SPIRITS, VINOUS

This subject has been fully discu ed in the articles Alcohol , Distillation , and Fermentation . I have shown that the progre ive increase of alcohol in the wash tends progre ively to prevent the conversion of the wort into spirit, or checks the fermenting proce , though a great deal of fermentable matter remains unchanged. Mr. Sheridan has sought to remove this obstacle to the thorough transmutation of saccharine matter into alcohol, by drawing off the spirit as it is formed. For this purpose he ferments his wash in close tuns, connected with a powerful air-pump worked by machinery, thus continually removing the carbonic acid as it is formed, and maintaining a diminished pre ure under which the alcohol readily distils at a temperature of 120° or 130° F. He finds that this degree of heat is not injurious to the fermentation, provided that it be communicated by the air of a stove-room, and not by water or steam pipes traversing the liquid, which would inevitably scald or seeth the particles in succe ion, and thereby extinguish the fermenting principle. By the above ingenious plan, Mr. Sheridan tells me he has obtained 28 gallons of proof spirit from a quarter of grain, instead of the average product 21, being an increase of 25 per cent. The experiment was tried upon a considerable scale at Me rs. Currie’s great distillery near London; but could not be established as a mode of manufacture, on account of the excise laws, which prohibit the distillers from carrying on the two proce es of fermentation and distillation at the same time. SPIRIT OF WINE; Alcohol . small animals, almost imperceptible, called polypi by naturalists, which live in the sea. This ti ue is said to be covered in its recent state with a kind of semi-fluid thin coat of animal jelly, susceptible of a slight contraction or trembling on being touched; which is the only symptom of vitality displayed by the sponge. After death, this jelly disappears, and leaves merely the sponge; formed by the combination of a multitude of small capillary tubes, capable of receiving water in their interior, and of becoming thereby distended. Sponges occur attached to stones at the bottom of the sea; and abound particularly upon the shores of the islands in the Grecian Archipelago. Although analogous in their origin to coral, sponges are quite different in their nature; the former being composed almost entirely of carbonate of lime; while the latter are formed of the same elements as animal matters, and afford, on distillation, a considerable quantity of ammonia. Dilute sulphuric acid has been recommended for bleaching sponges, after the calcareous impurities have been removed by muriatic acid. Chlorine water answers better.