Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/258

254 and it is fairly cheap. Alcohol, denatured by the addition of 10 per cent, of wood spirit and nothing else, has been on the market in England for years under the name of 'methylated spirit.' On the other hand, it does not impart to the alcohol such a repulsive odor and taste but what some perverts drink it if nothing else alcoholic is obtainable. According to the Lancet and other English papers, this terribly injurious habit has already reached alarming proportions and is on the increase. A penny will buy in 'methylated spirits' as much alcohol as is contained in a glass of whiskey.

One of the strong arguments brought forward in support of the 'free alcohol' measure was that methyl alcohol had been substituted in numerous industries where ethyl alcohol would have been better, and that the health of those obliged to work constantly in an atmosphere laden with the vapor of methyl alcohol was seriously impaired. The continuous inhalation of the vapor causes the same symptoms, in a milder degree, as those following the drinking of the alcohol, notably affections of the eyes. Those whose business it is to denature alcohol with wood spirits unavoidably labor under these disadvantages, but denatured alcohol containing 10 per cent, of the wood spirit will cause troubles of this character only under exceptional circumstances.

To make denatured alcohol yet less potable, German law requires the addition of a second substance, pyridine. The danger can not be wholly eliminated, as there have always been found at least a few so degenerate as to drink the most disgusting mixtures if only they contain alcohol. The so-called pyridine bases are obtained from the distillation of bones and also from tar. They constitute a somewhat oily liquid, soluble in both alcohol and in water, and they have such an utterly repulsive odor and taste that the addition of small quantities permits of the material reduction in the amount of 'wood spirit' used in denaturing. In Germany, alcohol is denatured by the addition of 2 per cent, of wood spirit and of 1 per cent, of these pyridine bases.

But these pyridine bases have serious disadvantages also. They are volatile, and when denatured alcohol containing them is burnt in a spirit lamp the penetrating and highly unpleasant odor is perceptible in the room. They are combustible and should be wholly consumed, but when the lamp is blown out the parts about the wick remain warm and this heat volatilizes a portion of the liquid. If much of the vapor of pyridine be breathed it produces a severe headache, the same sort of seemingly unendurable pain which is produced by inhaling the vapor of nitro-glycerine. The injurious effect of pyridine on the health of those employed in denaturing alcohol has been the subject of discussions in the German Reichstag. The government of Germany permits the addition of small quantities of lavender oil to partially disguise