¢ 
served as a substitute for those large stores of water 
THE DiscoVeRY OF ALCOHOL. 93 
formerly carried on long voyages, the insufficiency or 
deterioration of which caused so much of the suffer- 
ing and sickness related in the accounts of old voyagers. 
These constantly speak of frequent stoppages for the 
purpose of taking, in fresh water, involving a search 
for water on the shore, a task which now-a-days is not 
necessary. 
But, in order to obtain in a short time from sea water 
large quantities of nearly fresh drinkable water, the dis- 
covery of distillation with its modern perfeétion was 
necessary. I have just told what was the process noted 
by ALEXANDER for extraéting drinking water from sea 
water. Similar processes are described by DIOSCORIDES 
and by PLINy in the first century of our era, for the 
preparation of two liquids of very different chara€ter— 
mercury. and essence of turpentine. These discoveries, 
made by accident in the course of observation, were the 
commencement of the generalization of the ideas of the 
workmen and physicists of those times. Such was the 
beginning of advances which several centuries afterwards 
ended in a knowledge of alcohol. 
Cinnabar or sulphuret of mercury was employed from 
antiquity as a red colouring matter (vermilion). The 
Romans drew their supply from Spain, where still exist 
the principal quicksilver mines of Europe. 
It was early remarked that in heating it in an iron 
vessel, in order to purify it, it gave off vapours of mer- 
cury which were condensed on neighbouring objeéts and 
especially on the lid of the vessel. 
This became the origin of a regular process of extrac- 
tion described by DioscoriDEs and by PLINy. 
