1934 What Shall We Drink by Magnus Bredenbek

138 What Shall We Drink? Port,Sherry,Catawba and other similarforeign and domestic wines. Brandy, Whisky, gin and other ardent spirits have no nutritive value except for the alcohol they possess. This alcohol is of such high percentage, however, that unless di luted with some other beverage,its highly concentrated form, except in dlness, is deleterious, rather than helpful, to the human system. In other words, its nutrimental value, in its undiluted form,is submerged in its destructive attacks on the tender tissues and membranes. Cordials (or Hqueurs) are less harmful because they con tain sugars and herb extract mixtures in addition to their alcohoHc content, which varies from 25 to 45 per cent by volume. It might be well to explain these two terms,so often used: Alcohol by volume and alcohol by weight. Alcohol by weight is self explanatory. It represents the total amount of 95 per cent pure alcohol which can be ex tracted by distillation from certain weighed quantities of a hquid. Alcohol by volume represents all the 95 per cent pure alcohol which can be distilled from an unweighed, mnfis quantity,selected at random from bulk. Given alcohol by weight, a government inspector, for instance, can find the alcohol by volume simply by multiply ing by the decimal 1.25. Given alcohol by volume, he can ascertain alcohol by weightsimply by multiplying bythe decimal.80. Both methods are resorted to for taxing purposes, for tariff assessment and, by the maker,to know for a certainty that the alcohofic content of his product is exactly what the beverage requires. For those who might have reason to settle arguments as to what should be the alcoholic content of beverages, I am appending a table showing estimates compiled by experts,but giving only the alcohol by volume. If you wish to find the alcohol by weight,merely multiply the percentages by the decimal .80.