CHAPTER IV. 



improvements arising from the efforts to render the 

 production of sugar from beet- root profitable — dr, 

 Mitchell's experiments on heating canes to prevent the 

 development of the fermentative action in the juice 

 after expression. 



The efforts made by the French to render the production 

 of sugar from beet-root profitable, called forth a vast 

 amount of scientific research, and adaptative ingenuity. 

 Among other successful experimenters, M. de Dombasle, 

 who, acting on the principle laid down by Liebig, of the pro- 

 perty of organic substances to pass into a state of fermen- 

 tation and decay, in contact with atmospheric air, being 

 annihilated in all cases, by heating to the boiling point, 

 has succeeded in obtaining the sugar by the process of cold 

 maceration, after first destroying the vitality of the beet 

 by ebullition. 



Dr. Mitchell, carrying out this suggestion further, has 

 lately made some experiments with canes, by plunging them 

 into boiling liquids, previous to the extraction of the juice, 

 and thus destroying the vitality of the incipient " matiere 



