AComplete SystemOFDISTILLATION.PART II.Containing the Method of distilling Simple Waters.
AComplete SystemOFDISTILLATION.
TheInstruments chiefly used in the Distillation of Simple Waters, are of two Kinds, commonly called theHot Still, or Alembic, and theCold Still; the former is represented inFig. 5.and the latter inFig. 10.
The Waters drawn by the cold Still from odoriferous Plants are much more fragrant, and more fully impregnated with their Virtues than those drawn by the hot Still, or Alembic; but the Operation is much more slow and tedious by the former than the latter, so that very few care to comply with it: And, therefore a Method has been invented, to avoid the Tediousness of the one, and the Inconveniencies of the other. The Method is this:
A Pewter Body is suspended in the Body of the Alembic, and the Head of the Still fitted to the Pewter Body: Into this Body the Ingredients to be distilled are put, the Alembic filled with Water, the Still Head luted to the Pewter Body, and the Nose luted into the Worm of the Refrigeratory or Worm.
The same Intention will be answered, by putting the Ingredients into a Glass Alembic, and placing it in a Bath Heat, orBalneum Mariæ, as we have before directed, Chap. XI.
By either of these Means, the Ingredients have greater Heat given them than in the cold Still; and yet, by the Interposition of the Water, in which the Vessel,containing them is placed, they are not so forcibly acted upon by the Fire, as in the common Way of the hot Still. So that all those Things which require a middle Way between the other; that is, those Simples which are of a Texture between very volatile, and very fixed, are treated very properly by this Method; but neither the very odoriferous Simples, nor those whose Parts are very heavy and fixed, can be treated this Way but to Disadvantage.
One of the greatest Advantages of this Contrivance is, that Waters so drawn come over much cooler than from the hot Still; that is, they have not so much of the Fire in them, as the Distillers term it; so that a hot spicy Water, thus ordered, will taste as cool on the Palate when just drawn, as it would, when drawn by the hot Still, after it had acquired a considerable Age.