"It is called 'spirits' because the alcohol evaporates if the container is left open."
Yep.
Also, in the alchemical practice we have salt, mercury and sulfur. Commonly refered to as body, spirit and soul. The mercury or spirit refers to the 'mercurial' or 'spiritual' ability to hold in suspension, or to bridge & act as mediator. In plant alchemy, spirit or mercury is the natural substance of fermentation of that tissue (plants), aka ethyl alcohol. It is the only substance (in combination with water, a natural & necessary co-factor of fermentation) which is able to hold the salt & sulfur, or mineral salts & volatile oil, in dual suspension (neither of the others, salt, sulfur, are soluble in each other).
However here, the sulfur, or soul, aka plant 'essential oil' is far more volatile and thus potentially immaterial, or perhaps therefore spiritual, by definition, than spirit aka mercury aka ethyl alcohol.
In minerals, we have strengthened natural acids as spirit or mercury.
In animals, lactic acid among others.
Vastly useful in the practice of chemistry.
& don't know if this is the origin of *this correlation of the word spirit, though it has been used in this way for a long, long time. Hermes.
Edited by lIXII (05/09/10 02:29 AM)
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