1860 A Treatise on the Manufacture , Imitation, Adulteration and Reduction of Foreign Wines, Brandies, .

DISTILLATION. 167 would probably become greater, because the alcohol checks the fermentative action, and eventually stops it, before all the saccharum is decomposed. The maximum quantity of proof-spirits ob– tained on the great scale, at any time, from raw grain mixed with from one-fourth to one– eighth of malt, seems to be twenty-two gallons per quarter. Bezelius says that there are distillers who are guilty of putting a little arsenious acid into the still; that the spirits contain, pretty fre– quently, traces of arsenic, which may be de– tected by adding to them a little muriatic acid, then evaporating off the alcohol, and passing a current of sulphureted hydrogen gas through the residuary liquid, which will give it the characteristic orpiment yellow tinge, arsenic being present. No arsenic is ever used in this country. When damaged grain has been mashed in making whiskey, a peculiar oily substance