Islamic Scientists Compasses Glass Mirrors Clocks Purified Alcohol Optics Home	Another commonly misplaced ovation is offered to Arnou de Villanova for first developing purified alcohol. Alcohol has been a prevalent agent throughout history; however, the process of distilling alcohol provides for a purer, stronger form. Ordinarily, the alcohol content cannot exceed 12-14% because this level of alcohol concentration kills the yeast bacteria, which produce the alcohol. The process of distillation allows for a sanitary, medical-grade alcohol that can be used as an antiseptic, as well as in the laboratory as a solvent. This innovation has been credited to this Spanish alchemist of the late fourteenth century. It is now known that Muslim chemists had been using distilled alcohol as an antiseptic and a solvent as early as the 10th century. Not only did they use purified alcohol, but they also established large-scale manufacturing of apparatuses used for the distillation process.	Contact the Authors at: lmatt@usd.edu mfsuing@usd.edu jzell@usd.edu