COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 293 



COMMITTEE ON GLUCOSE. 1882 



The request for the appointment of a committee of the 

 Academy on the vexed question of glucose was received from the 

 Commissioner of Internal Revenue a few days after the request 

 for a committee on methyl alcohol. In a letter addressed to 

 President Rogers, dated April 27, 1882, the Commissioner 

 remarks: 



" There is now pending before Congress a bill (H. R. 3170) ' to tax and regu- 

 late the manufacture and sale of glucose,' which bill proposes to so amend the 

 internal-revenue laws as to impose a special tax upon the manufacturers of, and 

 dealers in, glucose, and to levy a tax on the article in its solid, liquid, and semi- 

 liquid form. 



" In view of this, I have respectfully to request the appointment of a committee 

 of the Academy to examine as to the composition, nature, and properties of the 

 article commercially known as glucose, or grape sugar. 



" This office desires to be informed as to the saccharine quality of this product 

 as compared with cane sugar or molasses, and also especially as to its deleterious 

 effects when used as an article of food or drink, or as a constituent element of such 

 articles. 



" Numerous specimens of the article in question are in the possession of this, 

 office which will be placed at the disposal of the Academy. 



" Any expense necessarily incurred in conducting this inquiry will be paid upon 

 the presentation of a properly prepared bill for that purpose." "* 



In accordance with the request contained in this letter the 

 President, Wm. B. Rogers, appointed the following committee 

 to consider the question at issue: Ira Remsen, C. F. Chandler, 

 G. F. Barker. The committee reported on September 18, 1882. 



The magnitude of the starch-sugar industry in the United 

 States will be appreciated from the consideration of some 

 statistics taken from the report of the committee of the Academy 

 and from other sources. In 1882 there were 32 glucose and 

 starch-sugar factories in the country with an estimated capacity 

 of 43,000 bushels of corn a day. In 1884 there were 29 factories 

 capable "of utilizing 40,000 bushels a day. In 1902 the factories 

 had been reduced by combination to five which, however, used 

 175,000 bushels of corn a day. The combined capital of four of, 



'"'Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1883, p. 66. 



