he manufacture of a beverage containing a greater or less
proportion of alcoholic poison. By the process of _distillation_, new and
stronger liquor is made. Beverages thus distilled are known as ardent
spirits. Brandy is distilled from wine, rum from fermented molasses, and
commercial alcohol mostly from whiskey.

The poisonous element in all forms of intoxicating drinks, and the one so
fraught with danger to the bodily tissues, is the alcohol they
contain. The proportion of the alcoholic ingredient varies, being about 50
per cent in brandy, whiskey, and rum, about 20 to 15 per cent in wines,
down to 5 per cent, or less, in the various beers and cider; but whether
the proportion of alcohol be more or less, the same element of danger is
always present.

126. Effects of Alcoholic Beverages upon the Human System. One of the
most common alcoholic beverages is wine, made from the juice of grapes. As
the juice flows from the crushed fruit the ferments are washed from the
skins and stems into the vat. Here they bud and multiply rapidly,
producing alcohol. In a few hours the juice that was sweet and wholesome
while in the grape is changed to a poisonous liquid, capable of injuring
whoever drinks it. One of the gravest dangers of wine-drinking is the
power which the alcohol in it has to create a thirst which demands more
alcohol. The spread of alcoholism in wine-making countries is an
illustration of this fact.

Another alcoholic beverage, common in apple-growing districts, is cider.
Until the microscope revealed the ferment germ on the "bloom" of the
apple-skin, very little was known of the changes produced in cider during
the mysterious process of "working." Now, when we see the bubbles of gas
in the glass of cider we know what has produced them, and we know too that
a poison which we do not see is there also in corresponding amounts. We
have learned, too, to trace the wrecked hopes of many a farmer's family to
the alcohol in the cider which he provided so freely, supposing it
harmless.

Beer and other malt liquors are made from grain. By sprouting the grain,
which changes its starch to sugar, and then dissolving out the sugar with
water, a sweet liquid is obtained which is fermented with yeast, one kind
of alcoholic ferment. Some kinds of beer contain only a small percentage
of alcohol, but these are usually drunk in proportionately large amounts.
The life insurance company finds the beer drinker a precarious risk; the
su