JOURNAL 



OF 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



NOFEMB ER 1799. 



A R T I C L E I. 



Chemical Experiments *nd Obfervations on the ProduR'ton of Sugar^ and an ufeful Syrup from 

 indigenous Plants, by SICISMUND Frederic HerMSSTADT*. 



OUGAR has become an indifpenfable article of confumption, and, on that account, the 

 monopoly of that commodity from the Eaft and Weft Indies, which is favoured by nature 

 itfelf, turns out to be very oppreffive : and the more fo, as the demand for fugar increafes by 

 the increafing luxury, even among the poorer clafs of people. For this reafon, that mono- 

 poly becomes an oppreffive burthen, not only to the individual confumer, but alfo to the 

 ftate : for the millions of dollars, which are fent in cafli to the Eaft and Weft Indies with- 

 out any confiderable barter, contributes its {hare to the exhaufting of the public finances. 

 Thefe were, no doubt, the chief motives which, above fifty years ago, induced feveral 

 German and foreign chemifts to inftitute experiments for difcovering a native fubftance, 

 which might contain, in mixture or combination, a fufficient quantity of fugar to be 

 obtained with profit, and thus remove a burthen that daily becomes more oppreffive. 

 Thefe motives are of themfelves fufficient to make the home-produ6lion of fugar defirable ; 

 even if it were not combined with another advantage, of great importance in a phyfical as 



* Tranflated from the Neuefte Schriften der Gefellfchaft Naturforfhender Freunde zu Berlin, 410. vol. 

 11. Berlin, 1799. page 324. 350. 



Vol. III. — ^November 1799. ^x well 



