334 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



1 quart of a solution of molasses by 125 grains animal charcoal 



1 " " 7 u alumina 



1 ' ; ' ; honey water, brown " 200 " animal charcoal 



1 " " " " " 11 " alumiua 



There would be a great advantage in this process, owing to the fact that 

 it does not introduce into the liquids operated upon any strange matter 

 capable of altering the product which it is desired to obtain ; in truth, llic 

 alumina itself is insoluble and insipid ; moreover, the lake which it forms 

 with the coloring matters is itself insoluble and insipid. 



OXLAKD'S METHOD OF REFINING SUGAR. 



At the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Dr. Daubeny gave an 

 account of a new method of refining sugar, recently introduced into England 

 by Mr. Oxland, and known by his name. 



It consists in the adoption of the superphosphate of alumina in conjunction 

 with animal charcoal, as a substitute for the albumen usually employed for 

 that purpose. In both cases the object is to separate and carry down the 

 various impurities which color and adulterate the pure saccharine principle 

 present in the syrup expressed from the cane or other vegetable which, sup- 

 plies it. As, however, bullocks' blood is the material usually procured for 

 the purposes of supplying the albumen, a portion of uncoagulatcd animal 

 matter, together with certain salts, is left in the juice in the ordinary process 

 of refining, which impairs its purity and promotes its fermentation thus 

 occasioning a certain loss of saccharine matter to result. Nothing of the kind 

 happens when the superphosphate is substituted, and so much more perfect 

 a purification of the feculent matters, under such circumstances takes place, 

 that several varieties of native sugar, which, from being very highly charged 

 with feculent matters, are rejected in the ordinary process of refining, are 

 readily purified by this method. The employment of superphosphate of 

 alumina also gets rid of so much larger a proportion of the impurities present 

 in the sugar, that much less animal charcoal is subsequently required for 

 effecting its complete defecation than when bullocks' blood has been re- 

 sorted to. The quantity of superphosphate necessary for effecting the ob- 

 ject is, for ordinary sugars, not less than twelve ounces to the ton; whereas, 

 for the same quantity, as much as from one to four gallons of bullocks' 

 blood is found to be required. Dr. Daubeny suggested that this re-agent 

 might be advantageously resorted to, not only in the purification of sugar, 

 but also in other processes of the laboratory, when the removal of fore; .u 

 matters, intimately mixed with the solution of a definite component, becomes 

 a necessary preliminary in its further examination. 



COLORING MATTER FROM THE SORGHO. 



Dr. Sicard, of Marseilles, France, discovered in the husk surrounding 

 the seed of the sorgho plant two coloring matters combined together in it. 

 One is red and soluble in water, but very soluble in alcohol and ether, 



