Tut. Yes. A sweet juice flows abundantly from incisions in certain species of the palm; which ferments immediately, and makes a very pleasant sort of weak wine. But it must be drunk the same day it is made, for on the next it is as sour as vinegar.
Geo. What is vinegar—is it not sour wine?
Tut. Everything that makes wine will make vinegar also; and the stronger the wine the stronger the vinegar. The vinous fermentation must be first brought on, but it need not produce perfect wine, for when the intention is to make vinegar, the liquor is kept still warm, and it goes on without stopping to another kind of fermentation, called the acetous, the product of which is vinegar.
Geo. I have heard of alegar. I suppose that is vinegar made of ale.
Tut. It is—but as ale is not so strong as wine, the vinegar made from it is not so sharp or perfect. But housewives make good vinegar with sugar and water.
Har. Will vinegar make people drunk if they take too much of it?
Tut. No: the wine loses its intoxicating quality as well as its taste on turning to vinegar.
Geo. What are spirituous liquors—have they not something to do with wine?
Tut. Yes: they consist of the spirituous or intoxicating part of wine separated from the rest. You may remember that, on talking of distillation, I told you that it was the raising of a liquor in steam or vapour, and condensing it again; and that some liquors were more easily turned to vapour than others, and were therefore called more volatile or evaporable. Now, wine is a mixed or compound liquor, of which the greater part is water; but what heats and intoxicates is vinous spirit. This spirit being much more volatile than water, on the application of a gentle heat, flies off in vapour, and may be collected by itself in distilling vessels;—and thus are made spirituous liquors.
Geo. Will everything that you called wine yield spirits?