It appears so on first consideration; but you must recollect that fermentation is a complicated chemical process; and that, during the decompositions and recompositions attending it, a quantity of chemical heat may be disengaged, sufficient both to develope the gas, and to effect an increase of temperature. When the fermentation is completed, the liquid cools and subsides, the effervescence ceases, and the thick, sweet, sticky juice of the fruit is converted into a clear, transparent, spirituous liquor, called wine. EMILY. How much I regret not having been acquainted with the nature of the vinous fermentation, when I had an opportunity of seeing the process! MRS. B. You have an easy method of satisfying yourself in that respect by observing the process of brewing, which, in every essential circumstance, is similar to that of making wine, and is really a very curious chemical operation. Although we cannot actually make wine at this moment, it will be easy to show you the mode of analyzing it. This is done by distillation. When wine of any kind is submitted to this operation, it is found to contain brandy, water, tartar, extractive colouring matter, and some vegetable acids. I have put a little port wine into this alembic of glass (PLATE XIV. Fig. 1.), and on placing the lamp under it, you will soon see the spirit and water successively come over-- [Illustration: Plate XIV. Vol. II. p. 213. Fig. 1. A Alembic. B Lamp. C Wine glass. Fig. 2. Alcohol blowpipe. D the Lamp. E the vessel in which the Alcohol is boiling. F a safety valve. G the inflamed jet or steam of alcohol directed towards a glass tube H.] EMILY. But you do not mention alcohol amongst the _products_ of the distillation of wine; and yet that is its most essential ingredient? MRS. B. The alcohol is contained in the brandy which is now coming over, and dropping from the still. Brandy is nothing more than a mixture of alcohol and water; and in order to obtain the alcohol pure, we must again distil it from brandy. CAROLINE. I have just taken a drop on my finger; it tastes like strong brandy, but it is without colour, whilst brandy is of a deep yellow. MRS. B. It is not so naturally; in its pure state brandy is colourless, and it obtains the yellow tint you observe, by extracting the colouring matter from the new oaken casks in which it is kept. But if it does not acquire the usual tinge in this way, it is the custom to colour the brandy used in this country artificially, with a little burnt sugar, in order to give it the appearance of having been long kept. CAROLINE. And is rum also distilled from wine? MRS. B.