The different statements of chemical authors as to the boiling point, specific gravity, &c., of alcohol, already noticed, may be referred to their having either experimented with samples which have not been absolutely anhydrous, or to their not having made the proper corrections for temperature, and for the different materials of which their vessels and instruments were composed——some probably having been made of glass, and others of brass or some other metal. In some instances the differences are more apparent than real, as in the _Tables_ by Tralles and Lowitz; in the former of which water, at its lowest sp. gr., is taken as the standard. Until recently, the only known source of alcohol was the fermentation of saccharine solutions. Its production by synthesis, though often attempted, is, however, erroneously said to have always failed. It had long been employed as an occasional source of bicarburetted hydrogen (olefiant gas) at a high temperature; but M. Berthelot succeeded in reproducing it, from bicarburetted hydrogen, by agitating the latter, in a closed vessel, with sulphuric acid and metallic mercury (‘Journ. de Chimie Med.,’ 1855, p. 175); and Henry Flennel, nearly thirty years before M. Berthelot’s discovery, found that pure olefiant gas is absorbed by agitation with concentrated sulphuric acid, with the formation of sulphovinic acid, and that by subsequent dilution with water, and distillation, alcohol passes over into the receiver. =ALCOHOLATE.= _Syn._ ALCOHATE; ALCOHOLAS, L. A salt in which alcohol appears to replace the water of crystallisation, as is the case with certain chlorides, nitrates, &c. Some of them may be formed by simple solution and crystallisation of the salt in alcohol. (Graham.) They are all very unstable, being readily decomposed by water. =ALCOHOLIC.= _Syn._ ALCOHOLICUS, L.; ALCOHOLIQUE, &c., Fr.; ALKOHOLISCH, Ger. Pertaining to, containing, of the nature of, or made with, alcohol. =ALCOHOLICA.= [L.] _Syn._ ALCOÖLIQUES, Fr.; WEINGEIST-VERBINDUNGEN, Ger. In _pharmacy_, liquids containing, or preparations made with, alcohol, as a characteristic ingredient. =ALCOHOLISATION.= [Eng., Fr.] _Syn._ ALCOHOLISATIO, L.; ALCOÖLISATION, &c., Fr.; ALKOHOLISERUNG, Ger. In _chem._ and _pharm._, the development of the characteristic properties of alcohol in a liquid, or the use of it either as an addition or a menstruum; also the act or process of obtaining alcohol from spirit by rectification. [Illustration]