The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-09-02
THE QUESTION OF LIQUORS.
A Correspondent Points Out
Some Pertinent Facts
ReIaffuS Thereto.

Mr.. EDITOR /: How can this
world possibly produce grapes
enough to furnish the quantity of
wine and liquor consumed in
Europe and America? l cannot
recall to mind who the enthusiast
tic statistician was who made the
calculation that the entire surface
of the globe could only produce
the one quarter of the grapes
necessary for the total production
of the wine used.
The districts of Champagne,
Burgundy and Bordeaux might be
submerged by the wines that are
named after them.
When we see wine spread SO
generously in all directions we
naturally ask, Whence come the
fine brands of cognac which fill
the store-houses of our liquor
dealers?
Go into any saloon and ask the
barkeeper for a glass of the finest
cognac, he will hand it to you
without the slightest hesitation
1 well knew a merchant, holding a
consular appointment, who sold
cognac (wholesale) at ridicu-
lousy low figure-I never wished
to doubt the veracity of a consular
dealer, but I must say that, con-
sidering the high duties imposed
upon alcohol, the age and good
qualities of this cognac must have
been very badly estimated.
But science steps in and aids the
insufficiency of nature. Most
liquors are the product of the dis
tillation of grain, beets, ETC.; and
the trade of these products is now
so extensive that it would not be
too rash to say that liquor made
from wine is now a simple illusion.
Chemists are we'll aware that
there are different kinds of alcohol,
differing very essentially one from
the other, and chemists were the
very first to call the attention of
the world to the diversity of the
effects produced by substances
whose composition, density, chemi-
cal character and boiling point are
so essentially different.
Thus, while ethylic, or wine alco-
hol, possesses density of O.79 and
boils at a temperature of 76o c.,
butylic alcohol, produced by the
distillation of molasses and beets,
boils at 1902 c., and amylic alcohol
boils at 1922 C. The list of the diff
ferent kinds of alcohol is very long.
It is useless to enumerate them.
The kinds just mentioned are about
the only ones which enter into al
most daily consumption.
A French scientist, NJ. Rabuteau,
has made series of interesting ex-
periments on the properties and
effects of different kinds of alcohol.
He found that a liquid containing
1900 of butylic alcohol killed, in a
very short time, frogs immersed in
it, and that death was caused by
heart failure during an extraordin-
airy state of insensibility and mus
cular rigidity. These peaceful
frogs, whose lives are passed
in cold water, free from
passion and intoxication, are OBJ
jects which many people would
not consider sufficiently proper to
experiment upon. The same
thought struck NJ. Rabuteau, and
he therefore performed on himself
and some of his friends expert
ments with alcohol extracted from
potatoes (square-faced GIN.
He says: 81 took myself and
induced a few others to take wine
of good quality, to every half litre
of which 1 added twenty-five CEN
tigrammes of amylic alcohol. We
soon felt the commencement Of a
painful intoxication, accompanied
by a contraction of the temples
and a decided weakness in the
lower limbs. All this was due to
an insignificant quantity of that
alcohol, which constitutes the basis
of the product of beets which COM
merce sends to all parts of the
world"
Pehea? How about the liquor
sold in the grog-shops of Homo
lulu? CITIZEN.
Honolulu, August 81, 1898.