ANNIVEKSAKY ADDRESS. 21 



strengthen spirit by absorbing the water that always accompanies 

 alcohol, would give meaning to the term spiritus alcoholisatus; 

 thus alcoholised spirit soon became corrupted to simple alcohol, 

 which is a far more modern term than either spiritus or aqua vitse. 

 Kopp, in his Geschichte der Chemie, supports this view as to the 

 origin of the word alcohol. 



Alcohol is also denned as an essence — a quintessence, 1 or spirit 

 obtained by distillation or rectification, it is the shorter term for 

 'alcohol of wine,' this being the most familiar of spirits ; the 

 Teutonic 'Branntwein' from 'brennen,' to burn or to fire, giving 

 rise to our word 'brandy,' while the Keltic, through the Erse or 

 Irish rendering of eau de vie or aqua vitse, usque-baugh, gives us, 

 corrupted, ' whisky.' The modern chemical application of the word 

 however, is given to a systematic series of compounds, the first 

 term of which is methyl alcohol, the second, we hear a great deal 

 of — one notorious name I will here modify to that of the 'soluble 

 fiend,' but whether diluted into a drink, or employed as a vehicle 

 for varnishing and polishing furniture, it is also a valuable and 

 highly concentrated fuel, that may some day, when the coal 

 measures are exhausted, become the fuel of the future. 



We have traced through some periods of the world's history the 

 four words — alkemie, alkali, alkaloid, and alkohol — and you will 

 have perhaps perceived that I do not now intend dealing with the 

 famous stimulant, the aqua vitce of the ancients, the ethylic alcohol 

 of the moderns, but my purpose is to show how the phenomenon 

 of fermentation is now being made use of, through a totally different 

 set of fermentation-products, in attacking one of the most import, 

 ant sanitary problems of the age. From what has already been 

 said, the waste and effete products derived from human beings, 

 when congregated in cities and towns, mixed with a miscellaneous 

 variety of waste liquids from manufactories and human dwellings? 

 make up a liquid of great complexity — a liquid well-known and 

 well-hated as sewage. The question as to its disposal, quickly 



1 Quintessence means the fifth rectification beyond which it was thought 

 useless or impossible to go. 



