on Spirituous Liquors* 
From this table, when the fpecific gravity of any fpirituous 
liquor is afcertained, it will be eafy to find the quantity of rectified 
fpirit, of the above-mentioned ftandard, contained in any given 
quantity of it, either by weight or meafure. As common arith- 
metic is competent to furnifh the rules for this purpofe, it 
would be fuperfluous to give them here. All the objedls of 
inquiry relative to this bufinefs (hould, I think, be reduced to 
Tables ; the firft of which might exhibit the fpecific gravities of 
different mixtures, from one to ioo parts of water, increafing 
by one, at every degree of heat from 40 to 80, being the utmoft 
limits of temperature that can be wanted in common pra&ice. 
This table need only be calculated to three places of figures* 
which will always give the quantity of fpirit true within a 
fiftieth part of the whole, and in the moft ufual degrees of heat 
within a hundredth ; and to this number of figures the areo- 
meter, or hydrometer, (hewing the fpecific gravities, could be 
fuited. A further reafon for continuing only to three places of 
figures is, that, accurate as Mr. Gilpin’s experiments have 
been,- fome irregularities are found in the two laft of the five 
decimals to which his tables are calculated. The greateft of 
thefe irregularities, I think, do not exceed the quantity cor- 
refponding to a difference of one-fifth of a degree of heat, and 
in general they are much lefs. A table might be conftru&ed 
to (hew what the numbers would probably have been, to the 
five places of decimals, if there had been no kind of error in 
the experiments. — -Another table (hould be of the volumes, ex- 
hibiting what proportion the fpirit and water bore to each other 
by meafure or bulk, in the different mixtures ; whence might 
be calculated a very ufeful table of Diminutions, to (hew 
when a given weight, or volume, of a certain fpirit and wa- 
Vol. LXXX. Y y tec 
