CANE SUGAR. 



of potash. As a general and well-marked rule, Geerligs found that when the 

 ratio of glucose to alkalinity is low, i.e., when there is much glucose and 

 little alkalinity, the solubility of sugar in molasses is greater than when the 

 reverse is the case. A further point brought out by the analyses is that when 

 a large proportion of undetermined constituents occurred the solubility of the 

 sugar was low, the undetermined bodies being probably substances of similar 

 constitution to glucose and acting in the same way. 



To further test the results found on a study of natural molasses Geerligs 

 formed artificial molasses out of sugar, purified honey and various salts ; the 

 salts employed were the acetates of potash, soda and lime, the apoglucinates* 

 of the same bases, inorganic salts such as the chlorides and sulphates, and 

 mixtures of organic and inorganic salts. The method of experiment was that 

 the calculated quantities of sugar, honey, salt and water were put into large 

 flasks, sterilized at 100 C., plugged with cotton wool and allowed to crystallize. 

 The following results were obtained : solutions with acetates only produced no 

 inversion, those with apoglucinates produced little inversion ; solutions with 

 inorganic salts always inverted and the inversion was greatest when the 

 quantity of glucose was greatestf ; when organic salts and inorganic salts were 

 present the inversion was much less than in the immediately preceding case. 

 The results already obtained with regard to the solubility of sugar in the 

 presence of other bodies were completely confirmed and in addition it was 

 found that the sugar-precipitating power of the organic salts was greatest in 

 the order lime, potash, soda. 



The inversion of sugar by the combined effect of glucose and salts was 

 then investigated ; it was found that glucose per se had no inverting effect but 

 that in the presence of salts, organic or otherwise, it had. Geerligs explains 

 these experimental phenomena in these words, ' ... the entire action of 

 molasses forming is explained by the assumption that loth sugar and glucose, and 

 those products of decomposition of the latter which resemble caramel, have a 

 tendency to combine with the bases of the salts, and hence to a certain extent act as 

 acids.'* This statement is in entire accord with the theories of Van't Hoff 

 expressed symbolically as 



Glucose -f- Salt "^I^L Glucosate -f- Acid 



i.e., if glucose and salt occur together in solution they are mutually to a 

 certain extent dissociated ; the same equation holds equally for saccharose. 



In accordance with this equation, if saccharose and an organic salt are 

 present together, they are both to a certain extent dissociated, and the 

 saccharose forms with the base a very soluble hygroscopic compound, and hence 

 is explained the abnormal solubility of sugar in beet molasses, which contain 

 but little glucose. When glucose is present along with saccharose, the glucose 



* The decomposition products formed on heating glucose with lime, 

 t cf. Article 'Inversion,' in Chapter XIII. 



390 



