Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/104

94 time, which he admired very much. He recorded of it in his work Concerning the Preservation of Youth: "We extract, bydistillation of wine or its lees, burning wine, called also eau-de-vie. It is the most subtile portion of the wine."

He then exalts its virtues: "Discourse on Eau-de-vie.—Some call it water of life; some of the moderns say it is permanent water, or rather golden water, on account of the sublime nature of its preparation. Its virtues are well known." He next enumerates the maladies for which it is a cure: "It prolongs life, and therefore deserves to be called water of life. It should be kept in a golden vessel; all other kinds of ware, except glass, are liable to be acted upon by it." Then he speaks of alcoholates: "On account of its simplicity, it receives every impression of taste, odor, and other properties. When the virtues of rosemary and sage are imparted to it, it exercises a favorable influence on the nerves," etc. The pretended Raymond Lulle, a more modern author than Arnaud de Villeneuve, speaks of alcohol with equal enthusiasm. He describes the distillation of the inflammable water, derived from wine, and of its rectifications, repeated seven times if necessary, till the product burns without leaving a trace of water, and adds, "It is called vegetable mercury." So it appears that the alchemists in the beginning of the fourteenth century were taken with such admiration for the discovery of alcohol that they likened it to the elixir of long life and the mercury of the philosophers. Yet we have to be cautious against taking every text concerning the mercury of the philosophers or the elixir of long life as applicable to alcohol.

The elixir of long life is a fancy of ancient Egypt. Diodorus Siculus calls it "the remedy of immortality." Its invention is attributed to Isis, and the composition of it may be found in the works of Galen. The formulas for it in the middle ages were various. It was also reputed to be capable of changing silver into gold, or, in other words, was credited with the same chimerical properties as the philosopher's stone.

Although the discovery of alcohol did not give realization to these illusions, it has nevertheless had the gravest consequences in the history of the world. Alcohol is an eminently active agent, and thereby at once useful and harmful. It may prolong human life or shorten its term, according to the use that is made of it. It is also a source of inexhaustible wealth for individuals and states—a more fruitful source than the pretended philosopher's stone of the alchemists could have been. Their long and patient labors were therefore not lost; and their dreams have been realized beyond their hopes by the discoveries of modern chemistry.—Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.