. ^Jinna'xs de C/iimir, tome xxxi. p. 322. 

 II Phil. Twisact. 18 n, p. 337. 



temperatures. 



