Now, as the same author has clearly proved[9] that fire, by burning combustible bodies, as well as by distilling them, separates their different inflammable principles, according to their various degrees of subtilty, the alcohol residing in the barley, when exposed to such a degree of heat as would cause it to boil, i. e. 175 degrees, must make great efforts to disengage itself from the grain. Is it not, therefore, natural to conclude, that, in a body like malt, whose parts have been made to recede from one another, (from whence it is porous, and easily affected by fire,) prepared for fermentation, or the making a vinous liquor, this event will probably happen at the same time when the body of the grain has been ultimately divided by fire, or that malt charrs? and if this is true, may not charring be termed the last degree of dryness, when, even somewhat before it takes place, the acid parts and finest oils, which are necessary for forming a fermentable must, fly off, and cannot be recovered.—Charring seems to be a crisis in solid bodies, somewhat analogous to ebullition in fluids; both being thereby perfectly saturated with fire, their volatile and spiritous parts tend to fly off. In charring, the subject being ultimately divided by fire, the constituent principles are set at liberty, and escape in the atmosphere, in proportion to their several degrees of subtilty, and to the fire which urged them. In boiling they are equally divided, and incline to disperse; but, even the more volatile, being surrounded with water, a medium much denser than themselves, they are caught up therein, and, by the violent motion caused in boiling, entangled with it, and with other parts it contains, so as not to be extricated or divided therefrom except by the act of fermentation. Now, as liquors boil with a greater or less fire in proportion to their tenacity and gravity, solid bodies may likewise be charred by various proportions of heat. The whole body of the barley, as its different parts are of different texture, cannot, at the same instant, become black, nor, where any quantity of the grain is under similar circumstances, if not equally germinated, can the whole charr with the same degree. To the several reflections, before made, I thought proper to add the surer help of experience. I therefore made the following trial, with all the care I was capable of. If the effects of it appear satisfactory, by gaining two limited and distant degrees, we may determine and fix the properties of the intermediate spaces, in proportion to their expansion. In an earthen pan, of about two feet diameter, and three inches deep, I put as much of the palest malt, unequally grown, as filled it on a level to the brim. This I placed over a little charcoal, lighted in a small stove, and kept continually stirring it from bottom to top.