We shall begin first by explaining what is meant by distilling; how many sorts of distillings there are; what are the instruments fit for that business; what accidents it is liable to; and what must be done to prevent them; then point out the remedies which may be applied to those accidents when they do happen; and at last enter into the detail of the different sorts of liquors, that of their composition and the various ways of preparing them, by a plain and methodical account of the principle of the art; in which we shall endeavour to omit nothing of what may serve to instruct completely either the lovers of distilling, or the artists who profess it, and make it their particular business.
Distilling in general, is the Art of extracting Spirits from Bodies.
To extract spirits, is to produce, by means of heat, such an action as will secrete them from the bodies in which they are detained.
If that heat is the proper and natural affection of the bodies, and produces the secretion of spirits, without any foreign help, it is called fermentation.
If it is produced exteriorly by means of the fire or other hot matters in which the still is placed, then it is called either digestion of distillation: digestion, when the receipts are only prepared to the secretion of their spirits: distillation, when the action of heat has such a power as really to secrete those spirits, and make them to distil.
It is that heat which provoking a commotion
