84 FOOD ACCESSORIES 



proportion of water. Commercial alcohol contains 95% of 

 alcohol and 5% of water. Absolute alcohol is about 

 99.8% pure alcohol. 



In speaking of alcohol in the preceding pages we have 

 reference to what is known as grain alcohol, cologne spirits, 

 or ethyl alcohol. There are many other forms of alcohol, 

 notably among them, methyl alcohol or wood alcohol. 

 This latter, however, has only a few of the properties of 

 ethyl alcohol and is a poison even in small quantities. 



In summary, then, we may state that alcoholic bever- 

 ages may be classified as wines, malted liquors, or distilled 

 liquors. The range of alcohol in these forms varies. Wines 

 contain from 5 to 25%, malted liquors from 2 to 5%, dis- 

 tilled hquors from 40 to 50%. All contain various other 

 ingredients which are produced from the fruits and grains 

 in manufacture and are called on this account extractives. 



In addition to these recognized alcohoUc beverages there 

 is a fourth class of compounds which are sold under the 

 name of patent medicines. While it is true that many 

 drugs are insoluble unless alcohol is used, these patent 

 medicines often contain amounts of alcohol which are 

 out of aU proportion to their use as solvents. In fact, the 

 exhilarating effects of many of these so-called cures are 

 due solely to the large proportion of free alcohol present, 

 and the taker is fooled into thinking that he is being cured, 

 when his " cure " is actually alcoholic exhilaration. He 

 would scorn to take a similar amount of alcohol in a wine. 

 Investigation exposed so many of these so-called medicines 

 that the government came to recognize their danger to 

 the public health, and in the Pure Food Law is a provision 

 requiring all medicines to bear a placard, on which must 

 be stated the exact amount of alcohol contained. People 



