252 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



OF DISTILLATION. 



The art of distilling wine to extract from it the spirituous 

 principle, has made known a new product, which is used not 

 only as drink, but as one of the most useful articles employ- 

 ed in the arts. 



The product of the distillation of wine is known in com- 

 merce under the names of brandy, alcohol, spirit of wine, 

 &:.c. and the apparatus in which the process is carried on is 

 called an alembic* 



The importance of vineyards has been greatly increased 

 by the discovery of the art of distilling wine ; before that 

 the vine was cultivated for no other purpose than that of fur- 

 nishing a strengthening and agreeable drink : distillation 

 disengages from this liquor a volatile, inflammable, spirit- 

 uous principle, forming a much more active drink which has 

 come into general use throughout nearly all Europe ; it is 

 likewise used in the arts for dissolving resins and forming 

 varnishes, to preserve fruits, dissolve the perfumes of plants, 

 and to establish some new processes. 



Most of the white and a part of the red wines are now 

 employed for distillation : the good red wines are reserved 

 for the table. 



Before quitting so important a subject, I will sketch, in a 

 few words, all which had been done in the way of distilling 

 wine before the invention of the new apparatus, which has 

 caused such a revolution in the art of distillation, that it may 

 be said to have been created at the present day. 



The ancients had very imperfect ideas of distillation. 

 From the evidence of Raymond Lully, Jerome Rubeus, 

 and John-Baptist Porta, there can be no doubt, that the 

 ancients understood the art of extracting the odoriferous 

 principle by the steam from water ; but they made use of 



* The names brandy and spirit of wine, employed to designate the 

 two extremes of the same hquor as they are found in commerce, 

 have been supplied in the new chymical nomenclature by the generic 

 term alcohol. However, as in common language the names brandy 

 and spirit of wine are given to substances differing widely in the uses 

 to which they are applied, it is to be feared that commerce will not be 

 willing to comprehend them under the same denomination ; as it is 

 not enough that they are of the same nature, if the price and the use 

 establish a wide difference between them. 



