370 [Assembly 



France, and then undersell the French manufacturers in their owe 

 markets. This operation of pure spirit making may thus be un- 

 derstood. Suppose twelve leach tubs, each filled with pulverized 

 charcoal, and each supplied on its top with a different kind of 

 liquor, say if you please, on one, French brandy ; on another, 

 Jamaica rum; on a third, rye whisky, and so on. After this 

 liquor has passed through the charcoal, it will run out at the bot- 

 tom of all the tubs alike, the charcoal abstracting all the oil, 

 color, &c., and producing a neutral spirit composed of alcohol 

 alone. Thus, it will be readily understood, that the French 

 brandy maker, who has a small quantity of brandy of high flavor, 

 can duplicate the quantity many times by the use of pure spirits, 

 and however sorry brandy drinkers may be that the quality of 

 their favorite beverage is to be materially injured, at least as to 

 its amount of flavor, or, however repugnant the conversion of 

 large amounts of grain into alcohol may be to the advocates of. 

 temperance, still these will not alter the fact that the increased 

 demand of corn and rye for this increased manufacture, will ma- 

 terially affect our markets, and secure to our farmers a large price 

 for their products. Thirty millions of gallons of wine have been 

 annually made into brandy, and more than half this quantity will 

 now be required in the form of pure spirits made from American 

 grain. 



Dr. Waterbury could not allow this subject to pass without 

 calling attention to the fact that the use of alcoholic liquors, 

 which had been for some time opposed strenuously on moral 

 grounds by a most respectable portion of society, was coming to 

 be opposed for scientific reasons. 



The existence of alcohol in the blood from absorbtiou into the 

 veins after drinking it, cannot be disputed. It has been obtained 

 by distillation from the brain of spirit drinkers. Blood drawn 

 from the arm of a drunken man had on one v)Ccasion retained a 

 strong smell of gin after standing for twenty-four hours. It is by 

 dissolving in the blood, and thus acting upon the tissues of the 

 brain, that alcohol and chloroform and ether, whether they are in- 

 haled or imbibed, produce intoxication. The natural diluent of 



