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194
THE
COMPLETE
PRACTICAL
DISTILLER.
diately
after
being
dropped
from
the
vial,
as
it
exhales
very
soon
after
being
exposed
to
the
atmosphere.
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR
MAKING
INFUSIONS,
SPIRITUOUS
TINCTURES,
&c.
This
constitutes
an
important
part
of
the
business
for
those
who
are
engaged
in
distilling
or
otherwise
dealing
in
spirits.
Rectified
spirits
of
wine
is
the
direct
men-
struum
of
the
resins
and
essential
oils
of vegetables,
and
entirely
extracts
these
active
principles
from
various
vegetable
matters,
"which
yield
them
to
water
either
not
at
all
or
only
in
part.
It
dissolves
likewise
the
sWeet
saccharine
matter
of
vegetables,
and
generally
those
parts
of
animal
bodies
in
which
their
peculiar
smells
and
tastes
reside.
The
virtues
of
many
vegetables
are
extracted
almost
equally
by
water
and
rectified
spirit
;
but
in
the
watery
and
spirituous
tinctures
of
them
there
is
this
difference,
that
the
active
parts
in
the
watery
extractions
are
blended
with
a
large
proportion
of
inert
gummy
matter,
on
which
their
solubility
in
this
menstruum
in
a
great
measure
de-
pends,
while
rectified
spirit
extracts
them
almost
pure
from
gum.
Hence,
when
the
spirituous
tinctures
are
mixed
with
watery
liquors,
a
part of
what
the
spirit
had
taken
up
from
the
subject
generally
separates
and
subsides,
on