eleterious to health, it is
extremely difficult, in any instance, to detect them by chemical
agencies; and in most cases it is quite impossible, as in that of
cocculus indicus in beer.

METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE QUANTITY OF SPIRIT CONTAINED IN PORTER, ALE,
OR OTHER KINDS OF MALT LIQUORS.

Take any quantity of the beer, put it into a glass retort, furnished
with a receiver, and distil, with a gentle heat, as long as any spirit
passes over into the receiver; which may be known by heating from time
to time a small quantity of the obtained fluid in a tea-spoon over a
candle, and bringing into contact with the vapour of it the flame of a
piece of paper. If the vapour of the distilled fluid catches fire, the
distillation must be continued until the vapour ceases to be set on
fire by the contact of a flaming body. To the distilled liquid thus
obtained, which is the spirit of the beer, combined with water, add, in
small quantities at a time, pure subcarbonate of potash (previously
freed from water by having been exposed to a red heat,) till the last
portion of this salt added, remains undissolved in the fluid. The spirit
will thus become separated from the water, because the subcarbonate of
potash abstracts from it the whole of the water which it contained; and
this combination sinks to the bottom, and the spirit alone floats on the
top. If this experiment be made in a glass tube, about half or
three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and graduated into 50 or 100
equal parts, the relative per centage of spirit in a given quantity of
beer may be seen by mere inspection.

_Quantity of Alcohol contained in Porter, Ale, and other kinds of Malt
Liquors._[81]

One hundred parts, by Measure, Parts of Alcohol,
contained. by Measure.

Ale, home-brewed 8,30
Ale, Burton, three Samples 6,25
Ale, Burton[82] 8,88
Ale, Edinburgh[82] 6,20
Ale, Dorchester[82] 5,50
Ale, common London-brewed, }
six samples } 5,82
Ale, Scotch, three samples 5,75
Porter, London, eight samples 4,00
Ditto, Ditto[83] 4,20
Ditto, Ditto[83] 4,45
Ditto, Ditto, bottled. 4,75
Brown Stout, four samples