Because it consists of the pure salts only, in its crystallised form; whilst in the instance before us it is mixed with the deep-coloured extractive matter, and other foreign ingredients. EMILY. Pray cannot we now obtain pure alcohol from the brandy which we have distilled? MRS. B. We might; but the process would be tedious: for in order to obtain alcohol perfectly free from water, it is necessary to distil, or, as the distillers call it, _rectify_ it several times. You must therefore allow me to produce a bottle of alcohol that has been thus purified. This is a very important ingredient, which has many striking properties, besides its forming the basis of all spirituous liquors. EMILY. It is alcohol, I suppose, that produces intoxication? MRS. B. Certainly; but the stimulus and momentary energy it gives to the system, and the intoxication it occasions when taken in excess, are circumstances not yet accounted for. CAROLINE. I thought that it produced these effects by increasing the rapidity of the circulation of the blood; for drinking wine or spirits, I have heard, always quickens the pulse. MRS. B. No doubt; the spirit, by stimulating the nerves, increases the action of the muscles; and the heart, which is one of the strongest muscular organs, beats with augmented vigour, and propels the blood with accelerated quickness. After such a strong excitation the frame naturally suffers a proportional degree of depression, so that a state of debility and languor is the invariable consequence of intoxication. But though these circumstances are well ascertained, they are far from explaining why alcohol should produce such effects. EMILY. Liqueurs are the only kind of spirits which I think pleasant. Pray of what do they consist? MRS. B. They are composed of alcohol, sweetened with syrup, and flavoured with volatile oil. The different kinds of odoriferous spirituous waters are likewise solutions of volatile oil in alcohol, as lavender water, eau de Cologne, &c. The chemical properties of alcohol are important and numerous. It is one of the most powerful chemical agents, and is particularly useful in dissolving a variety of substances, which are soluble neither by water nor heat. EMILY. We have seen it dissolve copal and mastic to form varnishes; and these resins are certainly not soluble in water, since water precipitates them from their solution in alcohol. MRS. B. I am happy to find that you recollect these circumstances so well. The same experiment affords also an instance of another property of alcohol,--its tendency to unite with water; for the resin is precipitated in consequence of losing the alcohol, which abandons it from its preference for water. It is attended also, as you may recollect, with the same peculiar circumstance of a disengagement of heat and consequent diminution of bulk, which we have supposed to be produced by a mechanical penetration of particles by which latent heat is forced out.