Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-07-11
WHO DISCOVERED ALCOHOL
"A Mystery OF Science Which n
french savant Has Tried to Clear
Hin.

hhtS hhbSh W NlSnT
Up.
Alcoholic beverages are as old as the
world: alcohol itself Is modern. Today
II Is the best beloved and worst abused
of all chemical compounds. but the an
clients. who knew It's uses as we'll as we
do, had no idea OF it's existence. 1t has
been reserved for a French chemist, M.
Berthelot, TO make an exhaustive his
torical inquiry into it's discovery, but #
cannot be said that he has completely
solved the mystery.
The very name OF alcohol. so far as Il
is applied to the product OF distillation
of wine. IL modern. Up to the end OF
the eighteenth century the word, which
Is OF Arabic origin, signified any princi-
pie obtained by extreme pulverization or
by s~ubllmation. For example, IL was
applied not only to our alcohol, but also
to the powder of sulphate of anthony,
used for b~lackening the eyebrows, and
TO divers other substances.
In the thirteenth. and even the four
tenth centuries. no author applied the
ka2 ass1T fn1j Delsxr7 <nf6w ff azyE:s.xsa =
teenth century, for at this time the word
spirit was applied only TO volatile
agents capable Of acting on metals. AS
to the name "~eau-de-vie," this was APP
piled during the thirteenth and four
teenth centuries to the elixir of life
sought for by the alchemists. In reality
it was under the name Of ardent Il. e..
1nfammable) water" that alcohol made
its first appearance.
According to B~crthelot, distilling ap-
paratus was invented by the Egyptians
in the early centuries of the Christian
era. Their inventions were used by the
Greek alchemists n by the Arabian
mia ~ aniGtG hJff there iS M aNi1Nnrp
that any of these ever distilled alcohol.
though passages In the works OF certain
Arabic authors have been wrongly In
,terpreted to this effect.
Abdul Caslm. for instance, a Moorish
physician Of Cordova, who lived about
100, had a distillery and distilled In IL,
for medicinal purposes, rose water, vim
egar and wine, but he made no distlnc-
ton between the different products OF
distillation, though he recognized that
they were not simply water, as Aristotle
thought. The most ancient manuscript
that contains a precise indication I'm this
direction is one written in the twelfth
century, which notes that by mixing a
pure, strong wine with three parts OF
salts, and heating 1t. an infiammable
water may be obtained that burns away
without consuming the matrix. More
precise directions still are given In the
Book OF Fires" by Marcus Graecus,
written ABOUT l5VO. IN tniS III Is recon-
mended that sulphur be added to the
wine to increase it's infiammable prop
critics.
The first author whose name is posi-
lively known to speak of alcohol Is Ar
nau de Villeneuve. who lived after the
composition OF both receipts referred to
above. He is usually considered the dis
coverer-a dignity to which he never
himself laid claim. He speaks Of ii only
as a well known substance, n he ex-
ats its virtues as follows: Certain
moderns say that 1t Is the permanent
water Chat Is. the liquid that is incapa-
BILE Of solidiication); Others call il water
Of gold 1t prolongs life, and hence Is
called 'eau-de-vie.' 1t should be kept In
vases OF god. When TO II have been
communicated the virtues Of rosemary
and sage. 1t exercises a favorable infiu-
nee on the nerves."
From all of which we may conclude
that six centuries ago the French chem
lists knew alcohol only as a servant and
no as a master.