lump sugar. Beat or rub the above in a mortar. When well rubbed
together, have ready prepared half a gallon of lime water, one gallon of
rose water; mix the whole in either a pail, or cask, with a stick, till
every particle shall be dissolved; then add to the foregoing,
twenty-five pounds of sugar dissolved in about nine gallons of rain or
Thames water, or water that has been boiled, mix the whole well
together, and stir them carefully with a stick in the 133 gallons cask.

"To _force down_ the same, take and boil eight ounces of alum in three
quarts of water, for three quarters of an hour; take it from the fire,
and dissolve by degrees six or seven ounces of salt of tartar. When the
same is milk-warm pour it into your gin, and stir it well together, as
before, for five minutes, the same as you would a butt of beer newly
fined. Let your cask stand as you mean to draw it. At every time you
purpose to sweeten again, that cask must be well washed out; and take
great care never to shake your cask all the while it is drawing."

Another method of fining spiritous liquors, consists in adding to it,
first, a solution of sub-acetate of lead, and then a solution of alum.
This practice is highly dangerous, because part of the sulphate of lead
produced, remains dissolved in the liquor, which it thus renders
poisonous. Unfortunately, this method of clarifying spiritous liquors, I
have good reason to believe, is more frequently practised than the
preceding method, because its action is more rapid; and it imparts to
the liquor a fine _complexion_, or great refractive power; hence some
vestiges of lead may often be detected in malt spirit.

The weakened spirit is then sweetened with sugar, and, to cover the raw
taste of the malt spirit, _false strength_ is given to it with grains of
paradise, Guinea pepper, capsicum, and other acrid and aromatic
substances.

METHOD OF DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF LEAD IN SPIRITOUS LIQUORS.

The presence of lead may be detected in spiritous liquors, as stated on
pages 70 and 86. The cordial called shrub frequently exhibits vestiges
of copper. This contamination, I have been informed, is accidental, and
originates from the metallic vessels employed in the manufacture of the
liquor.

METHOD OF ASCERTAINING THE QUANTITY OF ALCOHOL IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF
SPIRITOUS LIQUORS.

The quantity of real alcohol in any spiritous liquors may readily be
ascertained by simple distillation, which process separate