Tue Discovery oF ALCOHOL. gt 
of alcohol by shewing the successive steps taken in 
acquiring a knowledge of this substance. 
The ancients had already observed that wine furnished 
something which wasinflammable. Weread in ARISTOTLE 
“ ordinary wine possesses a certain exhalation, and that 
is why it emits a flame” we read also in THEOPHRASTUS 
the intimate disciple of ARISTOTLE, ‘‘ Wine poured 
“upon fire as in libations, throws out a flash,” that is to 
say produces a brilliant flame. PLINY employs a still 
more decisive phrase. He teaches us that ‘ Falernian 
“wine produced by the Faustian fields is the only wine 
which can be lighted by contaét with a flame,” in fact 
he describes what occurs to certain wines rich in alcohol. 
These were the common phenomena and accidental 
occurrences observed in the course of sacrifices and 
banquets which served as a starting point for discovery. 
The following is an amusing trick, imagined no doubt 
by some conjurer, and described in a latin M.S. in 
the Royal Library at Munich. ‘ Wine can be made to 
“burn in a pot by the following method:—Put into a pot 
“some red or white wine, the top of the pot being raised 
“and furnished with a cover pierced in the middle— 
“When the wine is boiling and vapour comes out 
“ through the hole, put a light near it—immediately the 
“vapour will catch fire and the flame continue as long 
“as the vapour rises.”’ 
Nevertheless alcohol was not isolated by the ancients, 
To proceed further, a new discovery of a more important 
and general character was required—that of distillation | 
necessary to separate from the wine its inflammable 
principle. This discovery went through many stages. 
Its point of departure was the result of common 
M 2 
