The use of alcoholic beverages, such as wine, beer, etc., was known to most nations of ancient times, as we have seen above; but they were known only in regard to their effect upon the body. In respect to a fundamental knowledge of alcohol, the ancients were absolutely in the dark, as the distilling apparatuses of those times were too imperfect.

The philosophers of Alexandria are said to have distilled wine, and noticed the combustibility of the distillate.

We find the expression, aquavitae, or "water of life," that was afterward generally applied to alcohol, in the Latin translation of Geber's writings - eighth century; yet he does not mention anything about the chief characteristic of the fluid - its combustibility.

Since the thirteenth century this fluid has been used for medical purposes, and all alchemists and physicians tried to obtain it in the greatest possible concentration.

On this account distillations and rectifications were made over and over again. Raimundus Lullus, born at Mallorca in the year 1234, suggested that the philosopher's stone, that would change all metals into real gold, might be won from the three natural kingdoms. To have it from plants, one had to begin with alcohol.

His theory of the preparation of the substance that was to become the philosopher's stone follows:

"Accipe nigrum nigrius nigro et ex eo partes octo-decim destilla in vase argenteo, aureo vel vitreo. Et in prima destillatione solum recipe partem prima cum dimidia, et hanc partem iterum pone ad destillandum. Et hujus iterum quartam partem et tertio destilla et hujus recipe duas, et in quarta destillatione pauco minus quam totum. Et sic destilla illam partem usque ad octo vel novem vices, vel decies."

This distillate is afterward once more rectified over a very slow fire, during from twenty to twenty-two days: "quanto destillatio ejus fuerit leviori igne tanto subtilior erit in spiritu et fortitudine."

It is hardly worth while to state that Lullus did not find "the philosopher's stone." We know "Work is the true philosopher's stone that changes all metals into gold."

The notes of Lullus are, in many points, indistinct; much clearer are the remarks of Basilius Valentinus - fourteenth century. He recommends the use of carbonate of potassium; yet this was accepted much later. Pure alcohol was first manufactured according to this principle by Lowitz, in the year 1796, i. e., more than four centuries later.

What we now call alcohol had, from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, very different names: Aqua ardens, aqua vitae, aqua vitae ardens, aqua vini, spiritus vini, vinum ardens, mercurius vegetabilis, etc. Since the beginning of the sixteenth century the name of "alcohol" was more and more adopted. It derives its name from the Arabian word "al-kohl," i. e., a name of a fine powder with which the eyelashes are dyed, therefore a substance changed into the finest aggregation of molecules.

About the nature and composition of alcohol there were as many different meanings and opinions as there were writers, and each following more fantastic, if it were possible, than the previous one. But all these phantasmagories faded away like fog before the sun when the great French chemist, Lavoisier, inaugurated a new era in chemistry by his discovery of oxygen; he proved that the elementary parts of alcohol were carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Originally, it was used for medical purposes only; but gradually people found its effect upon the human body, and drank it, whether they were sick or not, because it worked more rapidly than wine and beer.

The general use of alcohol is of comparatively recent date - not before the fifteenth century we find in Europe the use of "aqua vitae" together with that of wine and beer.