440 



SUGAR. 



larly by Tholuck, in his Ssufismus Pcrsarum, &c. 

 (Berlin, 1821), from Oriental manuscripts. The 

 most important information on this subject is con- 

 tained in the Drops of the Well of Life, a Persian 

 work, translated into Turkish, and published, in 

 ISL'O (Hegira 123u'), at Constantinople (printed at 

 Scutari), a work of the greatest authority with the 

 Persians and Turks. (See Hammer's remarks in 

 the Leipsic Literary Gazette of 1822, p. 2054.) 

 Hussein, known under the name of Sufi, wrote a 

 History of the most famous Sheiks of the Order of 

 the Dervises (Nacshbendi) in the year 1503 (He- 

 gira 909). The order of Nacshbendi originated, 

 indeed, as late as the time of sultan Osman (1319 ; 

 Hegira 709) ; but all the Mohammedan religious 

 orders trace their doctrines, and their claims to mys- 

 tic power (transmitted by the communication of 

 the breath and mantle), to Abubeker and Ali, the 

 disciples of the prophet. Mohammed had said, in- 

 deed, " There is no monasticism in the Islam :" but 

 the spirit of monasticism, which originally had its 

 seat in India and Upper Asia, soon penetrated into 

 his religion, when the Arabians, having become ac- 

 quainted with Indian, Greek, and Persian literature, 

 began to devote themselves to study and contem- 

 plation. Thus originated the Mohammedan asce- 

 tics. But the pantheistic doctrine of the modern 

 Sufis, subsequently introduced, agrees so remarka- 

 bly with the doctrine of the Indian Vedanta, that 

 the Indian origin of Sufism cannot be denied. 



SUGAR. This important substance is a consti- 

 tuent part of a number of plants. It is afforded 

 especially by the sugar cane, the maple, and the beet. 

 When the cane is ripe, it is cut down, and crushed 

 between iron cylinders, moved by the steam-engine, 

 water, or animal strength. The juice is received in 

 a shallow trough, placed beneath the cylinders ; 

 whence it is conveyed into boilers, where it is heated 

 with lime, care being taken to remove the scum as 

 it rises. After having undergone considerable eva- 

 poration, it is called syrup, and is poured into a 

 vessel called the cooler, where it is agitated with 

 wooden stirrers, which break the crust as it forms on 

 the surface. It is afterwards poured into casks, to 

 accelerate its cooling ; and while it is still warm, it 

 is conveyed into barrels, standing upright over a 

 cistern, and pierced through their bottom with seve- 

 ral holes stopped with cane. The syrup, which is 

 not condensed, filters through these canes, into the 

 cistern beneath, and leaves the sugar in the state 

 called Muscovado. This sugar is yellow, and is 

 further purified by various processes, as that of boil- 

 ing with bullock's blood, or with animal charcoal 

 (bone black) ; and the passing of the syrup through 

 a system of canvas filters, aided by the intermixture 

 with it of a small quantity of pasty, gypsum and 

 alumina, made by saturating a solution of alum with 

 quicklime. Loaf sugar is procured by putting the 

 sugar, after it has been thus purified, into unglazed 

 earthen, conical-shaped vessels, having a hole at the 

 apex, but placed in an inverted position; the base, 

 after the sugar is poured in, is covered with clay. 

 When thus drained of its impurities', it is taken out 

 of the mould, wrapped in paper, and dried or baked 

 In an oven. It is now loaf sugar, and, according to 

 the number of processes which it undergoes, is 

 called single or double refined. Sugar candy is 

 formed by dissolving loaf sugar in water, over a fire, 

 boiling it to a syrup, and then exposing it to crys- 

 tallize in a cool place. This is much esteemed in 

 the East. The syrups which cease to afford sugar, 

 are sold by the name of molasses. 



Every description of mechanism that is used in 

 refining has been applied to the evaporation of cane 

 juice in the West Indies; but a firm, well-defined 

 crystal has only been obtained by the direct appli- 

 cation of flame to evaporation. This method is 

 therefore almost universally adopted ; and the more 

 rapid the action, the better is the produce. If the 

 process be retarded by the use of bad fuel, or any 

 other cause, the crystal is soft ; the decomposition 

 in the process of draining is great, and the sugars 

 are deteriorated by moist, or sea air, in transit to 

 market. Similar causes produce similar effects to 

 a certain extent in Britain; and for this reason, 

 confectioners prefer sugars that are refined by the 

 direct action of flame, to those operated upon in 

 any manner by steam ; these last, when intended 

 for exportation, require to be highly dried, and by 

 much the greater proportion exported are operated 

 upon in the old way. 



The manufacture of sugar from the beet, which 

 has now become so extensive in France, is a more 

 complicated process. The beet roots are pulled out 

 of the ground, and their necks and rootlets cut off. 

 They are then washed, reduced to a pulp by a rasp- 

 ing machine, and pressed to obtain their juice, which 

 scarcely differs from that of the cane, except in 

 being somewhat less rich in sugar. The juice is 

 transferred to a copper boiler, furnished with two 

 stop-cocks, the one of which is fixed near the bot- 

 tom, and the other a few inches higher up, being 

 previously mixed with one four-hundredth part of 

 sulphuric acid, and a quantity of cream of lime, rather 

 more than enough for the saturation of the acid. 

 Heat is now applied as briskly as possible to the 

 copper. A solid thick froth, of a greenish-gray co- 

 lour, forms and deposits to a considerable amount, 

 and the juice assumes a yellow hue, and becomes 

 clarified. After an hour or two, the scum is re- 

 moved and thrown on drainers, to save as much of 

 the juice as possible. The clear juice is now run 

 off successively, by the two stop-cocks, beginning 

 with the higher, and the sediment is added to the 

 froth on the filters. The juice is next transferred 

 to a boiler, built on a level below the first, and is 

 there evaporated by a quick fire. Whenever its 

 density reaches to 1-12 (24 of Twaddel's hydro- 

 meter), animal charcoal is introduced in powder, 

 and the concentration carried on, till its specific 

 gravity is 1-24 (48 of Twaddel). The froth is re- 

 moved as it forms. About two parts of animal 

 charcoal are usually added to 100 of juice. The 

 syrup is now filtered through woollen cloth, and 

 allowed to cool. In the course of the night a con- 

 siderable quantity of sulphate of lime is deposited, 

 which must be carefully separated, prior to boiling 

 up the liquor for crystallization. This concluding 

 stage of the process is the same as that employed 

 for the juice of the sugar cane. The refining of 

 the raw beet sugar is conducted in the same way 

 as that of the cane, and the results are described as 

 being equally productive. The extraction of sugar 

 from the juice of the maple is exceedingly simple. 

 At the commencement of the spring, in the North- 

 ern States and Canada, the sugar maple trees are 

 tapped near the ground, by numerous apertures, and 

 the sap is collected in wooden troughs ; two hundred 

 pounds of which afford, by evaporation, fifteen 

 pounds of a brownish sugar, which is capable of 

 being refined in the same manner as the sugar from 

 the cane and the beet. 



Pure sugar occurs as a white granular solid, but 

 may be crystallized in four or six-sided prisms, ter- 



