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176
THE
COMPLETE
PRACTICAL
DISTILLER.
This
mode
would
be
precious,
and
free
Irom
any
objecj-
tions,
if
the
lees
collected
in
the
press
did
not
retain,
after
this
operation,
a
considerable
quantity
of
alcohol,
which
could
not
be
well
extracted
by
distillation.
To
con-
ceive
the
cause
of
this
fact,
it
will
be
sufficient
to
consider
the
mode
of
acting
of
organical
bodies
charged
with
water
or
alcohol
—
fruits,
for
instance,
that
have
been
preserved
in
brandy
;
after
a
certain
time
these
fruits
imbibe
the
alcohol
of
the
brandy and
emit
the
water.
The
cause
of
this
phenomenon
is
not
well
known,
but
the
fact
exists,
and
has
no
doubt
attracted
the
notice
of
the
reader.
In
fact,
fruits
preserved
in
alcohol
have
always
a
greater
alcoholic
taste
than
the liquor
in
which
they
have
been
preserved
:
this
has
been
the
cause
of
its
being
com-
monly
said
that
"
fruits
drink
spirits.''
The
same
phe-
nomenon
takes
place
in
all
wines
which
have
fermented
with
solid
substances
:
these
contain
always
more
alcohol,
in
proportion
to
their
weight
and
volume,
than
the
liquid
m
which
they
are
formed.
When
the
solid
substances
of the
lees
are
merely
sepa-
rated
by
the
press,
the
production
of
spirits
is
consider-
ably
lessened
by
not
submitting
to
distillation
the
Bubstances
which
retain
the
alcohol
in
the
greatest
proportion
:
this
fact
has
been
verified
by
comparative
experiments
on
grain
and
potatoes.
On
the
other
side,
the
spirit
thus
produced
gains
much
in
quality,
and
the
cause
of
this
acquisition
is
easily
ex-
plained
by
the
results
of
numerous
inquiries
on
that
subject.
The
distillation
of
the
skins
of
the
raisins,
in
which
the