ALCOHOL, a colorless, inflammable liquid, of agreeable odor, and burning taste, termed also spirit of wine, and ethylic or vinic alcohol.
In organic chemistry, alcohol is the name given to a class of compounds dif fering from hydrocarbons in the substi tution of one or more hydrogen atoms by the monatomic radical hydroxyl (OH)'. Alcohols are divided into monatomic, dia tomic, triatomic, etc., according as they contain 1, 2, or 3 atoms of H (hydrogen), each replaced by (OH)'. Alcohols may also be regarded as water in which one atom of H is replaced by a hydrocarbon radical. Alcohol can unite with certain salts, as alcohol of crystallization.
Alcohol is said to be primary, second ary, or tertiary, according as the carbon atom which is in combination with hy droxyl (OH) is likewise directly com bined with one, two, or three carbon atoms. The hydrocarbon radicals can also have their carbon atoms linked to gether in different ways, forming iso meric alcohols. Primary alcohols, by the action of oxidizing agents, yield alde hydes, then acids; secondary alcohols, by oxidation, yield ketones; tertiary alco hols, by oxidation, yield a mixture of acids. Alcohols derived from benzol, or its substitution compounds, are called aromatic alcohols; they contain one or more benzol rings.
In chemistry, pure ethyl alcohol, also called absolute alcohol, is obtained by distilling the strongest rectified spirit of wine with half its weight of quicklime. Alcohol is used as a solvent for alkaloids, resins, essential oils, several salts, etc. Alcohol is obtained by the fermentation of sugars, when a solution of them is mixed with yeast, Mycoderma cervisix, and kept at a temperature between 25° and 30°, till it ceases to give off CO, (carbonic acid gas). It is then distilled. Proof spirit contains 49.5 per cent. of alcohol, and has a specific gravity of 0.9198 at 20° C. Methylated spirit con tains 10 per cent. of wood spirit in alco hol of specific gravity 0.830; it is duty free, and can be used instead of spirits of wine for making chloroform, olefiant gas, varnishes, extracting alkaloids, and for preserving anatomical preparations, etc. Wines contain alcohol; port and sherry, 19 to 25 per cent.•, claret and hock and strong ale, about 10 per cent.; brandy, whisky, gin, etc., about 40 to 50 per cent.