ALEMBIC, an apparatus for distillation (q.v.) used chiefly by the alchemists, and now superseded by more convenient forms of still, both in the laboratory and in the factory. It consisted essentially of three parts: a vessel containing the niaterial to be distilled and called, from its gourd-like shape, the cucurbit, or mattrass; a vessel to receive and condense the vapour, called the head or capital; and a receiver for the distillate, connected by a pipe with the capital. The entire apparatus was sometimes constructed of glass, but more usually the cucurbit was of copper or earthenware, and the capital alone of glass.