-coloured
extractive matter, and other foreign ingredients.

EMILY.

Pray cannot we now obtain pure alcohol from the brandy which we have
distilled?

MRS. B.

We might; but the process would be tedious: for in order to obtain
alcohol perfectly free from water, it is necessary to distil, or, as the
distillers call it, _rectify_ it several times. You must therefore allow
me to produce a bottle of alcohol that has been thus purified. This is a
very important ingredient, which has many striking properties, besides
its forming the basis of all spirituous liquors.

EMILY.

It is alcohol, I suppose, that produces intoxication?

MRS. B.

Certainly; but the stimulus and momentary energy it gives to the system,
and the intoxication it occasions when taken in excess, are
circumstances not yet accounted for.

CAROLINE.

I thought that it produced these effects by increasing the rapidity of
the circulation of the blood; for drinking wine or spirits, I have
heard, always quickens the pulse.

MRS. B.

No doubt; the spirit, by stimulating the nerves, increases the action of
the muscles; and the heart, which is one of the strongest muscular
organs, beats with augmented vigour, and propels the blood with
accelerated quickness. After such a strong excitation the frame
naturally suffers a proportional degree of depression, so that a state
of debility and languor is the invariable consequence of intoxication.
But though these circumstances are well ascertained, they are far from
explaining why alcohol should produce such effects.

EMILY.

Liqueurs are the only kind of spirits which I think pleasant. Pray of
what do they consist?

MRS. B.

They are composed of alcohol, sweetened with syrup, and flavoured with
volatile oil.

The different kinds of odoriferous spirituous waters are likewise
solutions of volatile oil in alcohol, as lavender water, eau de
Cologne, &c.

The chemical properties of alcohol are important and numerous. It is one
of the most powerful chemical agents, and is particularly useful in
dissolving a variety of substances, which are soluble neither by water
nor heat.

EMILY.

We have seen it dissolve copal and mastic to form varnishes; and these
resins are certainly not soluble in water, since water precipitates them
from their solution in alcohol.

MRS. B.

I am happy to find that you recollect these circumstances so well. The
same experiment affords also an instance of another property of