49- 
Rectified  Spirit, 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov,  1873. 
tion  in  medicine.  We  possess  in  the  plain,  rectified  spirit  described 
above  a  liquor  of  almost  absolute  purity,  which  deserves  to  be  regarded 
as  the  type  of  a  simple  arterial  stimulant.  It  can  be  obtained  every- 
where with  facility,  of  standard  and  uniform  strength,  and  at  a  frac- 
tion of  the  price  of  the  fancy  flavored  liquors. 
In  order  to  prevent  any  misunderstanding,  it  may  be  as  well  to  inter- 
polate that  the  writer  does  not  share  the  popular  prejudice  against  fusel 
oil,  as  the  quantity  existing  in  liquor,  not  over  one  part  in  five  hundred, 
and  perhaps  much  less,  is  altogether  too  trifling  to  seriously  modify  the 
action  of  the  alcohol.    From  its  vast  preponderance,  it  is  this  body 
alone  that  is  responsible  for  the  endless  moral  and  physical  miseries 
resulting  from  the  excessive  and  even  from  only  the  habitual  indulg- 
ence in  strong  drink.    Delirium  tremens,  which  generally  first  suggests 
itself,  is  only  one  of  the  sequelae  of  the  daily  use  of  alcohol,  which 
begin  with  disturbance  of  the  digestion,  and  go  on  to  cirrhosis  of  the 
liver,  methomania,  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart,  atheroma  of  the 
arteries,  Bright's  disease,  general  poisoning  of  the  blood,  gradual  alter- 
ation in  the  nutrition  of  the  great  organs,  and  finally  the  breaking  down 
of  the  entire  system.    The  anathemas  which  are,  with  the  flimsiest  of 
sophistry,  hurled  upon  fusel  oil  and  other  flavors,  should  be  directed 
towards  the  alcohol  pure  and  simple  in  every  form  of  distilled  spirit 
that  is  used  as  a  convivial  or  inebriating  beverage,  and  thus  perverted 
from  its  legitimate  function  of  succoring  the  enfeebled  system  when 
it  is  most  sorely  distressed  by  agonizing  pain  or  exhausting  disease.  So 
high  an  authority  as  the  venerable  Dr.  George  B.  Wood  says,  in  his 
Therapeutics,"  that  there  is  little  difference  between  brandy,  rum  or 
whisky  in  relation  to  the  effects  of  the  alcohol ;  that  medicinally  it  is 
of  but  little  importance,  that  the  different  forms  of  ardent  spirits  are 
now  frequently  prepared  artificially,  by  first  obtaining  rectified  spirit 
free  from  fusel  oil,  then  reducing  this  with  water  to  the  requisite 
strength,  and  finally  giving  the  desired  color  and  flavor  by  suitable  ad- 
ditions.   Dr.  Ure  gives  a  formula  for  a  manufactured  brandy,  which 
he  says  "  may  be  reckoned  as  wholesome  as  alcohol,  in  any  shape,  can 
ever  be."    Our  late  lamented  friend.  Prof.  Parrish,  in  a  paper  read  at 
the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  in  1864, 
distinctly  advocates  the  plan  "  of  making  brandy  for  ourselves,  as  there 
is  no  merit  in  having  it  imported."    He  says,  further:  "We  should 
set  about  substituting  the  variable,  uncertain,  adulterated  brandy  of 
commerce  by  a  definite  liquor  of  the  same  alcoholic  strength  as  the 
a  ndard  specimens,  and  with  a  new  and  appropriate  name." 
