293 



November 18, 1857. 



The President in the Chair. 



Dr. Hayes remarked that a specimen of Infusorial Earth, 

 (which was afterwards identified as part of the specimen referred 

 to in the proceedings of the last meeting,) given to him by Dr. 

 A. A. Gould, had been submitted to chemical examination, with- 

 out the detection of any compound of copper, either mixed or 

 combined with it. The existence of copper, as part of the ma- 

 terial of the Navicula, would be an interesting fact ; but in the 

 present state of our knowledge, there is no evidence afforded by 

 chemical analysis in support of such an opinion. 



Dr. Hayes stated, in connection with the reported presence of 

 cane sugar in the expressed juice of the variety of sorghum cul- 

 tivated somewhat extensively the last two years, that he had 

 grave doubts of its production anywhere, as an immediate prin- 

 ciple. One or two varieties of sorghum, which really pro- 

 duce cane sugar, had doubtless been cultivated, and had afforded 

 sugar directly. Without having had an opportunity offered for 

 an analysis of the secretion in the stalk, as cultivated so far south 

 as where the ordinary cane can be reared, his most careful in- 

 quiries had resulted in the conclusion that there, as well as here, 

 glucose alone is contained in the cells of the plant. In Georgia 

 and South Carolina the utmost efforts to obtain sugar from the 

 juice, both on the large scale of manufacture and Ik more refined 

 and varied operations, have failed, and the most recent informa- 

 tion includes the fact that the product, obtained in Louisiana, side 

 by side with that of the ordinary cane, sent to St. Louis for refin- 

 ing, did not prove to be sugar. Masses of crystaUine matter 

 have been obtained by evaporating the syrup ; but when it is 

 remembered that a gallon of the expressed juice of the fully 

 ripened plant contains more than an ounce of salts of potash, 

 lime, &c., the production of a compound of glucose and salts is 

 not surprising. 



If the plant secreted cane sugar, we should not from analogy 

 expect that a change of habitat, allowing the plant to perfect its 



