DISTILLED LIQUORS. 307 DISTRESS. water, through wood charcoal. A process which has becu u^cd experimentally consists in mixing the diluted spirit with petroleum and thor- oughly agitating the mixture. The petroleum has the power ol' withdrawing the fusel oil from the mixture. Absolute or anindrous alcohol cannot be obtained by distillation. (See Alcouol. ) Rectified spirit of wine, the name given to the most concentrated form of alcohol producible bj* distillation, contains 25 per cent, of water. The British Pharniacopieia describes rectified spirit as containing 84 per coait. by Aveight of real alcohol, and having a specific gravity of 0.820. The United States l'harniacop(eia defines alcohol as a spirit containing 01 per cent, of real alcohol, with a specific gravity of 0.83 to 0.84. Proof spirit is a term applied to alcohol which conforms to the standard of purity laid down by English law for excise purposes. The specific gravity of proof spirit is 0.!)18(1. and it contains about equal parts of water and alcohol. Alcohol is consider- ably lighter than water (as 793 to 1000), and thus the lighter the liquid, the purer it is. Bevee.(;es M.de KROii Rectified Spirit. Whisky, brandy, and rum are distilled liquors used directh' as beverages. But much of the dis- tilled liquor produced is in the form of silent spirit, and is used to fortify wines and to arrest fermentation in them at any desired stage, and in the manufacture of factitious beverages gen- erally. There is a large class of alcoholic bever- ages which are made by mixing with alcohol or brandy various aromatic substances. These dis- tilled spirits are discussed tinder Liqueurs. BiBLiOGi!.PiiY. Brannt, Practical Treatise on the Raw Materials and the Distillation and the Rectification of Alcohol, and the Preparation of Alcoholic Liquors, Liqueurs, t'or- dials, and Bitters (Philadelphia. 1886); Gaber, Dcr praktische DestiUateur und f^pirituosen-Fa- hrikant (Vienna. 1901): ilaercker. Bnndbiich dcr f^piritusfabrikotion (Berlin, 1890). of which there is a French translation by Bosker and Warnery. entitled. Traite de la fabrication de Vulcohol (Lille. 1880) : Roux, La fabrication de I'alcohol. in seven parts (Paris, 1883-90). See Liquors. Fermented axd Distilled, Statistics AND. History of: Brandy: Whisky'. DISTILLED WATER. Water obtained by subjecting ordinary water, which contains more or less non-volatile matter in solution, to a proc- ess of evaporation and by condensing the vapors in a separate vessel. Evidently, distilled water can contain no fixed matter, although it may and irsually does hold volatile organic matter in solution. Dislillcd water finds ext<>Hsive use in the preparation of medicines and in the chemical laboratory, where the use of natural water would yield inaccurate results. Owing to the absence of mineral salts, distilled water has a flat and an insipid taste. To eliminate this, ordinary dis- tilled water may be redistilled with a small amount of potassium permanganate. Distilled waters is also the name applied in the mantifacture of perfumes to the water con- taining the volatile, oiloroos. and aromatic prin- ciples of plants and flowers that pass over on distillation, as lavender water, rose water, etc. DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER. A military' Order instituted in ISHl! by Queen Vic- toria for the purpose of rewarding army and navy officers. Appointments to membership are made by the sovereign, the head of the organiza- tion, for gallant service in the field or on sea, specially mentioned in dispatches to the Govern- ment. Its members wear a gold cross, bearing on one side the imperial crown, and on the other tlie initials V. R. I. DISTORTION. See Ligut, section on Lenses. DISTRESS (OF. destresser, dcstrecier, dcs- troisser, from Lat. distrinyerc, to pull asunder, from dis-, apart -f strinyere, to draw tight; con- nected with Lith. streyti, to freeze). An ancient creditor's remedy, conunon to all systems of ])rimitive law_, which consists in the seizure and detention by the creditor of his debtor's goods. ■It is one of the few survivals in our law of the practice of the personal enforcement of one's legal rights, without the intervention of the courts or the assistance of officers of justice. Originally applicable to a great variety of ca.ses, it is now restricted to a limited number of situa- tions, where its drastic character is mitigated by the relation of the parties to one another, and is strictly regulated by law. Blackstone describes distress as "the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of the wrong-doer into the possession of the party in- jured, to procure a satisfaction for the wrong conunitted." Even in Blackstone's time, however, the scope of the remedy had been greatly nar- rowed, and he enumerates only two principal cases in which it was still available: (1) for non-payment of rent or other duties annexed to the tenure of land; and (2) in the case of cattle of a, stranger trespassing and doing damage {damage feasant) on one's land. It is still em- ployed in these cases in England and in many of the United States. It was a remedy of feudal law. inseparable from fealty to the lord, and inci- dent to every service. It does not seem to be very popular, however, as a means of collecting rents, as it places the landlord in a better posi- tion than the other creditors. In several of the Xew England States distress has given place to an attachment on mesne profits. In New York and several other States it has been expressly abolished by statute, and in North Carolina it is held to be inconsistent with the spirit of the laws and not to exist in that State. The law of Lou- isiana permits the landlord to follow his tenant's goods for fifteen days after removal from the premises. In general, in English and American law. the right to distrain is not limited to the goods of the debtor himself, but extends to any goods in his possession, whether belonging to him or not. But certain articles, as beasts of the plow, implements of trade, and any article at the time in personal use or occupation, have always been privileged from distress. So, also, where the owner, not being the debtor, is compelled by necessity to place his goods on the land, or where he does it for commercial purposes : as, in the first instance, the goods of a traveler at an inn, or. in the second, goods deposited in a warehouse on storage. Formerly the remedy of distress was limited to the seizure and detainer of the goods until the claim sought to be enforced was paid, the distrainor having no right to sell the goods, and the debtor, if he claimed the distress to be illegal, having recourse to an action of rcplerin (q.v.), for their recovery. Now. however, by statute goods taken under distress may often be sold after due advertisement at public auction
