Rum. 79 



to pass or condemn non-chemical sugar, it, unfortunately, 

 cannot gauge the price of a yellow sugar. 



We have the misfortune to cater to a fancy of 

 the most changeable type. So it is with rum. We 

 have to suit an unknown personal taste, and, let 

 us do our best, if we halve a sample, A. will laud it, while 

 B. will probably call it " beastly stuff." But the chances 

 are that B. does not know what a good rum is, as 

 the sniffing test is still fashionable ; and we come 

 back again to the desirability of a " polariscope," 

 wherein B's taste is the optical part that indi- 

 cates " beastly stuff." In others words, if we had 

 such ready chemical tests as could permanently record 

 B's taste in some fixed way, we should be able to avoid 

 shocking B., and at the same time to please A. 



It is with the hope, therefore, that some universal 

 method may be introduced, not only here but by the 

 buyers also, so that every one's particular liking may be 

 recorded in figures, that I have come forward with the 

 following contribution to the subje6l. The " everybody" 

 in this case is probably a few individuals in two or three 

 markets. 



Another reason that should demand the more system- 

 atic analysis of rum is the desire to guard our produfl 

 from being imitated by the Continental spirit. Unless 

 analyses of the genuine spirit be well known and widely 

 circulated, analysts would find some difficulty in distin- 

 guishing the genuine from the imitation. 



In no book or paper have I met with any analysis of 

 rum. Writers content themselves with the mere 

 mention that Rum is the spirit obtained from the 

 fermentation of cane sugar molasses. Blyth further 



