1863 The manufacture of liquors, wines, and cordials

182 MANUFACTURE OF WINKS ATs T D LIQUORS. It results from the foregoing facts that the deco- lorizing power of charcoal depends upon a peculiar mode of aggregation of its particles, the leading cha- racter of which is they are isolated from one another, and thus enabled to spread over a greater extent of surface. It is on this principle that certain chemical substances act in developing the property in question, when they are ignited in a state of intimate mixture with the substances to be charred. Thus it is per- ceived that there is no necessary connexion between animal charcoal and' the decolorizing power; as this charcoal may or may not possess the peculiar aggre- gation of its particles, on which the power de- pends. Bone black, for instance, has this property, not be- cause it is an animal charcoal, but in consequence of the phosphate of lime present in the bone, the favorable state of aggregation is induced. Animal charcoal will, by digestion and nitration, remove the bitter principles from infusions,