The evolution of bubbles slackens, and
finally comes to an end; scum and lees alike settle at the bottom, and
the fluid is once more clear and transparent. But it has acquired
properties of which no trace existed in the original liquid. Instead of
being a mere sweet fluid, mainly composed of sugar and water, the sugar
has more or less completely disappeared; and it has acquired that
peculiar smell and taste which we call "spirituous." Instead of being
devoid of any obvious effect upon the animal economy, it has become
possessed of a very wonderful influence on the nervous system; so that in
small doses it exhilarates, while in larger it stupefies, and may even
destroy life.

Moreover, if the original fluid is put into a still, and heated
moderately, the first and last product of its distillation is simple
water; while, when the altered fluid is subjected to the same process,
the matter which is first condensed in the receiver is found to be a
clear, volatile substance, which is lighter than water, has a pungent
taste and smell, possesses the intoxicating powers of the fluid in an
eminent degree, and takes fire the moment it is brought in contact with a
flame. The Alchemists called this volatile liquid, which they obtained
from wine, "spirits of wine," just as they called hydrochloric acid
"spirits of salt," and as we, to this day, call refined turpentine
"spirits of turpentine." As the "spiritus," or breath, of a man was
thought to be the most refined and subtle part of him, the intelligent
essence of man was also conceived as a sort of breath, or spirit; and, by
analogy, the most refined essence of anything was called its "spirit."
And thus it has come about that we use the same word for the soul of man
and for a glass of gin.

At the present day, however, we even more commonly use another name for
this peculiar liquid--namely, "alcohol," and its origin is not less
singular. The Dutch physician, Van Helmont, lived in the latter part of
the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century--in the
transition period between alchemy and chemistry--and was rather more
alchemist than chemist. Appended to his "Opera Omnia," published in 1707,
there is a very needful "Clavis ad obscuriorum sensum referendum," in
which the following passage occurs.--

"ALCOHOL.--Chymicis est liquor aut pulvis summe subtilisatus, vocabulo
Orientalibus quoque, cum primis Habessinis, familiari, quibus _cohol_
speciatim pulverem impalpabil