Ethanol

“ As to aldehydes and ethers, their composition is rather more complex; besides carbon and hydrogen, they contain oxygen. Every one knows what chemists mean by an alcohol; it is a definite combination of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, neither acid nor alkaline, which may be regarded as the result of the union of a hydrocarburet with the elements of water. Common alcohol, or spirits of wine, is the type of the most important series of alcohols, that of the mono-atomic alcohols. ”

“ Alcohol does not occur in nature; it is the product of the decomposition of sugar, or, more properly, of glucose, which, under the influence of certain organic, nitrogenous substances, called ferments is split up into alcohol and carbonic anhydride. The latter is evolved in the form of gas, alcohol remaining behind mixed with water, from which [2] it is separated by distillation. The necessary purification is effected in a variety of ways. ”

“ After absorption, which is very rapid, alcohol exerts a marked action upon the blood. The oxygen contained in that fluid, and destined for consumption by the tissues, is retained by the influence of alcohol in its combination with the haemoglobin or colouring matter of the red blood corpuscles. Hence the diminished oxidation of the tissues, which leads to the accumulation of unused fat and so to the obesity which is so often seen in those who habitually take much alcohol. The drug exerts a noteworthy action upon the body-temperature. ”

“ Alcohol is a produce composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; it is usually diluted with water in various quantities, by which its strength is determined.
Alcohol is or can be extracted from an innumerable variety of materials, in fact, anything containing sugar in any proportion can, by the process of fermentation, be used for the production.
The materials most usually employed are wines, roots, seed, etc. Alcohol is seldom obtained pure for numerous reasons, the principal being that it absorbs with great avidity the moisture contained in the atmosphere. ”

“ Well-clarified dunder will keep for six weeks without any injury. Good dunder may be considered to be the liquor, or “wash,” as it is termed, deprived by distillation of its alcohol, and much concentrated by the boiling it has been [170] subjected to; whereby the substances it contains, as gluten, gum, oils, etc., have become, from repeated boilings, so concentrated as to render the liquid mass a highly aromatic compound. In this state it contains at least two of the elements necessary for fermentation, so that, on the addition of the third, viz., sugar, that process speedily commences. ”

“ This ensues by the presence of water and air through a kind of fermentation, and as it appears, by the presence of a nitrogenous substance. The fats are insoluble in water, and, with the exception of castor oil, are taken up by cold alcohol in very small quantities, however, more in proportion as they contain oleine. In boiling alcohol they are dissolved, but are, for the most part, again separated on cooling, particularly those rich in stearine. All fats are taken up by ether but those containing stearine in the smallest quantity. ”

“ Great care must be taken that the heat is not so great as to permit any of the vapors to pass over uncondensed or to flow away in a hot state; and also to keep up a constant supply of water in the cooler without producing too low a temperature; the alcoholic products should run out just cold. The highly volatile constituents of the spirit come over first, that which follows becoming gradually purer until it consists of well-flavored alcohol; after this comes a product containing the essential oils. ”

“ While we have for illustration been considering a mixture of pure alcohol and water, the wash or liquid formed [85] by the fermentation of grain, etc., contains a variety of ingredients of different boiling points, some more volatile than alcohol, some less. The fermented wash consists first of non-volatile or only slightly volatile matters, such as salts, proteins, glycerin, lactic acid, yeast, etc., and second, volatile bodies such as alcohol, water, various ethers, etc., fusel oils and acetic acid. ”

“ Alcohol in this state of dilution, is better adapted for taking up the principles of vegetables than rectified spirit; indeed, diluted alcohol acts upon bodies as a chemical compound, and will dissolve what neither the same proportion of water nor of alcohol would, if separately applied; we perceive therefore the importance of ensuring uniformity of strength in our spirits. (See Tincturæ.) It is necessary to remark that almost all the spirit sold under the name of “Proof Spirit,” is contaminated with empyreumatic oil, and is unfit for the purposes of pharmacy ”

“ It is only in modern times that alcohol has been isolated and its properties examined. Alcohol is now prepared in enormous quantities, both for industrial purposes and for the preparation of alcoholic beverages, from substances rich in sugar or in starch. Potatoes and maize form the main source of alcohol. These are treated with steam under pressure in specially-constructed tanks to extract starchy materials. The starch so liberated is then fermented by means of a substance diastase. This treatment transforms sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. ”

“ Alcohol constitutes a part of all ardent spirits, wine, cider, beer, &c. in which it is combined with water, or with water and mucilaginous and colouring matter. It is formed in the vinous fermentation, and always results from the union of carbon and hydrogen. During the process, carbonic acid gas is liberated. Fermented liquors, therefore, or those which have passed through the vinous fermentation, always contain alcohol in more or less abundance, but mixed with water in many instances. ”

“ In the manufacture of most of the important products in which alcohol is either directly or indirectly used, its production may be made simultaneous with the production of the agent desired. In the manufacture of ether and chloroform, the apparatus for alcohol may be made a part of the devices from which the ultimate agents, ether and chloroform, result. Fermentation and distillation may be conducted at one end, and the anæsthetics received at the other. It is true that in a chemical laboratory alcohol is an agent very convenient in a thousand ways. ”

“ Alcohol not only hinders the blood in its work of tissue nutrition; it also prevents the full oxidation of the blood in the lungs.
"In order that a steam engine may work and keep warm it is not merely necessary that it have plenty of coal, but it must also have a draft of air through its furnace. Chemistry teaches us that the burning in this case consists in the combination of a gas called oxygen, taken from the air, with other things in the coals; when this combination takes place a great deal of heat is given off. The same thing is true of our bodies ”

