PULQUE, OCTLI, OR AGAVE WINE.

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esteem. It contains, of course, all the ingredients of the cane juice, except those which are changed or naturally disappear during the fermentation, and those which subside when it clarifies. I am not aware, however, that any special chemical examination of this drink has hitherto been made.

5°. PULQUE, OCTLI, or AGAVE WINE, is the favourite drink of the lower classes in the central part of the tableland of Mexico. It is produced by fermenting the sap of the Maguey or American aloe (Agave Americana or Mexicana), which is cultivated in plantations for the purpose. This plant is of slow growth, but when full grown its leaves attain a height of five to eight feet, and even more. It flowers on an average only once in ten years, and, as in the case of palm wine, it is from the flower-stalk that the juice is extracted. In the plantations, the Indian watches each plant as the time of its flowering approaches, and just when the central shoot or flower-stem is about to appear, he makes a deep cut, and scoops out the whole heart (el corazon) or middle part of the stem, leaving nothing but the outside rind. This forms a natural basin or well, about two feet in depth and one and a half in width. Into this well the sap, which was intended to feed the shoot, flows so rapidly that it is necessary to remove it twice, and sometime three times a-day. To make this more easy, the leaves on one side are cut away and the central basin laid open, as is seen in fig. 52.

The sap as it flows has a very sweet taste, and none of that disagreeable smell which it afterwards acquires. It is called aguamiel or honey-water. It ferments spontaneously, and a small quantity of old fermented juice speedily induces fermentation in that which is newly drawn, as sour leaven does in new dough. It is usual, therefore, to set aside a portion of sap, to ferment separately for ten or fifteen

days, and to add a small quantity of this to each vessel of fresh juice. Fermentation is excited immediately, and

Agave Americana-The American Aloe.

As prepared for producing pulque, and with a distant flowering-plant.
Scale, 1 inch to 5 feet.

in twenty-four hours it becomes pulque in the very best state for drinking. A good maguey yields from eight to fifteen pints a-day, and this supply continues during two and often three months-(WARD).*

The chemical changes which take place during the fermentation of this juice are the more interesting as they are in some respects peculiar.

First, Alcohol is produced as in other fermented liquors. This is shown by the slightly intoxicating qualities of the drink, and by its yielding, when distilled, an ardent spirit. To this brandy the name of mexical is given, or of aguardiente de maguey. The average proportion of alcohol in the pulque is not stated.

FERMENTATION OF AGAVE WINE.

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Second, An acid is formed also-the pulque, as a drink, being described as resembling cider. But what is the nature of the acid has not been determined. But,

Third, The most remarkable result of the fermenta. tion is, that the nearly smell-less juice acquires a fetid and disagreeable odour of tainted meat. This makes the liquor be looked upon at first with disgust, especially by Europeans. It is so cool, agreeable, and refreshing, however, that this first disgust being overcome, the pulque is preferred, even by Europeans, to every other liquid.

The nature of this evil-smelling ingredient, and the chemical changes by which it is produced, have not been investigated. It is probably similar in kind to that which gives the bad smell to putrid fish (Trimethylamine).* Substances of this kind are sometimes produced in the living plant. The Bladder-headed Saussurea, for example, which grows in the Himalayas, emits as it grows the smell of putrid. meat; and the Stapelias are called carrion-flowers, because of the disagreeable putrid odours they exhale.

The natives of Mexico ascribe many good qualities to their national drink. It is an excellent stomachic, promotes digestion, induces sleep, and is esteemed as a remedy in many diseases. It is chiefly in the neighbourhood of large towns, like Puebla and Mexico, that the maguey plantations exist. The pulque so soon passes that state of fermentation at which it is most pleasant to drink, that the manufacture only pays where a speedy sale is certain. The brandy or aguardiente, which is not liable to this inconvenience, is largely manufactured, and more widely consumed than the pulque itself.

* See in a subsequent chapter THE SMELLS WE DISLIKE

CHAPTER XIV.

THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT.

THE BRANDIES.

The brandies, or ardent spirits.-Methods of distillation.-Absolute alcohol.-Strength of different variotics of spirits.-Peculiarities in the preparatory processes of the distiller.-Use of raw grain mixed with malt; profit of this-Average produce of proof spirits.-Peculiar flavour of cognac, rum, &c.-Consumption of homemade ardent spirits in the three kingdoms.-Quantity of malt used in brewing.Spirits consumed in the form of beer.-Comparative sobriety of England, Scotland, and Ireland.-Consumption of foreign liquors.-Alleged greater intemperance of Scotland and Ireland: how this impression has been produced.-Influence of the nutritive matter, and of the hops contained in beer.-Influence of general food and temperament.-Ardent spirits serve the same purpose as the starch and fat of our food, and retard the waste of the body.-Wine, "the milk of the aged.”— Substances employed to give a fictitious strength to fermented liquors.

III. THE BRANDIES, or ARDENT SPIRITS.-When fernented liquors, such as those above described, are put into an open vessel and heated over a fire till they begin to boil, the alcohol they contain rises in the form of vapour, along with a little steam, and escapes into the air. If this boiling be performed in a elose vessel, from which the vapours as they rise are conducted by a pipe into a cooled receiver, they condense again into a liquid state. This is the process called distillation, and the vessel in which it is carried on is called a still.

PROCESS OF DISTILLATION.

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1o. THE DISTILLATION.-A retort connected with a receiver, over which a stream of cold water is kept flowing (fig. 53), represents the simplest form of such a still; but

many more complicated forms of apparatus have been contrived for the purpose of conducting the process with economy and efficiency. The following illustration (fig. 54) represents