4jSP Blagden’s Supplementary Report 
than the proportion per cent., or the strength above or under 
proof, we judged it most expedient not to make the mixtures 
-on either of the two last mentioned principles, lest an undue 
bias should be given to the judgment, merely from the mode 
of conducting the experiments. No real difficulty can arise 
in forming tables of any kind out of these numbers, which 
answer to an harmonic progression of strength. If the ope- 
ration be tedious, to obtain the specific gravity of any single 
proportion, per cent, or otherwise, of alcohol and water, the 
trouble of reducing the whole to a table would not be great, 
and when once executed, it is done for ever.. 
Secondly, though the chief reasons for making the mixtures 
by weight, rather than by measure, have been already assigned 
in the Report, it is now proper to add something further on 
that subject. Nothing but arithmetic is required for obtain- 
ing the proportions by measure with the utmost exactness ; 
and, as in the former case, though the operation be a little 
laborious singly, the computation of the entire table will be 
sufficiently easy. Such a table was recommended in the Re- 
port, and can be constructed by any person tolerably conversant 
with figures. In the pamphlet mentioned above, a method is 
recommended for proportioning the mixtures by measure, while 
the actual quantity of spirit is determined by weight, at one 
operation. The idea is ingenious, but in the execution it 
seems liable to the following objections. 1. The difficulty of 
obtaining the full penetration of the spirit and water, in a vessel 
of the shape required, where, by the intervention of such a 
narrow neck as is wanted, the free agitation of the fluid must 
be greatly impeded. 2. The difficulty of getting out all the 
air-bubbles, produced by the shaking, &c. in a vessel so shaped; 
