March 8, 1906] 



NA TURE 



441 



Result of War affected by Soldier's Stature. 



In your issue of March i Major-General Warrand denies 

 that the chance of being shot in war depends, ceteris 

 paribus, merely upon the square of the soldier's stature. 



He would therefore introduce another factor, the thick- 

 ness of the body, which presents a target varying in size 

 according to the direction from which the fire comes. 



This, however, is unnecessary. The stature alone should 

 be considered, because, for the sake of simplicity, we 

 assume that oblique fire is experienced equally by both 

 armies, and we also assume that all soldiers are of similar 

 build. The assemblage of human targets in each army is 

 therefore proportional in size to the square of the average 

 stature. John Hill Twigg. 



The Hydro, Ben Rhydding. 



WHAT IS WHISKEY? 

 TOURING the last three months readers of the daily 

 i-* Press have from time to time been the recipients 

 of informations concerning the nature of whiskey. 

 Their education must have been somewhat hetero- 

 geneous in that what whiskey should or should not 

 be seemed to change each week, in accordance with 

 the witness whose evidence was being reported ; 

 perhaps now the so-called whiskey test case is over it 

 will be convenient to place before our readers some of 

 the most important facts brought to light by it. 



The borough of Islington began its work in the 

 matter of potable spirits with brandy, and succeeded 

 in practically enforcing for this article of commerce 

 a chemical standard. This standard, as in the case 

 of the one which it has, at any rate for the time, 

 succeeded in establishing for whiskey, is a minimal 

 standard, i.e. brandy must contain at least a certain 

 proportion of so-called compound ethers, and whiskey 

 must, if the judgment in this case be maintained, 

 at least contain a certain proportion of so-called 

 impurities, viz. substances other than ethylic alcohol 

 and water. Before dismissing from our notice the 

 brandy standard, we would emphasise the fact that 

 in the case of brandy a minimal amount of one class 

 of by-product, the individual members of which almost 

 certainly have the same therapeutic effect, is de- 

 manded. In the case of whiskey, the Islington magis- 

 trate fixed a chemical standard based upon an 

 analytical, not chemical or even therapeutical, entity 

 containing such different substances as compound 

 ethers, higher alcohols, acids, and aldehydes. He 

 further strictly enjoined the kind of apparatus 

 in which whiskey must be produced, and the materials 

 which shall in the two countries producing whiskey 

 be solely used in the mash from which the spirit is to 

 be distilled. The question of a chemical standard for 

 brandy, and the protection which such a standard 

 affords to the public, was thoroughly discussed in 

 Nature of November 3, 1904. The anomaly of having 

 a fixed minimum and no fixed maximum for alcoholic 

 impurities in potable spirits is too palpable to need 

 amplification, and has been definitely recognised by 

 the Belgian authorities, who refuse to allow the sale 

 of a potable spirit possessing a coefficient of impurities 

 of more than 300. This fact is of special interest at 

 the present time, for if the Islington judgment is to 

 stand, no potable spirit can be sold as whiskey which, 

 inter alia, possesses a coefficient of impurities of less 

 than 380. 



To the average reader the judgment containing the 

 definition of what for the future must be sold as Irish 

 and Scotch whiskey would read, and it consists of 

 some five thousand words, as if this question had 

 never been considered before; and, indeed, a leading 

 article upon this subject which appeared in a medical 



NO. 1897, VOL. 73] 



contemporary last week contained the extraordinary 

 statement that " five years ago there was no sugges- 

 tion even that potable spirits might be brought within 

 the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, with 

 a view to the detection of foreign or added spirit." 

 It can scarcely be news to the readers of Nature that 

 a Select Committee under the chairmanship of Lord 

 Play fair was appointed in 1S91 to inquire into precisely 

 the same question as was laid before the Islington 

 magistrate, and had at its disposal practically the 

 same material ; it examined numerous witnesses, 

 chemical, physiological, and commercial, and reported 

 in 1891. 



The best way of criticising Mr. Fordham's judg- 

 ment is to summarise carefully the conclusions of this 

 committee. At the onset it is a relief to find that upon 

 one point at least they agree, viz. that according to 

 both there is no evidence that any potable spirit sold 

 in the United Kingdom as whiskey contains con- 

 stituents other than ethylic alcohol which are injurious 

 to health ; in other respects we are afraid the Islington 

 magistrate in his judgment is diametrically opposed 

 to the report of this committee. Perhaps the shortest 

 way of dealing with this report in the present article 

 is to quote verbatim the Committee's view with 

 regard to the definition of whiskey. 



" Your committee do not attempt a legal definition of 

 whiskey. Whiskey is certainly a spirit consisting of 

 alcohol and water, with a small quantity of bye-products 

 coming from malt or grain, which give to it a peculiar 

 taste and aroma. It may be diluted with a certain quantity 

 of water without ceasing to be whiskey, and it may be 

 diluted with spirits containing little of the bye-products to 

 suit the pocket and palate of customers, and it still goes 

 by the popular name of whiskey. Your committee are 

 unable to restrict the use of the name as long as the spirits 

 added are pure and contain no noxious ingredients." 

 Then again : — " There are varieties in the purity of patent 

 or silent spirits. When they are made for blending it is 

 the object of the distiller to retain a percentage of bye- 

 products, though to a smaller extent than in pot-still 

 whiskey." 



We cannot think that the Islington magistrate was 

 not aware of these conclusions, although it is exceed- 

 ingly odd that in so lengthy a judgment no mention 

 is made of the report of the select committee. How- 

 ever, the Islington dicta with regard to whiskey are 

 certainly clear. Irish and Scotch whiskey must be 

 produced by the distillation in a pot-still of the wort 

 derived from a mash consisting in Ireland of 75 per 

 cent, barley malt and 25 per cent, indigenous 

 grain, in Scotland of barley malt alone. We are not 

 told what kind of pot-still is to be used, although it 

 is quite clear to anybody who has studied the subject 

 that, with regard to the degree of rectification capable 

 of being produced, pot-stills differ inter se as much 

 as the patent-still differs from the pot. Whether or 

 not the chemical standard of the Islington analyst is 

 also to be maintained is not quite clear, but if so it 

 appears that at least some of the pure malt pot dis- 

 tilleries will have to modify their technique. So far 

 as concerns the actual term whiskey itself, it is not 

 stated definitely that this term, provided it be not 

 prefixed by the epithet Scotch or Irish, should be re- 

 fused to blended whiskies, that is, to whiskies consist- 

 ing in some part of patent-still or grain spirit, provided 

 they consist of " a very considerable proportion " of 

 pot-still whiskey. If these blended whiskies are to 

 conform to the chemical standard laid down by the 

 Islington analyst, practically all the blended whiskey 

 on the market at the present day will have to undergo 

 a considerable alteration. It is to be noted that, as 

 distinct from the report of the Select Committee, no 



