ALCOHOL

Ethyl Alcohol (also called Grain Alcohol, Root Alcohol, Spirits of Wine, ete., according to the source), a product of the fermentation—i.e., the effect of the growth of yeast-cells, either wild or cultivated (see Yeasr)—of liquid containing a moderate amount of any one of several forms of sugar. The sugary element is the result of the conversion of starch, either by natural growth as in grapes, sugar beets, and sugar-cane, or by the action of malt diastase on the starch of grains, potatoes, ete. The aleohol is extracted from the fermented liquid by the proce of Dist int at i on (which see). It is present in large percentage in distilled spirituous liquors (as brandy, whisky, and rum), aud in smaller percentage in fermented products (as wine, cider, and beer). Pure alcohol is transparent and colorle , agreeable in odor, of strong and pungent flavor, and highly volatile and in flamm a)le, burning with a pale blue, smokele flame. If thoroughly refined, the product is identical—-both by chemical analysis and in appearance and flavor—no matter what the source of the original starch or sugar. Wood Alcohol. Similar to ethyl, or ordinary, alcohol in appearance, odor, and flavor—and closely allie? chemically—but neverthele vastly different in its effect on the duman system is Methyl Alcohol, or **wood alcohol”? —a product valu able in varnish manufacture and other industries, but a pots on of deadly virulence. It is obtained chiefly by refining the crude ** wood spirit’? secured as one of the prodnets of the destructive distillation of wood—i.e., the baking of wood within metal tanks. The drinking of even a small quantity of wood alcohol may result in either blindne or death—or the two in succe ion. To inhale its fumes may have the same effect. It is dangerous even as an external application. And the peril extends to all products in which it is in eluded—ordinary alcohol may be denatured by the addition of only a small percentage of wood alcohol but the hguid is thus made dangerous to life—the ordinary aleohol will quickly pa out of the system unle taken in great exce , but the wood alcohol lingers in it and generates. poisons in it. It was formerly thought that the evil of wood alcohol was due to the numerous impurities of the earlier products, but modern highly refined methyl alcohol remains deadly. Authorities are justified in the most drastic measures to prevent the use of wood aleohol in any food or toilet preparation, for prevention at the source is the only effieacious method. Refined wood alcohol may so closely resemble ordinary alcohol that an unwarned layman may unwittingly use it as such, especially if diluted, and even the experienced chemist must test most carefully to distinguish them after they have been flavored or blended. Denatured alcohol, intended for industrial and commercial uses, is ethyl, or ordinary, alcohol rendered theoretically undrinkable by various formulas—especially by the addition of ten gallons of methyl (wood) aleoho! and-one-half gallon of petroleum benzin to each hundred gallons. See the reference to it in the second paragraph preceding.