SPIRITS. 



profit to them if they could perfeaiy fucceed in it ; but as 

 it woul require time and flow procefTes to bring it about, 

 there is but little hope of its ever being brought to bear 

 amonjr them, while they are in their prefent fcheme of doing 

 every thing with difpatch and hurry. 



Dr. Shaw has faid a vaft deal in the praife of a taftelefs 

 fpirit, which is producible from a vegetable fubftafice, only 

 overlooked, as he tells us, becaufe it is too common, with 

 which all the foreign fpirits might be imitated to the ut- 

 molt perfeftion by means of their effential oils, all thin fine 

 wines raifed to any due degree of ftrength, without giving 

 them the brandy flavour, and many other things of great 

 ufe performed ; but he has not told us what the vegetable 

 fubllance is from which we are to obtain this. Shaw's 

 Effay on Diftillery. 



Spiuit, Ardent, called z\io fplr'it of ivine, becaufe it can 

 only be obtained from fubftances which have undergone the 

 vinous fermentation, is a very light, very volatile, very fluid 

 liquor, perfeftly white and limpid, and of a ftrong, pene- 

 trating, agreeable tafte and fmell. See Alcohol. 



Spiritsdrawn from wine, fuch as French brandy, may, 

 in a great meafure, be purified or reftified by fimple dillil- 

 lation, in tall veflels with a gentle heat, the pure fpirituous 

 parts rifing before the phlegm : if French brandy be thus 

 diftilled to one-half, thediitilled fpirit proves tolerably pure. 

 See Brandy. 



But wine or brandy being in this country too dear an 

 article for diitillation, this purification is chiefly praftifed 

 on the cheaper fpirits of mololfes and malt-liquors. To 

 feparate the offenfive oil with which thefe abound, after 

 they have been freed by dillillation from the grcateft part 

 of their phlegm, they are mixed with an equal quantity of 

 fpring-water, and the fpirit drawn off again bv a gentle 

 heat : a confiderable portion of the oil is thus left behind in 

 the water, which now proves turbid and milky, and very 

 naufeous both in fmell and taile. The firtt produce is the 

 ftrongelt and pureft, and when it has come over to the 

 amount of ith of the whole contents of the Hill, forms the 

 reftified fpirit. By repeating this ablution with frefh quan- 

 tities of water, the fouled and moft offenfive fpirits may be 

 purified from all ill flavour. To complete the purification, 

 or free them from their remaining phlegm or oil, or the 

 watery vapour which is raifed even by the gentleft heat in 

 which they can be diltilled, a little fixed alkaline fait, 

 thoroughly dried and powdered, or lime, or fome other 

 article of a like kind, is added ; which, imbibing the phlegm, 

 is thereby diflolved into a ponderous liquid, that does not 

 mingle with the fpirit, but fettles at the bottom. If the 

 fpirit is very phlegmatic, four pints will require a pound 

 of the alkah ; if the diftillation has been performed with 

 due care, half this quantity, or lefs, will be fufficient : in 

 either cafe, if all the fait diflolves, the fpirit is to be di- 

 gefted with a little more, till at leaft a part remains undif- 

 folved. The fpirit now poured off is to be again diftilled, 

 in order to feparate from it a portion of the fait which has 

 united with it, and which, though extremely minute, may 

 in fome refpefts change its qualities. As fome particles of 

 the alkali are apt to be carried up with it, even in the 

 diftillation, fo as to communicate an ill flavour, or an 

 urinous tafte, it is advifeable previoufly to add a fmall por- 

 tion of calcined vitriol, or burnt alum and charcoal, which 

 will completely abforb the alkali, without giving any new 

 impregnation to the fpirit. Malt-fpirits, when properly rec- 

 tified, yield as pure and as ftrong redlified fpirit as brandy. 

 Lewis's Mat. Med. See Distillation, and Spirits, in 

 the Materia Mcdka, infra. 



