ON THE RECTIFICATION OF ALCOHOL. 
293 
grammes of powdered quick-lime, for forty-eight hours; the 
alcohol marked then, previous to distillation, 95.9°. I then 
added to the mixture 500 grammes of quick-lime; twenty-four 
hours after, the whole was reduced to a thick paste. I separat- 
ed a little of the alcohol by the filter; it marked 99.2°. I now 
repeated the experiments, only placing the whole of the lime 
at once in the alcohol. This was again raised to 99.2°. It 
results from these two experiments that the lime, when em- 
ployed in sufficient quantities, can, in the cold, deprive the 
alcohol of nearly the whole of its water. If this paste of lime 
be placed in an alembic, upon a salt water bath, and distilled, then 
nearly the whole of the alcohol which passes over is absolute 
alcohol. 
Five pounds of alcohol of 94.5° was left for three days, at 
the temperature of 15° c, with 2500 grammes of lime; the 
alcohol was filtered and marked 95.5. The mixture was then 
placed in a stove, at the temperature of 35 to 40°, at the end of 
twenty-four hours, the alcohol marked 99.5°. It was left for 
twenty-four hours more in the stove, and the degree of the 
alcohol did not alter; then the mixture was slowly distilled on 
a salt water bath. The first portion of the alcohol which 
passed over, marked 99-5°. All which followed was absolute 
alcohol. Nevertheless, towards the termination of the opera- 
tion, when the distillation appeared almost finished, the water 
being kept in the state of ebullition in the cucurbit, there pass- 
ed a small portion of alcohol of which the degree was con- 
stantly lowering. The last liquor obtained marked only 97°. 
This result I have constantly noticed in rectifying alcohol by 
lime; the first portions which pass over contain traces of 
water; but this is soon replaced by absolute alcohol, which in its 
turn, towards the end of the operation, is succeeded by aqueous 
alcohol; from which it is evident that part of the hydrate of 
lime is decomposed. 
In all the distillations of alcohol with lime, I experienced a 
loss of alcohol which was so great, when I wished to operate 
on considerable masses, that I soon deserted this mode. I think 
that this loss is owing to the heat being propagated with iffi- 
