64 Notices respecting New Books. 



tlie other ingredients wiiich enter into tliat compound fluid. AI- 

 tIioii;:;h therefore alcoiiol is ascertained to exist ready formed in 

 al! wines, so much of the experiment ol' Fabbroni is slill true as 

 to be an object of utility in the subject we are now examining- ; 

 while the conchisions to be drawn from it appear of importance 

 ill explaining the different effects of simple wines and wines with 

 which brandy has been mixed. It is presuming? much too far 

 on our chemical knowlpdge to imagine that we are acquainted 

 with the nature of alcohol. It is possibly subject to varieties of 

 composition, analogous to those which are found in the very va- 

 ria!)!e substances included under carburetted hydrogen gas, and 

 which, although thev have not been apjjreciated by chemical 

 actions, merely perhaps because the subject has been supposed 

 to be already understood, and the substance itself imagined to be 

 in all cases chemically identical, may be ascertained h.ereaftcr 

 bv more refined experim.ents in the hands of acuter chemists, to 

 whom this sui)ject is here pointed out as calling for investiga- 

 tion. It is otlierwise impossible to understand the differences 

 which appear in its effects on the nervous svstem when takeij 

 into the stomach under its different forms. Where its specific 

 gravity, and consequently its imagined condition, is in different 

 specimens absolutely Cijual, yet these specimens, produced un- 

 der different circumstances, operate on the nervous system in a 

 manner so tota'ly different as to point out some radical differences 

 of which specific gravity is no criterion. The comparative ef- 

 fects of new and of old rum, of ecjual proof, of Dutch gin and 

 of diluted alcohol of equal strength, are too well known to re- 

 quire more than a bare mention. It has been supposed, for 

 want of better means of explaining these effects, that they were 

 due to the essential oil contained in the different varieties of 

 spirits used as beverage. But of these we know nothing. We 

 are sure that tliey are in very trifling quantity, since they cannot 

 be separated by water, except in the single case of gin, where n 

 foreign oil is purposely introduced. Neither are we acquainted 

 with any oils of this class whose qualities are deleterious, except 

 that of th^ bitter kernels, their analogous kindred laurel, and 

 a few other bitter vegetables, whose poisonous qualities besides 

 appear to be sul)ject to no modifications, being, where not 

 deadly, almost unproductive of any effects. Moreover that spirit, 

 alcohol, from which by careful rectification the essential oil 

 .«:eems to have been most carefully removed, is more injurious 

 than those which like rum and brandy are known to contain it. 



" Dilution docs not remove the injurious effects of these noxious 

 spirits. Wlien spirit of any sort is mixed with water it requires 

 some little time to effect the uniou of the two substances. They 

 ultimately become combined. Yet the effect of the one kind of 



spirit, 



