70 



MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR. 



sugar is obtained, and the quantity cannot be increased 

 without caramelising a portion. According to M. Duban- 

 faut, this depends on the fact, that one part of boiling 

 water can only dissolve five parts of sugar, and aban- 

 dons three on cooling, while one part of cold water dissolves 

 two parts of sugar ; and this constitutes the mother-water 

 or meiasses." 



We see from the above, that if the cane contained 60 

 per cent, of sugar, and only 30 per cent, of water, instead 

 of 18 per cent, of sugar, and 72 per cent, of water, the 

 sugar would still be in a liquid, and not in a crystalline 

 form. And we have the direct evidence of Dr. Davy, who, 

 during his late residence in the West Indies, made the 

 experiment in the most careful manner. Dr. D. says, " It 

 may be well in beginning, to consider what are the con- 

 tents of the ripe sugar cane. A fresh transverse section of 

 it, a thin slice, is found to be diaphonous, very like a thin 

 slice of an apple, or a turnip, and homogeneous, as seen by 

 the naked eye. Under the microscope it exhibits a cellular 

 structure, the cells containing a transparent fluid. There 

 is no appearance of crystals, nor of any opaque matter. If 

 the thin slice he dried, the appearance it presents is altered. 

 It is no longer homogeneous, as seen by the naked eye, or a 

 common magnifying glass. Little dots of an opaque 

 whitish matter are visible, protruding, as I believe, from 

 the divided longitudinal tubes, and cells are seen surround- 

 ing these opaque dots — cells which are transparent, and in 

 which, placed in sunshine, minute glittering crystals are 



