The times., 1897-09-20
NOTES ON DISTILLED DRINKS.

Inc virtues Originally dSCflUen W
vitae We're medicinal. Such action still
must be attributed TO whisky and brandy.
Only custom and social habits have con-
Ytrted both into daily or occasional drams
for quite different effects. The medicinal,
that is. tonic stimulatiYe action OF botn
liquors depends far more on their inherent
ethers than of their spirItuous elements.
A full etberOps expression in a distillatc
is reached only after years of oxidation
THIS takes place in both dis tillates and
generous wines Of the genus Xericun
cherry where not deuaturalized.
OF the oxygen OF atmospheric air ozone
is the factor for oxigenation of the etheroUs
parts Of the distillate or of wines. ok
genation never takes place in glass vessels
carefully or even loosely cCrked. That
process requires wooden receptacles, and
the pores of the wood are the spaces
where evapura ton and consequent OK
ida ation is solely possible. If you have
a barrel filled originally with As gallons
Of whisky or brandy, and keep it in
mOdera tely warm storage intact for three
years YOU wiz find about 10 1-2 gallons
less, viz, 81 I2 gallons. and five years
later, that is, after eight years, Cnly
about 2 s gallons of the As gallons left.
Has your liquor been properly distilled
from sound grain tor winel free from bad
acids, the ethercus expression after years
Of oxidation OF it's essential oils viii be
fragrant, and therefore not only whole
some, but its medicinal action win be the
most favora bic.
The fragrant odor, frank and unin-
paired by any expression Of doubt as To
real arolu a, viii be lasting. Liquor that is
artif ically Favored viii lose its odor
rapidly. No careful Consumer can be de
oeived as TO age and naturalness OF a good
and healthful liquor if he smells the glass
en4ptied. Two DAYS later that same
emptied glass still holds the fragrance Of
good ethers OF six TO eight-years-oid
Iiqour. Poor, improperly distilled liquO-
when young, smells disagreeabie, often
nauseous. Such liquor, aged by imprud
ent distill2rs OF careless dealers, becomes
each year more repugnantand hurtful. cry
| likely one only out OF every hundred con
sumers noses his dram before conveying
it to his lips, while ninety nine gulp 1T
| down without smelling it.
The headache or bowel disorder caused
| by the fusel in bad liquor should teach
the consumer that the olfactory organ has
! Good, raw material correct distiilation:
| these two are the requisites for the pro-
duction of a wholesome liquor. Distilling
| correctly means careful separa ation of
i phlegms, the different ill-smelling acids
and bad essential oils of grains or wine,
which are soluble at lower heat-degrees
than those required to disengage the last
fragrant essential oils that condition ana
the stil. Equal scrupulosity is necessary,
when at the termination of distilling the
pure liquor is exhausted and the impure
| faints have to be shut off from the pure
| product.
There is no doubt that In general our
| American liquors are more perfectly dis.
| titled than those of other countries. The
fad for Scotch and Canadian whiskies can
scarcely be based on Judgment by care
f,l comparison with our own best aged
liquors Oh the part of consumers and ply
sicians who are observant as to the saui-
tary effects. Personally / judge only by
| the odor (for I never drank DISTILLED
liquors., and as / have directed distil-
leTies by the sense of smell solely, know
this to be the safest way.
Speaking from experience by close oh
servation and from the expressions OF
patients and physicians, for what my
opinion may he worth, it is that no better
whisky for medicinal use is recommended BILE
than franlly-frag grant, clean-taSting rye
of frorc six to twenty years development.
/ can point out one wholesale house in the
city that keeps a large stock of such
After twenty years of storage OF the
forty-eight gallons, thirty-siX VIII have
evaporated OF the welve gallons re
naming of the most concentrated etherous
whisky, on e teaspoonful for the milk puncf
ordered in severe crises viii bring new
brink of death. This will prove the alb
surdity of the assertion of many dealer
who never search for the ethers in Z
whisky, that five years keeping com
pletes it's development.
There appear now in the market whis
kies bottled by distillers in bond witt
Government stamp attesting identity.
ment cannot and does not vouch for
There may be many good brand among
tEen. But ~ is preferable to test at al
| honest wholesale wine merchants from
the original barrel what you wish to selec
for bottlng and have his personal guar
antee for age, quality. purity, and health
| fuluesS, to accepting it from second-han
scaled and stamped bottles of liquor tha
may, or may not contain, if only an atom
of poisonous fusel.
F. POHNDORFF.