1827 Wine and spirit adulterators unmasked

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drometer :f but that trade must be very poor indeed that does not allow a retail dealer to keep, (without the fear of detection,) a stock of ten or twenty gallons of both Brandy and Rum always on hand, f I have borrowed the following extract from Accum's Culi- nary Poisons, (page 235), as affording the clearest definition of the terms underproof and overproof, and the nature of the hy- drometer : he says, ' By the Excise Laws at present existing in this country, the various degrees of strength of Brandy, Rum, Ar- rack, Gin, Whisky, and all other spirituous liquors, chiefly com- posed of little else than Spirits of Wine, are determined by the quantity of alcohol, of a given specific gravity, contained in the spirituous liquor of a supposed unknown strength. The great public importance of this subject in this country, where the con- sumption of spirituous liquors adds a vast sum to the public re- venue, has been the means of instituting many very interesting ex- periments on the subject. The instrument used for that purpose, by the Customs and officers of the Excise, is called Sykes's hy- drometer, which has superseded the instrument called Clarke's hydrometer, heretofore in use. The specific gravity or strength of the legal standard spirit of excise is technically called proof, or proof spirit. " This liquor (not being sweetened, or having any ingredients dissolved in it to defeat the strength thereof) , at the temperature of 51 Farhenheit, weighs exactly -\\ parts of an equal measure of distilled water;" and with this spirit, the strengths of all other spirituous liquors are compared according to law. The strength of Brandy, Rum, Arrack, Gin, and other spi- rituous liquors weaker than proof, or below proof, is estimated by the quantity of water which would be necessary to bring the spirit up to proof. The hydrometer is calculated to show the per cent- age of strength above or below proof, as the case may be, of the Spirit submitted to trial. The stem of the instrument is gra- duated, and so subdivided, as to meet every variety in the strength of the liquor to be examined which may fall between the weights ,. (nine in number) used with the instrument; the divisions and sub- divisions on the hydrometer, which remain above the surface of