Mr. Rodwell says, “that the distillation of cinnabar with iron,
described by Dioscorides, is the first crude example of distillation,
which afterwards became a principal operation among the alchemists and
chemists for separating the volatile from the fixed.”

That this is an assumption which has no foundation in fact is evident,
when we find in the Institutes of Menu many enactments against the
drinking of distilled spirits, and these made of various kinds and
distilled from molasses (or sugar-cane juice), rice, and the madhuca
flowers.

“A soldier or merchant drinking arak, mead, or rum are to be considered
offenders in the highest degree,” and “for drinking spirits are to be
branded on the forehead with a vintner’s flag,” rather a summary way of
treating a drunkard, and one which would indicate that the ill effects
of over-indulgence in spirituous liquors had been long known, when such
severe enactments were made against it.

The method of distilling described by Mr. Kerr in the Asiatic
Researches, vol. 1, is so simple that it is almost certain that it was
employed in very ancient times for the purpose of distilling spirits,
and also attars of various sorts, which, from time immemorial, would
seem to have been a special production of India.

“The body of the still is a common large unglazed earthen water jar,
nearly globular, of about 25 inches diameter at the widest part of it,
and 22 inches deep to the neck, which neck rises 2 inches more, and is
11 inches wide in the opening; this was filled about a half with
fermented mâhwah flowers, which swam about in the liquor to be
distilled.