ALCOHOL 57 



tains far more alcohol than the first liquor. If this 

 liquor is boiled over and over again, the alcohol is fur- 

 ther separated from the water until it is almost pure. 

 Separating alcohol from water by heating is called distilla- 

 tion. Many liquors are made by distillation. If wine is 

 distilled, the liquor is called brandy, but if grain is used to 

 make the alcohol, it is called whisky. Brandy and whisky 

 are each about one half alcohol. When first made they 

 contain a very poisonous kind of alcohol. They are both 

 kept for months, and even years, before being used, so as 

 to change this more poisonous alcohol to common alcohol. 



109. History of strong drink. The germs of yeast grow 

 almost everywhere. By their growth alcohol is always 

 formed wherever fruit decays or its juice has an oppor- 

 tunity to collect. For thousands of years men have known 

 the taste and the effects of fermented liquors, and how to 

 produce the fermentation. Almost every known race of 

 men has made wine from the earliest times. Noah made 

 wine shortly after the flood, and wine is mentioned in 

 many places in the Bible. In the earliest recorded times 

 people of Egypt and of Assyria used wine on their tables 

 and often made themselves drunk. The native Mexicans 

 had an intoxicating liquor when the Spaniards came in the 

 early part of the sixteenth century. But the ancients never 

 used drink so strong as it is made now, for fermentation 

 stops .when the juice becomes one eighth alcohol. 



About eight hundred years ago the professors in the 

 colleges and all other learned men of the time were look- 

 ing for three impossible things. They were trying to find 

 out by the stars what would take place in times to come. 

 This study led to our knowledge of astronomy. 



They were trying to discover how to change common 

 metals to gold. By their mixing and dissolving all kinds 



