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104 
ALBURNUM. 
plant furnishes the castor oil of medicine; and 
the albumen of the plant Theobroma furnishes the | 
well-known chocolate and cocoa of the grocery. 
ALBURNUM,—popularly Sarwoop. The new- 
est formation of woody matter in trees, or the 
soft igneous layer between the duramen and the 
liber,—between the portions popularly called the 
timber or heart-wood, and the bark. It is formed 
by the deposition of the cambium or elaborated 
sap between the alburnum of the former year and 
the bark ; it consists wholly of vegetable tissue, 
and serves, while in the state of alburnum, as 
the chief channel of the sap’s ascent from the 
root to the leaves; it continues in the state of 
alburnum only till a new layer of deposition be 
made by the cambium ; and it then becomes in- 
creasingly harder and denser, and of a duller and 
deeper shade of colour, till, in the course of a 
| year, it totally ceases to be sapwood, and pos- 
sesses the character of the outer layer of duramen 
or heartwood of the tree. The vegetable tissues, 
or soft vascular organs which constitute it, are 
| wholly occupied, during its alburnous period, 
with the circulating sap, but serve, when it is 
becoming heartwood, for the reception of hard, 
inert, and immoveable secretions. The alburnum, 
in its true state of sapwood, is, in consequence, 
soft and very perishable; but when converted 
into duramen or heartwood, is hard and com- 
paratively durable. The vascular organs, so 
long as occupied with circulating sap, and con- 
stituting alburnum, are technically said to be 
living ; but when deprived of circulating sap, and 
occupied with inert secretions, and constituting 
with these secretions duramen or heartwood, 
they are technically said to be dead. Some tim- 
bers, such as those which are known in commerce 
as the timbers of white-wooded trees, contain 
exceedingly little secretitious matter, and are 
therefore almost wholly alburnous, and extremely 
soft and perishable. But most timbers have the 
alburnum and the duramen very distinct from 
each other; and the harder sorts display them 
in visibly different colours, and with tangibly 
different hardness. Logwood and ebony have 
their alburnum of a very light grey colour, and 
their duramen black or deep red; the eagle-tree, 
Aquilaria mallaccensis, has its alburnum black 
and its duramen of a lighter colour; and most 
other trees have their alburnum white, and their 
duramen of various shadings from the creamy- 
white of some of the pines to the deep tints of 
mahogany and rosewood. 
ALCALI. See Akan. 
ALCHEMILLA. See Lapius’ Manrue. 
ALCOHOL,—popularly Spirits of Wine. The 
stimulating and intoxicating substance of wine, 
ale, gin, whisky, rum, brandy, and similar fer- 
mented and distilled liquors; in other words, the 
pure spirit obtainable by distillation from all 
liquids that have undergone vinous fermenta- 
tion. It has so very powerful an affinity for 
water, that it usually exists in a state of great 
dilution, and cannot be obtained in a state of 
tolerable rectification except by repeated distil- 
lations and other chemical processes. The ar- 
dent spirits or liquors are mixtures of 54 per 
cent., or less, of alcohol with water and volatile 
oil. But by mere distillation alcohol cannot be 
freed from water beyond a certain point of from 
10 to 15 per cent. Hence it is necessary to dis- 
tinguish between absolute alcohol and the alco- 
hol of commerce. When of the strongest quality, 
or as free from water as it can be obtained, 
it has a specific gravity of 0°7947 at 59°, or 0°792 
at 64°, and 0°789 at its boiling point; but as sold 
by distillers, or even as usually found in the 
laboratory of chemists, it has seldom a less speci- 
fic gravity than ‘837. The most common forms 
of alcoholic liquor are those of gin, whisky, rum, 
and brandy,—the first and second obtained by 
distillation from malted barley or other grain, 
the third from the juice of the sugar-cane, and 
the fourth from the juice of the grape; and all 
usually contain from 40 to 60 per cent. of water, 
while each derives its peculiar flavour from ex- 
tractive or oily matters in the vegetable sub- 
stances subjected to distillation. According to 
experimental analyses conducted by Professor 
Brande on various wines—some of which, how- 
ever, as prepared for the London market, would 
be highly ‘brandied’—every 100 parts of Port wine 
contains from 21°40 to 25°83 of alcohol; of Ma- 
deira wine, from 19°34 to 24:42; of Sherry, from 
18:25 to 19°83, but Dr. Prout’s analysis of very 
old Sherry, gave 23°80; Claret, according to 
Brande, 12°91; Calcavella or Carcavellos, 18°10 ; 
Lisbon, 18°94; Malaga, 17:26; Bucellas wine, | 
18°49; Red Madeira, 18°40; Malmsey Madeira, 
16°40; Marsala wine, from 17:26 to 25°87; Red 
champaign, 11°30; White champaign, 12°80 ; | 
Burgundy, from 11:95 to 14:57 ; White hermit- 
age, 17°43; Red hermitage, 12°32; Hock, from 
8'88 to 14°37; Vin de grave, 12:80; Frontignac, 
12°79; Cote rotie, 12°32 ; Roussillon wine, 17:26 ; 
Cape Madeira, 1811; Cape Muschat, 18:25 ; 
Constantia, according to Prout, 14°50; Tent or 
Tinto, according to Brande, 13°30; Sheraz, 15°52, 
but White Sheraz, according to Prout, yielded | 
19:80 ; Syracuse, according to Brande, 15:28, 
but Prout states Altna or Syracuse at 30, so that 
it would appear these analysts used different 
wines in some instances under the same name ; 
Nice, according to Brande, 14°63; Tokay, 9°88 ; 
Raisin wine, 25°77 ; Grape wine, 18°11; Currant | 
wine, 20°55 ; Gooseberry wine, 11°84; Elder 
wine, 9°87; Cyder, 9°87; Perry, 9°87; Brown 
stout, 6:80; Buxton ale, 8:88; Edinburgh ale, 
6:20; Brandy, 55°39; Rum, 53°68; Hollands, 
51:60; Scotch whisky, 54°32 ; and Irish whisky, 
53'90. 
Alcohol, according to the analysis of MM. 
Saussure, Duflos, and Dumas, consists of 12°896 
per cent. of hydrogen, 52°65 of carbon, and 34'454 
of oxygen ; or, according to analysis tested by the 
atomic theory, it consists of three atoms of hy- 
ALCOHOL. | . 
