Alcohol-What Is It?

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 9, 1879

Alcohol—What Is It?

The chemist describes alcohol as a liquid technically known as hydrated oxide of ethyl, containing two atoms of carbon, six of hydrogen, and one of oxygen. It is colorless when pure, and very inflammable, burning with a pale blue flame. It belongs to the same class of chemical compounds with naptha, turpentine, benzine, fusel oil, kerosene, and burning fluid. It is seldom found pure, usually containing from five to fifty per cent of water, besides various impurities, chief among which is fusel oil, another variety of alcohol.

ORIGIN OF ALCOHOL.

The Creator never made alcohol. No plant upon the face of the earth produces it. No bubbling spring affords it. It is one of the products of vegetable decomposition and decay. The process of making it is termed fermentation. Thus, the fermentation of wine and beer, the working of cider, and the "raising" of bread are familiar illustrations of the production of alcohol.

Wine is made by fermenting the juice of grapes or raisins. By means of distillation the alcohol may be separated from the wine, and is then known as brandy.

Beer is made from barley and hops. The barley is first steeped for some hours at a moderate heat, and is then allowed to germinate. After germination has been in progress for a few days, the starch contained in the grain is converted into sugar, which is then fermented with hops and yeast, by which the sugar is converted into alcohol. The dark colored liquor resulting from the process is made up of water, alcohol, and various impurities, together with a poisonous substance called lupulin, derived from the hops.

Whisky is made by the fermentation of any kind of grain, potatoes, turnips, or any other vegetable containing starch.

Rum is made by fermenting cheap molasses.

Cider is the fermented juice of the apple. It contains alcohol as soon as it has become in any degree "hard."

In Tartary, an alcoholic drink called koumiss is made by fermenting milk.

A kind of wine is made in many tropical countries from the fermented juice of the palm tree.

Honey wine, a fermented solution of honey, is used in Abyssinia.

Each country has its peculiar intoxicating beverages, which are all alike in the one particular of containing alcohol.

WHAT IS FERMENTATION?

Fermentation is one of the stages of vegetable decomposition. It is the putrification or death of the vegetable product undergoing the change. Alcohol is produced as a result of decay. The process is excited and maintained by certain microscopic plants or animals, the germs of which are always present in the air ready to develop into active life when favorable conditions of warmth and moisture are supplied. Through the action of these minute bodies, sugar or starch is decomposed into alcohol, carbonic acid, and water.

The following table shows the proportion of alcohol found in various drinks:—

Per cent.	Per cent.
Small beer...1 to 3	Whisky,...........40
Cider,.............5	Brandy,...........50
Wine,...........7 to 20	Proof spirits,......50
Ale,............10 to 20	Rum,..............58

Nearly all liquors contain other poisons, to which some of their deleterious properties are attributable. Thus, beer and ale often contain tobacco, coculus indicus, and green vitriol. Immense quantities of wine are made artificially, by diluting alcohol, and flavoring and coloring it in such a way as to deceive the most expert.

COMPOSITION OF BITTERS.

Besides the large class of alcoholic liquors which are distinctly recognized as such, there is another class of compounds of which alcohol is the chief constituent, but which are commonly sold under the alluring titles of bitters, tonics, restoratives, etc. Some of them even claim to be free from alcohol while containing it in notable quantities. The following table shows the amount of alcohol in some of these filthy mixtures:—

Per cent. Richardson's Bitters,...........................59 Hostetter's Stomach Bitters......................43 Plantation Bitters,.............................30 Puritan Bitters,................................25 Quaker Bitters,.................................23 Temperance Bitters(!)............................17 Vinegar Bitters,................................7½ Pierce's Bitters,...............................6⅛

The foregoing table was prepared from the official report of the State assayer of Rhode Island. The chief point of difference between these various alcoholic compounds is in the different proportions of alcohol which they contain.

It will be observed that one of the "bitters" noticed above, Richardson's, contains more alcohol than the strongest rum. "Temperance Bitters" is more than one-sixth alcohol; and "Vinegar Bitters," the manufacturers of which publish a temperance almanac to advertise, and claim that it is absolutely free from alcohol, contains more alcohol than small beer, hard cider, or light wine. These bitters, with scores of others, have an immense sale, thousands making habitual use of them who profess to be total abstainers. Several of them are kept on the counters of the bar-keeper as regularly as "Holland Gin," "Jamaica Rum," or "Old Rye."