Alcohol—What it is, And How Produced.
By Julia Coleman
ALCOHOL is a colorless, intoxicating liquid produced by fermentation. It looks so much like water that it might be readily mistaken for it at first sight. But it is so much unlike it in its real nature, that you can easily make some striking experiments. Water will put out fire. Alcohol will feed a fire. It will also burn by itself. Suppose, then, you have two clear glass vials filled, one with alcohol, one with water. You may fold a slip of paper, and dip one end into the alcohol, and the other into the water. Touch the latter with a lighted match; it will not burn. Touch the light to the other end; it will flame up at once. Let it burn till it reaches the part wet with water, when it will go out. Alcohol is made by art and man's device. You may look for it in vain in nature. You may hunt through all the forests, and examine all the springs, and the caves, and the rivers, and the ponds, the dew of grass, the honey of flowers, the sap of trees, the juices of fruits, and the milk of animals, and you will find no alcohol in any of them. So far as we know, the Creator has never made alcohol. Men make alcohol by letting sweet liquids stand and decay. The sweet juices of apples, berries, grapes, and other fruits are often used for this purpose. In Asia they make an alcoholic drink from rice. In all countries where fruits and grains are grown, men can make some of them into alcoholic drinks, if they wish to do so, but these alcoholic drinks are never found ready made. There is no alcohol in the fruits and grains. The sugar in the fruit juice is changed into alcohol, by fermentation. Or, if grain is used, the starch is first changed to sugar, and then the sugar is changed into alcohol, by fermentation. This fermentation is nothing but the decay of a sweet liquid. You may have seen apples, or pumpkins, or tomatoes decay and go to pieces. Some of the juice runs away, some of the solid matter turns into gas, and goes off into the air, till in some way all is gone. When the sweet fruit juices are pressed out and put into a dish, they too decay and go to pieces, new substances are formed, and one of these new substances is alcohol. This decay is a filthy process. When it takes place in our stewed fruits we do not eat them, but quickly send them away from the table. All alcoholic drinks are decayed drinks, for they are made by the decay of sweet liquids, or distilling out the alcohol which has been produced by decay.—Julia Coleman.