Book I. VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY 2J? 



much previous practice in analytical research. But whatever may be the object of 



analysis, or the particular view of the experimenter, the processes which he employs are 



either mechanical or chemical. 



139" The mechanical processes are such as are effected bv the agency of mechanical powers, and are 

 often indeed the operation of natural causes ; hence the origin of gums and other spontaneous exudations. 

 But the substances thus obtained do not always How sufficiently fast to satisiy the wants or necessities of 

 man ■ and men have consequently contrived to accelerate the operations of nature by means of artificial 

 aid in the application of the wimble or axe, widening the passages which the extravasated fluid has 

 forced, or opening up new ones. It more frequently happens, however, that the process employed is 

 Wholly artificial, and altoeether effected without the operation of natural causes. When the juices are 



eii 



...closed in vesicles lodgedin parts that are isolated or may easily be isolated, the vesicles may be opened 

 by means of rasps or graters, and the juices expressed bv the hand, or by some other fit instrument. 

 Thus the volatile oil may be obtained that is lodged in the rind of the lemon. W hen the substance to be 

 extracted lies more deeply concealed in the plant, or in parts which cannot be easily detached trom the 

 rest, it may then become necessary to pound or bruise the whole or a great part ot the plant, and to 

 subject it, thus modified, to the action of the press. In this manner seeds are sometimes treated to 

 express their essential oils. If, bv the action of bruising or pressing, heterogeneous ingredients have 

 Ken mixed together, thev may generally be separated with considerable accuracy by means ot decant- 

 ation, when the substances held in suspension have been precipitated. Thus the acid ot lemons, 

 oranges, gooseberries, and other fruits, may be obtained in considerable purity, when the mucilage 

 that was mixed with them has subsided. , . , . 



1393. The chemical processes are such as are effected by the agency of chemical powers, and may be 

 reduced to the following : distillation, combustion, ti.e action of water, the action ot acids and alkalies, 

 the action of oils and alcohols, and lastly fermentation. They are much more intricate in their nature 

 than the mechanical processes, as well as more difficult in their application, 



1394. Of the products of vegetable analysis, as obtained by the foregoing processes, some consist of several 

 heterogeneous substances, and are consequently compound, as being capable of farther decomposition; 

 and some consist of one individual substance only, and are consequently simple, as being incapable of 

 further decomposition. 



Sect. I. Compound Products. 



1395. The compound products of analysis are very numerous in themselves, and much 

 diversified in their qualities. They are gum, sugar, starch, gluten, albumen, fibrine, 

 extract, tannin, colouring matter, "bitter principle, narcotic principle, acids, oils, wax, 

 resins, gum resins, balsams, camphor, caoutchouc, cork, woody fibre, sap, proper juice, 

 charcoal, ashes, alkalies, earths, and metallic oxides. 



1396. Gum is an exudation that issues spontaneouslv from the surface of a variety of plants, in the 

 state of a clear, viscid, and tasteless fluid, that gradually hardens upon being exposed to the action of 

 the atmosphere, and condenses into a solid mass. It issues copiously from many fruit trees, but especially 

 from such as produce stone-fruit, as plum and cherry trees. From plants or parts ot plants containing 

 it, but not discharging it by spontaneous exudation, it may be obtained by the process ot maceration 111 



water. ■«.«_■ j .• 1 t 



1397 The uses o' gum are considerable. In all its varieties it is capable of being used as an article ot 

 food, and is highly nutritive, though not very palatable. It is also employed in the arts, particularly in 

 calico-printing, in which the printer makes choice of it to give consistence to his colours, and to prevent 

 them from spreading. The botanist often uses it to fix his specimens upon paper, for which purpose it is 

 very well adapted. It forms likewise an ingredient in ink ; and in medicine it torms the basis ot many 

 mixtures, in which its influence is sedative and emollient. . 



1J98. Sit'-ar is the produce of the Saccharum officinarum. The canes or stems of theplant, when ripe, 

 are bruised between the rollers of a mill, and the expressed juice is collected and put into large boilers, in 

 whicli it is mixed with a small quantity of quicklime, or strong ley of ashes, to neutralise its acid, and is 

 then made to boil; the scum, which gathers on the top during the process of boiling, being caretullv cleared 

 away. When the juice has been boiled down to the consistence of a syrup, it is drawn oft and allowed to 

 cool in vessels which are placed above a cistern, and are perforated with small holes through which the 

 impure and liquid part, known by the name of molasses, escapes ; while the remaining part is converted 

 into a mass of small and hard granules of a brownish or whitish colour, known by the designation of raw 

 sugar, which when imported into Europe is further purified by an additional process, and converted by 

 filtration or crystallisation into what is called loaf sugar, refined sugar, or candied sugar. Ihe juice of 

 the yTcer saccharinum, or American maple, yields sugar in such considerable abundance as to make it an 

 object with the North American farmer to manufacture it for his own use. A hole is bored in the trunk 

 of the vegetating tree early in the spring, for the purpose of extracting the sap ; of which a tree ot ordi- 

 nary size, that is, of froni two to three feet in diameter, will yield from one hundred and fitly to two 

 hundred pints and upwards, in a good season. The sap, when thus obtained and neutralised by lime, 

 deposits, by evaporation, crystals of sugar in the proportion of about a pound of sugar to forty pints ot 

 sap. It is not materially different in its properties from that of the sugar-cane. The juice ot the grape, 

 rt-hen ripe, yields also a sugar by evaporation and the action of potashes, which is known by the appel- 

 lation of the" sugar of grapes, and has lately been employed in France as a substitute for colonial sugar, 

 though it is not so sweet or agreeable to the taste. The root of Beta vulgaris, or common beet, yields 

 also, bv boiling and evaporation, a sugar which is distinguished by a peculiar and slightly bitter taste, 

 owing perhaps to the presence of a bitter extractive matter which has been found to be one of the con- 

 stituents of the beet. Sugar has been extracted from the following vegetables also, or from their produc- 

 tions : from the sap of the birch, sycamore, bamboo, maize, parsnep, cow-parsnep, American aloe, dulse, 

 walnut tree, and cocoa-nut tree ; from the fruit of the common arbutus, and other sweet-tasted fruits ; 

 from the roots of the turnip, carrot, and parsley ; from the flower of the Euxine rhododendron ; and trom 

 the nectary of most other flowers. . . 



1399. The utility of sugar, as an aliment, is well known ; and it is as much relished by many animals 

 as bv man. By bees it is sipped from the flowers of plants, under the modification of nectar, and con- 

 verted into honey ; and also seems to be relished bv many insects, even in its concrete state ; as it is also 

 by many birds. By man it is now regarded as being altogether indispensable, and though used chiefly to 

 give a relish or seasoning to food, is itself highly nutritive. It is also of much utility in medicine, and 

 celebrated for its anodyne and antiseptic qualities, as well as thought to be peculiarly efficacious in pre- 

 venting diseases by worms. 



1400. Starch. If a quantity of wheaten flour is made into a paste with water, and kneajleo. and 



market by washing and edulcorating it with water, and afterwards <U \ mg 



