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the diffusion process not only particles within the cell wall will find their 
way out of the perforated membrane, but that also some portions of the water 
surrounding the cell membrane will penetrate through the minute meshes of the 
cell membrane into the cell to fill up the room vacated by the corpuscles which 
left the cell. This process goes on without intermission until on each side of 
the cell wall two liquids are formed, identical in their compositions, As soon 
as this is the case an equilibrium between the liquids out and inside of the 
cell has taken place, and a further exchange of water and crystalloides is not 
any longer possible. When the liquid on the outside of the cell membrane is 
removed and replaced by fresh water the sifting process begins anew, until 
again an equilibrium is effected, and so on, till finally all the erystalloides have 
left the cell. 
The water which finds its way into the cell exercises, according to scientific 
and microscopical investigations, a special influence upon those particles 
in the cell. membrane termed coarse-grained bodies or colloides, which are 
non-erystallizable substances; namely, it coagulates the same into one mass as 
soon as the crystalloides interlining or separating the colloides from each other 
have left the cell membrane, thus rendering the non-crystallizable matter unable 
to penetrate through the meshies of the cell wali. 
Technical chemistry has a procedure by which the foregoing may be well 
illustrated. It is called the “Bahmil flour trial.” The wheat flour contains 
principally starch and gluten, being in an intimate intermixture in the flour. 
If we enclose a small quantity of wheat flour—say a teaspoonful—in a piece of 
fine silk bolting cloth, and tie this up in the form of a little bag, we can, by 
pressing and kneading it under a constant stream of water, with the hands 
wash out all the sturch of the flour through the minute meshes of the cloth, 
while the gluten coagulates into an adhesive paste, which can be drawn out to 
long threads. This procedure gives us a beautiful illustration of the diffusion 
process, for the perforated cane or beet cell membrane will, under the applica- 
tion of water, allow the sugar and salts (corresponding to starch) to pass through 
the meshes of the cell membrane, while the coarser matters (albumen, pectin, 
&c., corresponding to the gluten of the wheat flour) coagulate in the cell to one 
body. The diffusion process may, therefore, justly be termed a sifting process, 
of which the result is on the one hand a sifted out liquor, furnishing the sugar, 
and on the other a sieve-like membrane containing the colloides and forming the 
offal or bagasse. 
It can readily be seen that the liquor obtained in this way has become 
already, through the action of the cell membrane itself, relatively a pure juice, 
from the simple fact that those particles which do not form sugar are retained 
in the cell membrane, an advantage doubtless appreciated by persons who know 
what it is to purify the liquor obtained in cane mills by the pressing and centri- 
fugal process. 
The new process will doubtless bring about an entire revolution in the manu- 
facture of sugar. The old processes destroy the cell membrane in order to ob- 
tain the saccharine matter, by which procedure the manufacturer receives a 
liquor mixed with all the impurities the beets or the cane contain. The old 
methods are also extremely expensive, the machinery to get the liquor from the 
cane or beets being costly and requiring constant repairing; and besides the 
purification of the filthy juice requires great labor and expense. 
BRITISH RECEIPTS OF COTTON AND WHEAT IN 1868. 
The trade and navigation returns of Great Britain afford encouragement to 
the cotton-growers, of the United States. The exhibit of receipts from this 
