lOS 
VALUE IN ABSOLUTE ALCOHOL OF SPIRITS. 
twenty to forty drops, according to circumstances. Many 
of my medical friends have tried this preparation, and they 
highly approve of it. I have taken the hberty of sending 
you a small quantity as a specimen, — Ibid. 
ART. XXVTI— ON THE VALUE IN ABSOLUTE ALCOHOL OF 
SPIRITS OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES. 
By George Fownes, F. R. S. 
Having- been for some months past occupied with ex- 
periments on the fermentation of sugar and molasses, and 
having found it necessary to construct for the purpose a 
new table of the quantity per centum by weight of absolute 
alcohol contained in spirits of different specific gravities, 1 
venture to lay the same before the Royal Society, hoping 
that it may be found generally useful in inquiries of this 
kind, and also for other purposes. 
The table was formed synthetically; absolute alcohol 
and distilled water were weighed out in the required pro- 
portions, mixed in small, well-stopped bottles, and well 
shaken together. After standing three or four days, the 
mixtures were brought to the temperature of 60° Fahr. 
exactly, and their specific gravities determined with great 
care. After the lapse of two or three days more, this last 
named operation was repeated, but in no case was it ob- 
served that any further contraction had occurred. Neither 
was the specific gravity of a mixture, containing nearly 
equal parts alcohol and water which had been so examined, 
changed by being enclosed in a strong, accurately stop- 
