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XVIII. Report on the bejl Method of proportioning the TLxcifi 
upon Spirituous Liquors , By Charles Blagden, M. D • Sec . 
R, S. and F, A , S. 
Read April 22, 1790, 
, \ 
PART I. 
On the Experiments. 
, \ 
I N confequence of an application from Government to Sir 
Toseph Banks, Bart. Prefident of the Royal Society, for 
the heft means of afcertaining the juft proportion of duty to be 
paid by any kind of fpirituous liquor that fhould come before 
the Officers of Excife, I was requefted by that Gentleman 
to affift in planning the proper experiments for this purpofe, 
and to draw up the Report upon them when they ftiould be 
finiffied. 
Though various indications of the ftrength of fpirituous li- 
quors have been devifed, applicable in a grofs manner to general 
ufe, it is well known that no method admits of real accuracy but 
that of the fpecific gravity. The weights of an equal bulk of 
water and pure fpirit differ from one another by at leaft a fixth 
part of the weight of the former; whence it is obvious, that, 
when thofe two fluids are mixed together, the compound muff 
have fome intermediate fpecific gravity, approaching nearer to 
that of water or pure fpirit, as the former or the latter is the 
y 0 L. LXXX. U u 
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