[APG Public List] "jug distemper"

[LBoswell]

More on the toxic effects of a 'bad batch' from  home stills:

"Historical dangers of moonshine (besides arrest) include the presence of 
methanol (a.k.a. wood alcohol) and lead-salts (from lead solder sometimes 
used in the construction of the still).  Both of these are poisonous: 
methanol acts in a few hours and can cause blindness or death; lead builds 
up slowly in your body and causes many medical problems."

and from moonshine dangers (wikipedia)

"When moonshine was made improperly it had very serious effects. When one 
drank a "bad batch"of moonshine it caused blindness, paralysis, hair loss, 
and death. These effects were caused by consuming too much ethanol. One 
would experience similar effects after consuming anything that has a high 
concentration of ethanol. Another risk one took when drinking moonshine was, 
during the fermentation process, which was usually done in the woods, 
sometimes small insects or leaves would fall into the solution. This could 
cause one to experience extreme discomfort. The last risk was that sometimes 
when people would make it they would add toxins and sometimes even human 
feces to speed up the fermentation process. Drinking this contaminated 
moonshine usually resulted in the normal problems relating to drinking 
toxins. One would take a pretty big risk every time they would drink some 
moonshine[5]. "

I'd bet it refers to a death related to something like the above because the 
effects of methanol and other poisons could induce mental 'derangement' or 
'distemper' before death.

Larry

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