them in the Wort, brought into an intestine Motion, occasion'd by
Particles of different Gravities; for as the spirituous Parts of the Wort
will be continually striving to get up to the Surface, the glutinous
adhesive ones of the Yeast will be as constant in retarding their assent,
and so prevent their Escape; by which the spirituous Particles are set
loose and free from their viscid Confinements, as may appear by the Froth
on the Top, and to this end a moderate warmth hastens the Operation, as it
assists in opening the viscidities in which some spirituous Parts may be
entangled, and unbends the Spring of the included Air: The viscid Parts
which are raised to the Top, not only on account of their own lightness,
but by the continual efforts and occursions of the Spirits to get
uppermost, shew when the ferment is at the highest, and prevent the finer
Spirits making their escape; but if this intestine Operation is permitted
to continue too long, a great deal will get away, and the remaining grow
flat and vapid, as Dr. _Quincy_ well observes. Now tho' a small quantity
of Yeast is necessary to break the Band of Corruption in the Wort, yet it
is in itself of a poisonous Nature, as many other Acids are; for if a
Plaister of thick Yeast be applied to the Wrist as some have done for an
Ague, it will there raise little Pustules or Blisters in some degree like
that Venomous! (As I have just reason in a particular Sense to call it)
Ingredient _Cantharide_, which is one of the Shop Poisons. Here then I
shall observe, that I have known several beat the Yeast into the Wort for
a Week or more together to improve it, or in plainer terms to load the
Wort with its weighty and strong spirituous Particles; and that for two
Reasons, _First_, Because it will make the Liquor so heady, that five
Bushels of Malt may be equal in strength to six, and that by the
stupifying Narcotick Qualities of the Yeast; which mercenary subtilty and
imposition has so prevailed to my Knowledge with the Vulgar and Ignorant,
that it has caused many of them to return the next Day to the same
Alehouse, as believing they had stronger and better Drink than others: But