200

ELEMENTS OF MATEIUA MEDICA.

already quoted (sect. 130) declares, that no foreign or colonial spirits(not being compounded colonial spirits) shall be kept or sent out of lessstrength than 17 per cent, under proof. The following table, showingthe sped fie gravities of spirits of various strengths, indicated by Sykes’shydrometer at 00° F., has been drawn up from “ The Ne Plus Ultra(vol. ii.) of Assaying, Weighing, Measuring, and Valuing of SpirituousLiquors. By W. Gutteridge. London , 1828.”

Sykes’s Hydrometer.

Sp. Gr.

70 per centum.

. 0-8095

64 .

. 0-822)

62 .

. 0-8259

60 .

. 0-8298

58 .

. 0-8336

56 .

. 0-8376

55-9.

55-7.

54-1.

. 0-8413

501.

. 0-8482

43-1.

. 0-8597

25 .

. 0-8869

.Ill.

. 0-9060

Sykes's Hydrometer. Sp. Gr.

Proof.0'9200

f 5 per centum.0-9259

10 . 0 9318

11 . 0.9329

M 22-3 . 0-9448

| 23-1 . 0-9456

p 25-1 . 0-9476

50-3 . 0-9673

80-4 . 0-9854

V100 (water).l'OOOO

Another mode of judging of the strength of spirits (as brandy) is thephial test, technically called the head, the preuve d’Hollande of theFrench . It consists in shaking the spirit in a phial, and observing thesize, number, and bursting of the hubbies (or beads as they are termed):the larger and more numerous the beads, as well as the more quicklythey break, the stronger the spirit.

Hitherto chemical analysis has been of little avail in determining thestrength of spirit, at least for commercial purposes. For, on the onehand, we are yet in want of an accurate method of determining the rela-tive quantities of alcohol and water in mixtures of these fluids ; while, onthe other, the combustion of spirit by the black oxide of copper, and theestimation of the quantity of alcohol by the carbonic acid produced, isimpracticable for ordinary purposes.

Purity. —Alcohol, or rectified spirit of wine, should be colourless andtransparent. Its freedom from other substances than alcohol or water isto be determined by the purity of its odour, by the absence of any acidor alkaline reaction, by its easy and complete volatility. The presenceof volatile oil {oil of grain, or Fuselol of the Germans ) may be ascertainedby strong sulphuric acid, which communicates a red colour to this sub-stance (Geiger, Handb. d. Pharm.) Vogel says, that a solution of silveris a delicate test of volatile oil: when mixed with spirit, and exposed tosolar light, it becomes red if any oil be present, but undergoes no changeof colour if the spirit be pure.

Physiological Effects, {a.) On vegetables.— Alcohol acts on plantsas a rapid and fatal poison. Its effects are analogous to those of hydro-cyanic acid.

( b .) On animals. —Leeches immersed in spirit die in two or three mi-nutes. Their bodies are shrivelled or contracted, and before death theymake but few movements; the head and tail of the animal are drawntogether. Fontana found, that when half the body of a leech wasplunged in spirit, this part lost all motion, whilst the other half con-tinued in action. The same experimentalist observed, that spirit killedfrogs when administered by the stomach (in doses of 40 drops), injected