386 THE MOEAL STATUS OF ALCOHOL. 



alcohol, for developing the effect to which alcohol is com- 

 petent. Many things, however natural and artificial can 

 develop a sort of inebriation. Amongst these, chloroform and 

 opium are self-suggested. As the rule, too, the essential oils 

 liquids of which turpentine may be accepted as typical 

 will, if swallowed, or if their vapour be breathed, originate 

 a sort of inebriation. The liquid absinthe so much con- 

 sumed by the urban lower orders of France belongs to this 

 category ; and when swallowed in conjunction with alcohol, 

 it modifies considerably the character of mental exaltation 

 naturally producible by the latter. 



Quite recently the French military authorities instituted 

 a medical commission of inquiry as to the physiological effects 

 of absinthe. The result was so incriminatory, that the con- 

 sumption of absinthe by soldiers of the French army is now 

 stringently interdicted. 



In respect to the history of the master-spirit alcohol, need 

 I state that in its pure, or even water-mixed, condition the 

 people of civilised antiquity had no cognisance of it ? The 

 very name alcohol would imply an Arabic origin ; nor is the 

 implication at fault, seeing that it was first discovered, or 

 rather eliminated from the wines and other fermented liquids 

 in which it lurks, by one of those mighty Arabian chemists, 

 or alchemists (call them which you please), who flourished 

 during the golden age of the caliphate. That alcohol in its 

 non-vinous form was not discovered by the Jews, or Greeks, 

 or Romans, is immediately referable to the fact, that the pro- 

 cess of distillation was not known to either of these peoples. 



Alcohol, almost pure, can indeed be separated from wine 

 and other liquids holding it without any distillatory aid.* 

 Nevertheless, in practice, distillation is the scheme always 



* By first decolorising the alcoholic liquid, if coloured, with subace- 

 tate of lead ; throwing down excess of lead by hydrosulphuric acid, or still 

 better, sulphurous acid ; next adding dry sodium carbonate, which ab- 

 stracts the water, and leaves a floating layer of alcohol almost pure. This 

 was demonstrated by the late Professor Brande* 



