OF SUGAR. 249 



it contains the elements of carbonic acid and alcohol, 

 minus 1 atom of water. The alcohol and carbonic 

 acid produced by the fermentation of a certain quan- 

 tity of sugar, contain together one equivalent of oxy- 

 gen, and one equivalent of hydrogen, the elements, 

 therefore, of one equivalent of water, more than 

 the sugar contained. The excess of weight in the 

 products is thus explained most satisfactorily ; it is 

 owing, namely, to the elements of water having 

 taken part in the metamorphosis of the sugar. 



It is known that 1 atom of sugar contains 

 12 equivalents of carbon, both from the propor- 

 tions in which it unites with bases, and from 

 the composition of saccharic acid the product of 

 its oxidation. Now none of these atoms of car- 

 bon are contained in the sugar as carbonic acid, 

 because the whole quantity is obtained as oxalic 

 acid, when sugar is treated with hypermanganate 

 of potash (Gregory); and as oxalic acid is a lower 

 degree of the oxidation of carbon than carbonic 

 acid, it is impossible to conceive that the lower 

 degree should be produced from the higher, by 

 means of one of the most powerful agents of oxida- 

 tion which we possess. " 



It can be also proved, that the hydrogen of the 

 sugar does not exist in it in the form of alcohol, 

 for it is converted into water and a kind of carbon- 

 aceous matter, when treated with acids, particularly 

 with such as contain no oxygen ; and this manner 

 of decomposition is never suffered by a compound 

 of alcohol. 



