ACETIC ACID

which is sometimes employed by confectioners in sugar boiling, to stiffen cake icing, etc., and, in dilute form, is the principal characteristic of vinegar, is, commercially, a pungent, colorless liquid, obtained chiefly either by dry distillation of wood or by the oxidation of alcohol by means of ferments.

Pyroligneous Acid, the crude product obtained by wood distillation, is the preservative principle developed in the smoking of hams, etc.