ALCOHOL.— Rum. 113

In making up brandy, 10 per cent, of the aboveflavouring is employed, but more or less may boused to suit the taste of the consumer.

In Switzerland brandy is distilled from the refuseof the grapes after the juice is pressed out. Largecasks are filled with the skins, which are squeezed ascompactly as possible, and covered closely to preventthe access of air; fermentation usually commences inabout three days, and when it has finished, whichrequires a considerable time, the mass is deemedready for the still. When the distillation is to takeplace, the fermented mass is mixed with a due pro-portion of water, to reduce it to a proper consistencefor the action of the fire, which is moderately ap-plied to prevent empyreuma. It is said that a vesselcontaining 32 cubic feet of this material will yield 10gallons of pure brandy.

Rum. —Molasses is the name given to the syrupwhich remains after the crystallization of sugar; itis, in fact, the mother liquor of sugar. This syrup,diluted with a sufficient quantity of water, undergoesthe vinous fermentation, and by distillation yields aspirit called in the colonies ruin, or taffia; the namegiven to it in the Isle of France and Madagascar is(juililivc. This spirit is of excellent quality whenprepared with proper precaution, and particularlyrelished when it is very old. The best rum is madesolely from molasses. An inferior quality is madefrom the debris of the sugar-cane, which has alwaysa sharp disagreeable acid flavour, and frequentlyacquires an empyreuma, on which account it is givento the negroes who work in the sugar-houses, and isconsequently called negro rum.

In the fermented liquor from which the rum isdistilled, acetic acid sometimes exists in large quan-tities, accompanying the ardent spirit without formingether; but in distillation a certain quantity of aceticether is formed, which, from its extreme volatility,rises in the first process of distillation, giving to thevapour a most disagreeable taste and smell; hencethe colonial saying, that the rum becomes too hot ifrectified like European spirits. The cause of thisis easily explained: the rectified spirit only formsa part of the charge of the still, and contains, never-theless, all the acetic ether.

Skilful distillers, who pride themselves on makingthese strong spirits most agreeable to the taste, takegreat care to remove all kinds of vegetable matter orrefuse incapable of producing vinous fermentation,as such substances have a tendency to putrefy, andthe putrescent matter retards the action, and givesa sayour which is communicated to the distilled spirit.

The Chinese , who prepare the famous arrack ofBatavia, which is the best of all rums, take muchcare in rectifying it, mixing with it during distilla-tion a composition called ragie, in which is cinnamonand anise-seed, in such proportion as not to beperceived either by smell or taste, being only suffi-cient to do away with the otherwise nauseous odourof the liquor. The Madagascars throw in leaves oftrefoil. The Asiatics mix with it the bark of a kindof thorny acacia, called pattay. Some persons putinto the still with the grape the loaves of a treeVOL. i.

named attier in the East Indies, and pommier cannelleat St. Domingo —seuona squammosa —which have alight agreeable odour. Others have tried withsuccess the mixture of peach leaves. All these sub-stances impart to strong liquors a pleasant bouquetand taste, and are used to disguise the smell of thespirit, and to give it unetuousness.

The chief seats of the distillation of this spirit arethe East and West Indies, America, and France .It is strange that the Chinese , who produce so muchsugar annually, and who, consequently, might manu-facture large quantities of rum from molasses, havenot hitherto attempted to distil this article.

In the West Indies the liquor of the sugar-caneruns warm from the coppers through a trough to areceiver prepared for that purpose. It is thenskimmed, and the skimmings, with some of theliquor itself, are pumped into a cistern containingfrom 300 to 800 gallons, when the fluid is mixedwith water and molasses in the proportion of 25gallons to 100. When this mixture is sufficientlyblended together in the vats, which in some planta-tions amount to thirty, it is covered over with boardsor mats of plantain leaves, and allowed to fermentfor three or four days, or longer, should there be awant of yeast or other ferment to make it work,which often occurs at the commencement of theseason. When reduced to a due degree of acidity,which is ascertained by the subsidence of the fer-mentation, it is run into a still proportioned to thevat, and wrought off as low-wines, in which state. itis put into the still again. The first run, or discharge,after it is thus returned to the still, is taken off for7uV//i-wines, as they are termed, or strong rum, inthe proportion of 25 to 300 gallons, the strength ofwhich, when tried by a glass-bead instrument, isfrom 18° to 22°. The second run of the still, whichis drawn off in cans, and carried by negroes to an-other vessel, is of a strength from 23° to 26°. Fromthese two runnings of the still the rum exportedfrom the colony of Demcrara is made up. Anydeficiency in the strength of the second distillationis compensated by an addition from the first, whichis always stronger than that exported, and of tooardent a nature to be used by itself, 25° being colonyproof.

In the Windward Islands , one-tliird of the skim-mings is mixed with one-tliird of the lees and one-tliird of water. When these begin to ferment,which they usually do in twenty-four hours, the firstmixture of molasses is made in the proportion ofG gallons for every 100 gallons of the fermentingliquor, and a day or two afterwards an additionalquantity of molasses is added. The fermentation istempered by the addition of cold or warm water.Bunder is the lees or feculencies of former distilla-tions, and serves all the purposes of yeast in the fer-mentation. It is derived from a Spanish word,redunder, the same as redmukms in Latin , and is wellknown among the planters in the West Indies . Theattenuating properties of this ferment are such, thatthe materials with which it is mixed are said to yielda much greater proportion of spirit than could be

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