“ But as may be seen from its formula as given above it contains only three elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and omits nitrogen and other elements necessary to the body. An engine requires not only coal but also lubricating oil, water and bits of steel and brass to keep it in repair. But as a source of the energy needed in our strenuous life sugar has no equal and only one rival, alcohol. Alcohol is the offspring of sugar, a degenerate descendant that retains but few of the good qualities of its sire and has acquired some evil traits of its own. ”

“ Alcohol is produced either from raw materials containing starch, as potatoes, corn, barley, etc., or raw materials containing sugar, as grapes, beets, sugar-cane, etc.
The following are some of the most important sources from which alcohol is obtained: Grapes, apricots, cherries, peaches, currents, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, figs, plums, bananas, and many tropical fruits, artichokes, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beet-root, sweet corn, rice and other grains. Sugar-cane refuse, sorgum, molasses, wood, paper, [6] and by a new French process from acetylene. ”

“ These figures are now true only of that part of the sugar which is transformed into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Different Authors.—Pasteur has shown that a portion of the glucose was changed into succinic acid and glycerine, and as the result of one of the experiments which he gives, out of a large number, it appears that 100 parts of glucose produce about 48.46 of alcohol, and it would require 2.063 to produce 1 per cent. of alcohol by weight, and 1.65 to produce 1 per cent. ”

“ Professor Atwater tells us that alcohol can not form tissue, hence the query is pertinent, How can it be a source of vital energy? The body does not burn food as a stove does fuel. Food can be called fuel only in a highly figurative sense. The oxidation of food in the body does not take place directly. Food is assimilated, becoming a part of the tissue. Oxygen is also assimilated, entering into the composition of the tissue along with the food elements under the action of special organic ferments brought into play by nervous impulses received from the central ganglia. ”

“ If a food is deemed as a substance which, taken into the body, is assimilated and used either to build or repair body structure, or to be oxidized in the tissues to liberate the energy used by the tissue in its normal activity, then alcohol is not a real food.
"But, if alcohol is not a real food, what is the significance of its oxidation? It has been long known that the liver produces oxidases and that it is the site of active oxidation of mid-products of katabolism of toxins and of other toxic substances. ”

“ Another means of ascertaining the nature of the organic ethers present in spirits is to first remove the ethylic alcohol contained by a partial distillation with an alkaline solution, and then acidulate the remaining liquid with sulphuric acid, and repeat the distillation, when the volatile fatty acids originally contained in the ethers will be found in the distillate; their identity is to be established by means of their characteristic properties. ”

“ It will burn without a lamp, if we light it. It is so clear and colorless that it looks like water. The Indians call it "fire-water." Alcohol differs very much from foods. It is not produced from plants, as fruits and grains are; neither is it supplied by Nature ready for our use, as are air and water.
9. Fermentation.—When a baker makes bread he puts some yeast in the dough to make it "rise," so the bread will be light. The yeast [Pg 22] destroys some of the sugar and starch in the flour and changes it into alcohol and a gas. ”

“ The use of de-natured alcohol as a fuel has yet to be fully developed. Although alcohol has only about half the heating power of kerosene or gasoline, gallon for gallon, yet it has many valuable properties which may enable it to compete successfully in spite of its lower fuel value. In the first place it is very much safer. Alcohol has a tendency to simply heat the surrounding vapors and produce currents of hot gases which are not usually brought to high enough temperature to inflame articles at a distance. ”

“ The natural heat of the body is precisely adapted, in the healthy state, to effect a fermentation after having changed the starch into sugar, which last is constantly found in the blood. That alcohol has not been found seems to result simply from the fact that it must be sought in arterial blood, or blood which has not lost a portion of its carbon in transitu, through the lungs in the respiratory process. ”

“ The popular idea, both in and out of the profession is, that the alcohol, by further oxidation in the blood, lessens the amount of oxygen to act on the tissues, and generates heat or 'some kind of force.' Those who advocate this theory of saving the tissues by combining the oxygen with alcohol seem to forget that in doing so they are diverting and using up the only agent, oxygen, capable of combining with, and promoting the elimination of, all natural waste products as well as the various toxic elements causing disease. ”

“ Benzol is also used for denaturing alcohol.
(22) Alcohol. Alcohol is of vegetable origin, being the result of the destructive distillation of various kinds of starchy plants or vegetables. Starch is the base of alcohol.
As a fuel, alcohol has much in its favor, as it causes no carbon deposit, has smokeless and odorless exhaust, can stand high compression, and requires less cooling water than gasoline, as 55the heat loss is less through the cylinder walls, and for this reason it is more efficient fuel than gasoline. ”

“ The weak alcohol resulting is subjected to repeated distillation until sufficiently pure and concentrated. In the natural fermentation of fruit sugar in grape juice, during the formation of wine, the amount of alcohol is self-limited to 15, rarely 20 per cent, since the ferment is killed by a larger amount of alcohol than this.
Derivation.—The official alcohol is derived from rectified spirits, by maceration, first with anhydrous potassium carbonate, then freshly fused calcium chloride, and finally by distillation. ”

“ A blood corpuscle cannot come into direct contact with an atom of alcohol, without the function of the former being spoiled, and not only is it spoiled, but the effete matter which it has within its capsule cannot be exchanged for the necessary oxygen. The breath of the drunken man does not give out the quantity of carbonic acid which that of the healthy man does, and the ammoniacal compounds are in a great measure absent. Some of the carbon and effete nitrogenous matter is kept back. ”

“ It is, I think, quite plain that while alcohol in moderate amounts can be burned in the body, thus serving as food in the sense that it may be a source of energy, it is quite misleading to attempt a classification or even comparison of alcohol with carbohydrates and fats, since, unlike the latter, alcohol has a most disturbing effect upon the metabolism or oxidation of the purin compounds of our daily food. Alcohol, therefore, presents a dangerous side wholly wanting in carbohydrates and fats. ”