an engine of torture, furnished with pulleys, cords, &c. for extorting confession from criminals.

spirituous liquor made by the Tartars of Tongulia. This kind of rack is made of mare's milk, which is left to be four, and afterwards distilled twice or thrice between two earthen pots closely stopped; whence the liquor runs through a small wooden pipe. This liquor is more intoxicating than brandy distilled from wine.

Arack. See Arack.

Various and contradictory accounts have been delivered as to the real subject that gives origin to this fine spirit. The vulgar suppose it to be rice; some, the juice of the East Indian sugar-canes; and others, a mixture of the juice of this cane and of the cocoa tree; finally, some affirm, that it is prepared from the flesh of animals, and other more costly ingredients.

The juice of the cocoa-trees and palm-trees is what affords us the finest arracks; but there are many other juices distilled into the same kind of liquors, though though wanting the fine flavour of what is made from these.

The manner of making the arrack is this. The juice of the trees is not procured in the way of tapping the trees, as we do; but the operator provides himself with a parcel of earthen pots, with bellies and necks, like our ordinary bird bottles; he makes fast a parcel of these to his girdle, and any way else that he commodiously can about him. Thus equipped, he swarms up the trunk of a cocoa tree; and when he comes to the boughs, he takes out his knife, and cutting off one of the small knots or buttons, he applies the mouth of the bottle to the wound, fastening it to the bough with a bandage; in the same manner he cuts off the other buttons, and fastens on his pots, till the whole number is used: this is done in the evening; and descending from the tree, he leaves things to themselves till the next morning, when climbing up again he takes off the bottles which are mostly filled, and empties the juice into the proper receptacle. This is repeated every night, till there is a sufficient quantity produced; and the whole being then put together, is left to ferment, which it soon does.

When the fermentation is over, and the liquor, or wash, is grown a little tart, it is put into the still; and a fire being made, the still is suffered to work as long as what comes over has any considerable taste of spirit.

The liquor thus procured is the low wine of arrack; and this is so poor a liquor, that it will soon corrupt and spoil, if not distilled again, to separate some of its phlegm: they therefore immediately after pour back this low wine into the still, and rectify it to that very weak kind of proof-spirit, in which state we find it. The arrack we meet with, notwithstanding its being of a proof test, according to the way of judging by the crown of bubbles, holds but a fifth, and sometimes but an eighth part of alcohol, or pure spirit; whereas our other spirits, when they show that proof, are generally esteemed to hold one half pure spirit.

This shows how very uncertain a way of judging of the strength of spirits, this by the bead or bubble is. And we may from this learn, that it would be much better to have the arrack rectified to the pure alcohol in the East Indies, in which case it would be brought over in one sixth or one eighth part of the room, and might be lowered to its standard with common water here; all that it contains, besides this fifth or eighth part of spirit, being only a poor phlegm, or an acidulated water, valuable only for having been brought from Goa or Batavia. It may appear strange to some, that this spirit should be proof according to the way of judging by the bead or bubble, and yet be so far below the strength which we usually understand to be in proof-spirit. But the truth is, that this standing crown of bubbles may be owing only to the tenacity of the oil that is held in the spirit. Our malt-distillers know very well, that the more oil they work over with the spirit, the stronger proof it will hold, at a somewhat weaker standard of strength than it ought to have; and this case of the arrack shows the fallacy of the other. The finer and more subtle any oil is, the less it refuses to mix with any aqueous menstruum: thus we see that the essential oils of some vegetables, or at least some portion of them, is so fine and subtle, as to mix without turning milky, even with water itself, which is the case in many of our simple distilled waters. Hence, it is no wonder, that so subtle an oil as is contained in that thin and dilute vegetable juice of which arrack is made, should readily mix with such a mixture as that of one part alcohol and six or eight of water, which, though weak considered as a spirit, is much more likely to retain and embody an oil than simple water alone. The oil of the cocoa is thus suspended imperceptibly in the spirit; and that in such quantity as to give tenacity to the whole, and thereby dispose it to form a froth or lather at the top when shook, and the bubbles of that froth to hang well together. Sometimes indeed there come over into England, and more frequently into Holland, arracks that are of the strength of brandy and rum: these chiefly come from the Dutch settlements, and are a piece of frugality of the Dutch to save freight: it is a wonder the saving spirit had not gone a little farther, and the method of reducing arrack to alcohol been found out on the same plan.

Besides the common sorts of Goa and Batavia arracks, there are two others less generally known; these are the bitter arrack, and the black arrack. The bitter arrack is supposed to have been impregnated with some kind of bezar, as that of the porcupine or monkey; which being not generated in the stomachs, as those of other animals, but in the gall-bladder, are of a very strongly bitter taste, and very readily communicate it to other things. Some, on the contrary, are of opinion that there is nothing added to this, but that the taste is owing to the juice of the trees from which the arrack is made; and many think that it is obtained from the juice of that tree which bears the fruit whose insipidated juice is what we call terra Japonica.

The black arrack is a very coarse spirit; and is usually drawn higher than any of the finer kinds are, being not drank like them, but employed for coarser purposes. The Turkish arrack, or, as it is usually called, racker, seems to be of this kind. The finer and better kinds of arrack, tho' ever so good when put on board, are apt to grow foul and black in the carriage; if the leger or cask in which they are brought over be decayed on the inside, or the liquor come to touch any nails or rusty iron of any kind: for the spirit presently dissolves part of the ferruginous matter; and thence, upon account of the tincture of the oak, which it had before obtained from the wood of the cask, it will appear inky. Arrack, that is thus accidentally tinged black, is not to be confounded with such arrack as is originally black, and of the coarse kind named before. This, which has obtained the colour by accident, is not the worse in taste for it; and the tinge may be taken off, and the liquor recovered, by putting into the cask a large quantity of new or skimmed milk; and working it well about, as the vintners do in order to whiten their brown wines. When the bottoms are large, they are to be committed to a conical filter of flannel, through which the arrack runs fine. This art of purifying foul arracks with milk, would be very pardonable, if our dealers only. only imposed that upon us; but they have a shameful way of lowering this spirit with water, and that to such a degree as is scarcely credible.

The weakness of some genuine arracks greatly contributes to the countenancing this cheat. This is the principal deceit used in regard to this commodity; for it is not easy to find any other spirit tasteless enough to mix with it, without discovering the cheat with us; and in Holland they are not only more destitute of clean spirits than here, but the price of arrack itself is so low there, that it is hardly worth while to do it if they had proper materials.

The extravagant price that arrack bears in England, has given great occasion to the distillers to endeavour the counterfeiting it. All the attempts which, for cheapness sake, have been made with malt spirit, have naturally proved unsuccessful; but the thing is not impracticable, though these methods have failed. The first requisite must be the making a perfectly tasteless spirit; and the next the treating the juices of vegetables, so as to obtain their flavour, to add to it; or else the obtaining a pulverulent dry substance, which would at once mix with the spirit, and prevent the trouble of a second process of distillation. It is possible, also, that the English juices of trees which will bleed freely, such as the birch, maple, fycamore, and the like, may, on proper trials, be found to afford this sort of spirit in some degree of perfection.

To Rack Wines, &c. To draw them off from their lees, after having stood long enough to ebb and settle. Hence, rack-vintage is frequently used for the second voyage our wine-merchants use to make into France for racked wines.