When only a fmall quantity of fpirit of wine is to he 

 reftified, the ufual operation for this purpofe, by means 

 of diftillations of the fpirit called aqua vitac, obtained from 

 the firft diftillations of liquors that have undergone the 

 fpirituous fermentation, and which are overcharged with a 

 large quantity of phlegm and light oil, is difficult. Thefe 

 diftillations being flowly conducted with a gentle fire and 

 water-bath, yield but a fmall quantity of that liquor, 

 which, being the moft volatile, rifes firft with the leaft heat, 

 and which is the true or reflified fpirit of wine. Several 

 chemilts, therefore, in order to obtain a larger quantity 

 of the firft fpirit, propofe to mix with the fpirit of wine 

 fome intermediate fubftances, to abforb and retain its phlegm 

 and oil, fuch as dried and calcined falls, very dry chalk, &c. 

 Kunckel propofes to feparate more effeftually the oil, by 

 adding to the fpirit a large quantity of water, and by 

 diftilling this diluted fpirit with a very gentle heat. But 

 the trouble and inconvenience of depriving the fpirit of 

 wine of the water with which it was diluted in this procefs, 

 may be avoided, by rectifying at once a large quantity of 

 aqua vitx. Nothing more is required to obtain at once 

 a confiderable quantity of pure fpirit of wine, than to fet 

 afide the twelve or fifteen pints firft drawn over from a 

 large quantity, e. g. from three hundred pints of aqua vitae, 

 diftilled with a very gentle fire in a large alembic. As the 

 moft fpirituous, leait aqueous, and leaft oily part of it 

 always rifes firft, thefe twelve or fifteen pints are perfeftly 

 reftified fpirit of wine, efpecially when the heat has been 

 well conducted. 



By thus keeping apart portions of the fpirit obtained, at 

 different times, we may have fpirit of wine of the feveral 

 degrees of ilrength and purity. The weaker fpirit may, by 

 another diftillation, be a.^ain reftified ; and the fpirit of mo- 

 derate ftrength may be preferved for many ufes. The me- 

 thod is followed by M. Beaume in the reftification of fpirit 

 of wine, and is certainly the moft convenient and the beft. 



A perfeftly reftified fpirit of wine, or fuch as is entirely 

 freed from water, is undoubtedly a thing of frequent and 

 neceflary ufe in the nice operations of chemiftry. 



It had ufed to be prepared, cither by often diftilling the 

 fpirit, and every time drawing over only half of it, and re- 

 peating this till the half remaining in the cucurbit appeared 

 as ftrong as that drawn over ; or elfe by raifing it to a 

 great height from the body of the veffel, and this in a very 

 gentle heat, fo that fpirit alone could rile, the water not . 

 being capable of being driven fo far by that degree of I 

 heat. ' 



But the accurate Boerhaave always found upon trial, that 

 there was ftill remaining fome water in thefe fpirits, whether 

 prepared by the firft or fecond proceis, or both. Boer- 

 haave's Chem. part ii. p. 124. 



The method he therefore invented is this : fill a ftill half 

 full of the fpirit prepared for alcohol in one or other of 

 thefe ways, and add to it half a pound of pure decrepitated, 

 and perfeftly dried fea-falt ; put this in hot, then place oa 

 the head, and carefully lute the junftures ; leave this for 

 twelve hours in a heat fo fmall, as not to make the alcohol 

 boil, then dillil off the fpirit ; keep the firft two ounces 

 apart, becaufe fome aqueous vapour may have happened to 

 lodge in the head or worm of the ftill,' which this certainly 

 wafhesoff; after this receive two-thirds of the following 

 alcohol into a pure dry glafs veflel, and keep it perfeftly 

 flopped ; then draw off the remainder, and keep that by 

 itfelf : there will remain a moift fait in the ftill, which has 

 attrafted the aqueous matter of the alcohol, and held it fo 

 down, that it could not rife by the heat of boiling water, 



which 



