Notice respecting some Experiments on Alcohol. 135 

 h> which it communicates its peculiar flavour; its dis. 

 ^reeable smell is considerably heightened by th.s comb.na- 

 tion. It dissolves in water, though less read.ly than the 

 substance last treated of. The compound, when much d - 

 kued and heated, has very much the flavour o the low-wn^ 

 of our Lowland distillers at the time when it is.ues liom 



^ Till two last-mentioned substances, or those of which 

 the two upper straia are composed, when mixed together 

 and areatiy diluted with water, have very nearly the flavour 

 of alcohol. They have rather more volat.l.ty than w-aer, 

 for, when hair of a solution of them has been d.st.lled over, 

 the distilled part has a much stronger smell than that wnich 

 remains in the retort. . _,,,„^o, 



It may be proper to mention, that from the circumstance 

 of mv sense of smell having been for some time extremely 

 obtuse, 1 have been under the necessity of trusting to others 

 for the facts regardmg the flavour of these new substances 

 and mixtures: from the uniformity ot the repor's, how- 

 ever, which I have received from different persons, 1 have 

 no doubt that these facts are correct. . 



Besides that from which I filled the thermometer in the 

 first experiment, I have operated on alcohol of the speci- 

 fie cravities 802, 797, and 784 ; the specific gravity of he 

 last\vas taken when its temperature was 66 deg. ami it is 

 probably the most concentrated that has ever been obtained. 

 But, with alcohol of all these different strengths, the ge- 

 neral results were similar. In alcohol obtained from dif- 

 ferent sources, the proportions of the impurities were dit- 

 fereut, both with regard to the pure alcohol and to one an- 

 other • but I have nfct with none that did not contain both. 

 From these experiments 1 think it IS ascertained 

 1st, That the strongest alcohol which we are able to ob- 

 tain may be frozen by the method alluded to. 



£d, 'I'hat this alcohol contains at least two foreign sub- 

 stances, which are highly vol.t.le, and, so far as is known, 

 can onlv be separated by treezmg. u.l n.vP« Jf<. 



3d that it is to these substances that alcohol owes its 

 peculiar flavour; and that, according as the ""« or oth.r 

 ^predominates, the flavour of the alcohol is agreeable or 



'"Lart'Iu.umn I resumed this subject, and my attention 

 was chiefly directed to the habitudes of the.e impur^ e. 

 with ,h. chemical re-agents. This V'>7^V uchtas to 

 considerable difficulties, none ot the least of which wa to 

 procure a suffiuuu quantity of these impurities m a sepa- 

 » 1 4 **^* 



