The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-11
/. 1NlaN.sr 70 A.iNr rEOrLE.
The Medicinal Use Of Liquor. and Wines.

A highly instructive and interesting
 article is the following Tor which we
 are indebted to our townsman, Mir
 Hugh J. Reynolds. and undoubted au-
 thorty on the subject of which he
 speaks. Mir. Reynolds has had many
 years of experience in this field of ob. servnlion. and few men, if any. in the country. have more thoroughly and in. telligently studied the subject
 Hyppocrntes. the father Of medicine
 was ihe first to use aromatic wines for medicinal purposes, A monk named
 Marcus. who figured In the sixth cen. tury. is said to have collected the steam of boiling wine In quantity of wool. and then expressed from the wool a liquor which he applied as 6 balsam to the wounds Of the soldiers who fell fighting Ut the siege of Rheims under Clovis the First,
 The ancients tinctured wines with the extracts of herbs and perfumsd them with the essences of roses: those medi- cated wines were used as medicines for the ailments for which each partic- ular herb was reputed to be an anti. dote. Wines treated in this way were called liquors. The term liquor Is not intended to be applied to distilled spirits indiscriminately. AS matter of fact. the term liquor was used to de- scribe medicated wines long before the principal of distillation was discovered,
 It is generally conceded that the knowledge of the principle of distilla. tion was brought to Europe by the Arabs In the beginning of the thirteenth century.
 The discovery of distillation was hail ed in Europe as priceless boon to man kind. One enthusiastic Frenchman. writing on the subject, declared it to be an emanation of the divinity. Eau-de- Vie Spirit of wine) was used entirely for medicinal purposes for long time be fore 1t reached the table. It was re- garded as universal panacea
 In the Middle ages, Italy was the home of liquors and cordials. The Italian caterers, who followed in the train of Catherine de Medicis who mar. I the year 1532 taught their new French cousins the art of aromatizing crude spirit of wine by the addition of the ex- tract of herbs, the juices of fruits and | the essences of roses. This was the | beginning of the manufacture of | liquors and cordials in France. These preparations were believed to have the power of renewing youth.
 Many of the liquors which we get from France were originally invented by alchepists and monks in an en- deavor to produce true elixir of life In the year 1636 French physician named Brogan began to extract the es- sential oils from drugs. He used those extracts instead of the extracts of herbs and roses for aromatizing liquors and cordials. This practice, though perfectly harmless, has been made the basis for much ignorant talk about making liquors out of poisonous drugs. It is an utter impossibflity to make even an imitation of spirits out of drugs.
 In this country we have to do mostly with grain spirits. commonly called whiskey. The word whiskey is an English corruption of the Celtic word usquebaugh. which signifies water of life" It is worthy of note that dis titled spirits have been called waters of life in all languages. A dealer in spirits is often asked the question, is rye whiskey preferable to bourbon whiskey for medicinal purposes? We answer, it is. The principal constitu- ent of rye whiskey is rye; the princi- pal constituent of bourbon whiskey is Indian corn. Rye contains a much greater proportion of food matter than Indian corn does. There are sixteen diff ferent properties besides pure spirit gen. erated during the process of fermenta- tion of grain mash. All of these products are more or less poisonous. The most potent of. these obiectiona- ble substances is amylic alcohol, com monly called fusfl oil The process of distilling does not create anything: it is simply a principle of separation aided by heat. Heat plays an impor- tant part in producing the effect which we call quality in whiskey. There can be about one gallon more spirit ob- l tained from bushel of corn than from a bushel of rye. To obtain the extra yield, which is rule in the manufac- ture of bourbon, intense heat must be applied to the still. The extra heat l causes an undue proportion of the volatile oils ethers and acids the un- avoidable results of fermentation, to l vaporize and become a part of the re- sultant distillate. Pure spirit vaporizes at a temperature of 183 degrees F. Water vaporizes at a temperature of 2O5 degrees F. Fusil oil vaporizes at a temperature of 269 degrees F. Rye whiskey distilled at temperature of 1S3 degrees F. will contain only traces of the objectional results of fer mentation and those traces of ex- traneous substances will be en. tirely eliminated. or rather chemically changed by the action of oxygen in about eight years, provided always that the whiskey has been stored in dry, warm atmosphere. Matured rye whis- key is without doubt pure spirit, and is the very quintessence of the food principle in the grain. Hence. oiir reason