ALCOHOLIC PERCENTAGES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 996, 8 April 1909, Page 22

ALCOHOLIC PERCENTAGES.

There are many people who hold quite erroneous views as to the amount of alcohol in the beverages they consume. Beer, says a famous statistican, contains on an average only 4 per cent, of alcohol, and from the point of hygiene is the least noxious of drinks that intoxicate —if it is pure. Some of the cheap dealers manage, however, to water their beer and alcoholise it with inferioi’ types of alcohol, thereby increasing its intoxicating power, as well as making an unusual profit on the result of sales per glass. Stout or porter contains more alcohol than beelr, iale having almost double the percentage of either, namely, 7.5 per cent. Who would think that ordinary cider contains nearly nine per cent, of the in—as much, r nearly, as the' white wines like Moselle ? Champagne, despite its exhilarating effects, holds but little over 12 per cent, of alcohol —that is to say, 1 per cent, less than claret. Sherry and vermouth are each alcoholic to the extent of 19 per cent.; port, to the extent of 23 per cent.; Maraschino and Chartreuse to the extent, Respectively, of 34 and 43 per cent. "Coming to the fire waters, gin contains least alcohol, with 51 per cent. Brandy contains 53.4 per cent.; rum holds over 53.7 per cent, of the intoxicant. Lastly comes Irish whisky,

with 53.9 per cent., -and the Scotch brand, with 54.3 to the hundred parts. It is well-known that coffee and strong tea exhilarate to an equal degree with liquors like Curacoa and aniseed, which possess, respectively, a percentage of 27 and 33. They are more easily digested, however, and consequently have less enduring effects. Nevertheless, both these stimulants have to be calculated with, in as far as the drinking of them, to any undue degree, entails mental, or physic, and physical penalties, as in the case of alcoholised drinks which produce the tippling habit.