Miscellaneous Intelligence. 303 
during evaporation, and above all, of those which require for their de- 
velopment the joint action of air and a free alkali. 
t seems that colored substances which, under ordinary gircumstan- 
mixed with—1, a common solution of sugar; 2, the crude sap of the . 
Sugar-cane; 3, the juice of beet-root; no coloration was produced. By 
an evaporation of the same substances at a high temperature, the colora- 
tion was scarcely visible; indeed, with red beet-root the color was com- 
pletely destroyed, and the sugar obtained was perfectly white. 
It seems, then, that bisu!phite of lime can be employed in the extrac- 
‘tion of sugar :—Ist, as an antiseptic, preventing the production and ace 
tion of any ferment; 2nd, as a substance greedy of oxygen, opposing 
any alteration that might be caused by its action on the juice; 3rd, as 
a clarifier, coagulating at a temperature of 212° all aibuminous and 
other coagulable matters; 4th, as a body bleaching all pre-existing col- 
ored products; 5th, as a body opposing itself in a very high degree to 
the formation of colored substances; 6th, as a base capable of neutral. 
izing any hurtful acids which might exist or be formed in the juice, 
and substituting in their place a weak inactive acid, namely, sulphur- 
ous acid. 
M. Melsens is of opinion that sugar can be obtained from the sugar- 
y 
adopting bisulphite of lime, as above recommended, is at least double 
that obtained by the usual processes. 
In consequence of M. Melsens having made all his experiments on 
the sugar-cane at Paris, and therefore ona small scale, he is not able 
to state how bisulphite of lime can best be used in the large colonial: 
Sugar manufactories, but is compelled to leave the application of the 
Principles on which his method depends to the intelligence of the man- 
ufacturers themselves. 
