The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-01-01
For The Cecil Wing
ALCOHOL.

and also to be applied to "The Evil Spirit -
by some writers who interpret al Ghoul -
to mean "The Devil. That the name OF
"The Evil Spirit should have been ap-
piled to it seems probable, when its infu-
ence over those partaking of the beverage
in which it was contained, was once known.
1t is now known to be the intoxicating prin-
cipal of all distilled, fermented or malt
liquors. But what is it and whence does
it come? 1t cannot be found in any hcing
plant or vegetable. 1t is only a product of
decay that comes in at natures funeral.
To give positive proof of this, for the bene-
fit of those who still try to maintain that
these drinks in which alcohol is the main
element, are "good creatures of God to be
received with thanksgiving" we would call
your attention to the manner of their pro-
duction as demonstrated by the science of
chemistry.
intoxicating beverages are derived, we find
them to be Of vegetable origin, and whole
some vegetables at that. Whence then the
poison? for intoxicating means poisoning.
Many suppose there is no:hirg in these
liquors not obtained in the vegetables th"!r
selves. Hence the custom or idea prevalent
among even those who might be better in
formed of speaking of wine as the fruit of
the grape, and ignorantly asserting that it
contains all the nutrtive properties of the
fruit. Some innocently suppose whisky to
be sort of oil contained in grain and OBJ
tanned by distilation.
In this calculation there is only one thing
that is left out of the count, and this is the
most important one in the process of the
formation of alcohol from the living vege-
table substance. This process is none other,
in plain English, than decay, call it by what
name you will, either brewing or ferment-
ing; and distillation is only means of sepa-
rating the alcoholic and more volatile pro-
ducts Of this decay from the glutinous and
heavier re1duum.
We will now briefly explain this pro
cess, using chemical terms to designate the
changes, and will try to make them SO plain
that all can understand.
All vegetable substances are mainly COM
posed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen,
with little nitrogen, certain proportions
Of potash, silica, magnesia,. phosphorus,
lime, iron and other mineral elements, but
the first three make up nine-tenths of the
bulk, and often as much as ninety nine hun
dredths of the weight and bulk both, OF
many vegetables. A large part of these
elements of oxygen and hydrogen are in
the form of water and are removed by dry
ing. The carbon and whatever trace of
heterogeneous water may be present is re-
moved by fire. What is then left in the
ashes contains all the other elements that
are of mineral or earthly origin.
These elements Of oxygen, hydrogen and
carbon combined in different proportions,
are found in the living vegetation, in the
forms of starch, sugar, gum, citric, oxalic
and score of other acids that give the
taste to fruits; but never in the form of
alcohol.
But when the juice is extracted from the
fruit, or the grain bruised and mixed with
water and exposed to heat for "a short length
of time, it begins to decompese just the
same as flesh when the life is removed.
What was starch or sugar soon becomes
carbonic acid gas and alcohol. These two
contain the same elements that the starch
or sugar did, but combined in different pro-
portions. The carbonic acid escapes as gas
in the bubbles that you see rising to the
surface of the liquid and the alcohol re
mains with the water and coloring matter
behind. The result is the same in the pro-
cess of brewing beer or making the mush
from which whisky is distilled. Alcohol is
the basis of them all, and the difference in
appearance is owing to the other ingredi-
ents that give color and taste to it. Art
has now so completely counterfeited these
latter ingredients, that with rectified alec
hol as base, by the simple addition of these
drugs, all the sorts Of liquor that are pro-
duced, can be manufactured at small ex-
pense in few days.
The process of decay that must take place
before alcohol is produced, destroys every
nutritious principle. In the case of beer
the sweet part of the grain is separated
and the process of decay or fermentation
is stopped, by excluding the air in tight
bottles or kegs, until it is used in this half
rotten state.
Expose this beer to the air in warm
place and it soon becomes sour. The alco-
hol changes to vinegar and loses all of its
Intoxicating qualities. The juice of fruit
when expressed and exposed to the air, at
once changes color or begins to decompose,
by absorbing oxygen from the air; the sugar
that they contain soon becomes alcohol,
sooner in a warm and slower in a cooler
temperature.
Cider when exposed to the air in warm
weather begins to undergo the first or alco
holic fermentation at once, and attains its
greatest alcoholic strength in short time,
often in one to two weeks, after which by
the continued process of decay, the acetic
or vinegar fermentation begins, and the
alcohol slowly changes to vinegar. Hence
those who praise cider as drink, on ac
count of it's stimulating qualities, must
stop the fermentation by tight bottling and
keeping it cool before it changes to vine
gar. And porter, ale, beer, wine, etc, al
have to be subjected to the same sort Of
treatment. Hence also cider made late il
the season, in cold weather, changes slowly
and is always in request by cider topers.
The natural acids of the fruit-citric
malic, oxalic or others, all give mutua
sourness to the drink which is mistaken by
the ignorant for the acetic acid that is til.
result of fermentation. Sugar becomes alco
hol by the addition of heat, in the process
of decomposition merely; and the alcoho
becomes acetic acid, by the addition of foul
measures Of oxygen that it absorbs from
the air. In the first process carbonic acit
gas is generated, in the last it is not, or il
words when liquid containing starch O
| smear in any PROMOTION is exposed to tn,