CRYSTALLIZED SORGHO SUGAR, 245 
mass of crystals; and no two secretions are more unlike than the fluid 
sugar of the sorghum and the crystallizable juice of the common sugar 
cane. ‘The fluid sugar of the sorghum in the cells became brown when 
treated with potash. It did not become dark in sulphuric acid. It 
readily dissolved in alcohol, and left, by evaporation, a syrup; no 
crystals. A minute drop, when warmed, instantly reduced the tartrate 
of copper, dissolved in potash, to protoxide of copper. These are the 
characters of glucose; and so far as observation and tests can serve 
us, we must conclude that the saccharine matter in the cells of the 
sorghum plant is glucose, in the state of a syrup, without the presence 
of true sugar. 
At this point of the examination I supplied Prof. John Bacon, of 
the Medical College, with samples of the stalk, who, with his usual 
accuracy and skill, after a minute examination, failed in detecting any 
cane sugar, and pronounced the matter to be glucose, as secreted by 
the plant. 
Sugar Extracted—The clean pith was bruised in contact with 
pure animal charcoal, and the saccharine part extracted by cold 
and pure alcohol, which was evaporated at the ordinary temperature 
of the air, and left a fluid, colorless, sweet glucose. This could be 
dried over sulphuric acid to a paste; but it attracted moisture from 
the air, and returned to the state of a syrup on exposure. It contained 
a trace of a lime salt, but was neutra!. The animal charcoal was then 
boiled in successive portions of alcohol, and the solutions obtained 
afforded only the syrup of glucose; no crystallized sugar. 
A quantity of the pith was crushed in mixture with some pure car- 
bonate of lime, animal charcoal, and water, at the common temper- 
ature of the air. The colorless, neutral syrup, was rapidly withdrawn, 
and one portion evaporated, by the heat of steam, to a thick syrup, 
and closed from the air. It remained a syrup after fourteen days, and 
when spread thin on plates of glass, gave a few microscopical crystals 
of saline matter united to glucose. Another portion of the colorless, 
pure juice, was evaporated in a current of warm air; it dried toa 
thick varnish, without a trace of any crystals being seen. 'These are 
the characters of glucose, physically. 
An analysis of a portion of the pure juice was made by reducing 
it to a nearly dry mass and treating it with alcohol saturated with 
