332 APPENDIX. 
but the opinion of one of us was that the sugar in the sorgho was 
identical with grape sugar, and of course uncrystallizable. 
However, this opinion was not accepted in the absence of proof, 
although advanced by an able chemist; and M. Beauregard, our 
president, aided by M. Verignon, a chemist at Hyéres, undertook new 
experiments, which resulted in the procuring of magnificent cubic 
crystals of sugar, similar to the crystals of cane sugar, formed in the 
center of a liquid when it is dissolved. But this laboratory experi- 
ment possesses only a secondary interest, compared to the trials made 
by M. Beauregard, and whose result seriously affects the industry of 
our country. 
So strong an analogy as that which had been supposed to exist be- 
tween the sugar of the holcus and the grape, would strongly suggest 
this question—Whether the sorgho sugar ought not to be transformed 
into alcohol as readily as is that of the grape. We owe it to the 
honor of our Assembly, and to M. Beauregard, the president, to 
record the fact, that the question of the production of alcohol from 
the sorgho was first entertained and practically demonstrated by that 
gentleman. 
The grape disease, by exhausting for a long time, perhaps, the 
most abundant source of alcoholic productions, has forced our industry 
to seek for other means for the extraction of alcoholic products. 
Hence, the beet is no longer used for sugar, but for alcohol ; hence we 
have distilled the cereals, in which alcohol had been produced, by the 
assistance of a chemical agent. In view of the high price of the 
cercals, and of the impending scarcity that bad harvests threaten, the 
government is justly alarmed and has prohibited the distillation of 
crain. This provision, thanks to our Assembly, will shortly be 
entirely useless, for the sugar sorgho is endowed with greater profu- 
sion of alcohol than all the other substitutes for the vine. M. de B., 
ina report made to the agricultural assembly of Toulon, at the session 
of November 6th, 1854, has shown that, having distilled the juice of 
the sorgho, fermented by the assistance of the grape cluster stalks, or 
even of the bagasse of the cane itself,;* he has obtained, by means of 
* May not the bagasse be treated with sulphuric acid, as is done with wood and rags, 
to transform them into glucose; thus obtaining alcohol, by the fermentation of the 
sugar produced in this manner ? 
