112 / 154
112
A
Tl~EATISE
ON
else it becomes again flat. This is an excellent method
when home-brewed beer becomes sour and vapid.
DISTILLATION.
The evaporation and subsequent condensation of
fluid, by means of a still and refrigerator, or other
similar apparatus. In
COMMERCIAL LANGUAGE,
the
term is applied
to
the manufacture of spirituous
liquors.
The
d-McOl/Jery
of
the art
of
distillation
is usually
ascribed
to
the alchemists, but there appears to be
•
good reason- to suppose that it was known in more
remote ages to the Arabians and other Eastern na–
tions, to whom it probably descended from the
ancient Babylonians. Certain it is, however, that a
rediscovery of the process was made by some of the
northern nations of Europe, and that the first notice
of it appears in the writings of .Arnoldus de Villa
Nova, and his pupil Raymond Lully, by whom spirit,
or
aqua
vitm,
as it was called, was declared to be
"an emanation of the Deity; an element newly
revealed to man, and destined to restore the energies
Digitized
by