3 1 6 METHOD OF DISTILLING 



imputing the effect?, which need not be controverted, 

 perhaps, to a caufe from which thev by no means pro- 

 ceed ; the fuperiority of their fpirits not at all arifing 

 from the fuperior excellence of thefe Mills and furnaces, 

 nor from their better mode of conducting the diftilla- 

 tion in anv refpecl; but chiefly rather from their greater 

 (kill and care in the right choice, and proper manage- 

 ment, of the materials they employ in fermentation ; 

 and, above all, as I apprehend, from the vaft conve- 

 nience they have in cafks, by which, and from their 

 abilities in point of flock, they are enabled, and do, in 

 fact, in general, keep their fpirits for a certain time, 

 whence they are mellov/ed, and improved furprifingly 

 both in tafte and falubrity. 



With refpecl to the latter improvement, I mention 

 it more particularly here; and the more willingly alfo, 

 as in general it feems to have been but too little attended 

 to, where a due attention to it might be of the greateft 

 ufe. For of all things that have been found grateful 

 to the human palate, there was none ever ufed, I believe, 

 more hurtful to the body, and to the nerves efpecially, 

 than frefh drawn ardent fpirits; and this owing evi- 

 dently to the principle of inflammabilitv, of which, 

 with water, they are moftly made up; being then, in a 

 more loofe and detached Irate, lefs affimilated with the 

 other principles than it afterwards becomes with time. 

 By time, indeed, it is gradually not only more affimi- 

 lated, but at length changes its nature altogether; fo as 

 to become, what was at firfl fo pernicious, a benign, 

 cooling liquor. When the fpirit is ftrong, the change, 

 it is true, goes on more flow and imperceptibly ; yet, 

 as a partial alteration is only wanted to mellow it for 

 ufe, a few years keeping would be fufficient to anfuer 

 the purpofe here; and whether or no it could be poifible 

 to prevent any other from being fold than that which 

 had been kept a certain time, is well worth the confi- 

 deration of the Legiflature. 



That 



