ON DIFFERENT SPECIES OF SUGAR, 31 1 



this respect analogous to honey and other sup^ars, it would 

 "be necessary to analyse some fat mannas, of the purity of 

 which we could be certain ; but this is not at present in my 

 power. 



A distinguishing character of manna is to form with nitric yields oxalic 

 acid the two acids afforded by gram, sugar of milk, mucilage 3"<i mucous 

 of linseed, &c. ; while honey, which approaches manna i" but honey doe« 

 degree of consistency, does not. not. 



Manna abounds in America, according to the report of Abundant ia 

 travellers. Herrera says : *' In the season there falls a large ^."^^"ca, 

 quantity of a dew, which coagulates like sugar, and the use 

 of which is so wholesome, that they call it manna" Is this 

 our manna ? or is it a particular kind of sugar ? Father 

 Picolo, one of the first spiritual conquerors of California, 

 'lil ;wise asserts, that it exudes from the shrubs abundantly 

 in April, May, and June. In Spain manna is so plentiful, ^^^ -^^ Spain. 

 that all Europe might be furnished with it, according to the 

 4'eport of two members of the Academy of Physic at Ma- 

 drid, who were directed to make the inquiry by the Mar- 

 quis of Ensenada. 



There is at present no doubt, that sugar exists in a mul- su<^ar exists ia 

 titud€ of vegetables, fruits, roots, and stalks, in the sap of many plants, 

 the palm, birch, maple, bamboo, maize, &c. : but we do 

 not yet know, whether that of the beet, from which Achard 

 has professed to manufacture it, and of other vegetables, in 

 which Margraif discovered it, be really of the same qua- 

 lity as that of the cane, or a different species ; like those 

 that follow. 



It does not appear for instance, that the sugar of the Maple sugar. 

 maple is very similar to that of the cane, The juice of this 

 tree commonly affords five per cent of solid sugar : it is to 

 be presumed, that it has likewise its melasses, or sugar of 

 the second species. Travellers say, that it is three or four 

 times as long in dissolving as the sugar of the cane ; that it 

 sweetens less ; that the latter is preferred to it for chocolate ; 

 and that a portion of the latter is mixed with it for con- 

 fectionary. Hence it should seem, that the sugar of the 

 maple is not so agreeable as that of the cane. 



We are told too, that in Egypt they extract from the pod Sugar from the 



of the carob tree a kind of honey, which is much prized by locust tree or 



- St. Johns 

 ^''e *te?id. 



