BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY IN EUROPE. 13 



urged upon the Academy the importance of his discovery, believing 

 that Europe would find in this root the basis of an immense industry. 

 But his important results appear to have been forgotten, until nearly a 

 half ceutury later, his pupil, Achard, again took up the work of his 

 master, aiid produced from beets a considerable quantity of sugar. In 

 1797, he published his results ; and, in 1799, presented a sample of the 

 sugar, and submitted his method for its extraction, to the Institute of 

 France. The interest aroused in the Institute was such that a commis- 

 sion was appointed by the Institute to examine the results and meth- 

 ods of Achard, and to repeat his experiments. This commission con- 

 sisted of MM. Cels, Chaptal, Darcet, Fourcroy, Guyton, Parmentier, 

 Tessier, Vauqueliu, and Deyeux, names eminent in the anuals of 

 science. 



The report of this committee, although fully sustaining the methods 

 and results of Achard, was without apparent result until nearly ten 

 years after, when M. Deyeux, one of the committee, at the request of 

 the Minister of the Interior of France, again repeated the work of 

 Achard, and was again successful in obtaining "sugar perfectly ciys- 

 tallized, of great whiteness, brilliant, and sonorous — in a word, enjoy- 

 ing all the properties of the finest cane sugar." 



About the same time, ]\IM. Barruel and Isnard undertook experi- 

 ments for the determination of the quantitative and economical aspects 

 of this question, and found that they Avere able to extract one and one- 

 half per cent of JMuscovado sugar, at a cost of thirty cents per pound, 

 while the refined sugar cost forty cents per pound. 



February 20th, 1811, the Societe I'Encouragement pour ITudustrie 

 Nationale received samples of beet sugar produced by M. Drappiez, a 

 pharmacist of Lille, who also, in a memoir, laid before this society his 

 methods for its extraction. 



M. Drappiez obtained by his method 07ie and three-tenths of one per cent 

 of sugar from the beet root, at an estimated cost of eighty cents per 

 pound. About a month later (March 25th, 1811), Napoleon issued his 

 first decree, now famous for the encouragement and the impulse it gave 

 to this struggling industry. By this decree, there was appropriated one 

 million francs ($200,000) to provide for the planting of 32,000 hectares 

 (79,040 acres) in beets; "for the establishment of six experimental 

 schools, for giving instruction in the manufacture of beet sugar, con- 

 formably to the processes of chemists ;" as also for the experiments and 

 instruction in processes for the manufacture of indigo. In addition, it 

 was decreed, that the importation of sugar and indigo from England and 

 her colonies should be prohibited. It is interesting to observe that, at 

 this time, the value of the sugar and indigo imported into France 



