The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1893-09-05
THE QUESTION OF LIQUORS.
4 Correspondent Points Ont
Some Pertinent Facts
Relating Thereto.

MR.. EDITOR How can this
world possibly produce grape,
enough to furnish the quantity o
wine and liquor consumed il
Europe and America? l cannot
recall to mind who the enthusiasts
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 cognae 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
l well knew a merchant, holding a
consular appointment, who sold
cognac (wholesale) at a ridicu-
lousy low figure-I never wished
to doubt the veracity of q consular
dealer, but l 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
insuficiency 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 well 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 a density of 0.79 and
boils at temperature of 7So c.,
butylic alcohol, produced by the
of molasses and beets,
boils at 1902 c., and amylic alcohol
bOils at 1872 C. The list of the diff
ferent kinds of alcohol is very long.
1t 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 a 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
very short time, frogs immersed in
It, and that death was caused by
heart failure during an extraordin-
airy state of insensibility and mus
sular rigidity. These peaceful
frogs, whose lives are passed
N cold water, free from
passion and intoxication, are OBJ
ects which many people would
1ot consider sufficiently proper to
experiment upon. The same
thought struck NJ. Rabuteau, and |
ne therefore performed on himself |
md some of his friends expert |
nents with alcohol extracted from |
potatoes (square-faced gin).
He says: 81 took myself and |
Induced few others to take wine
# good quality, to every half litre
# which l added twenty-five GEN.
igrammes of amylic alcohol. We
Don felt the commencement of a
PAINFUL intoxication, accompanied
" a contraction of the temples
nd a decided weakness in the
over limbs. All this was due to
n insignificant quantity of that
lcohol, which constitutes the basis
f the product of beets which COM
nerce sends to all parts of the
7orld."
Pehea? How about the liquor
old in the grog-shops of Homo
llu? CITIZEN.
Honolulu, August 81, 1898.