266 HUMBOLDT'S CUBA. 



proportions of crystallizable and uncrystallizable 

 sugar, albumen, gum, green fecula, and malic acid. 



The quantity of crystallizable sugar may be the 

 same, and yet, according to the operations used, the 

 quantity of sugar extracted from an equal weight 

 of juice, will vary considerably; this arises from the 

 different connection between the other peculiar prin- 

 ciples of crystallizable sugar. This sugar, on combin- 

 ing with some of the other principles, forms a syrup 

 which does not possess the quality of crystallization, 

 and remains in the refuse. A too great degree of 

 heat seems to hasten and increase the loss. These 

 considerations explain the reason why the sugar- 

 makers sometimes, at certain seasons of the year, 

 consider themselves bewitched, because, with the 

 same applications, they cannot make the .same quan- 

 tity of sugar. They also explain why the same juice, 

 under modified operations — for instance, the degrees 

 of heat, and the rapidity of boiling — yields more or 

 less sugar. 



It has been said, and I again repeat it, that we 

 must not look for great improvements in the manu- 

 facture of sugar, from the construction or manner 

 of setting the boilers and furnaces only, but from 

 improvements in the chemical operations, a more 

 intimate knowledge of the effect of lime, of alkaline 

 substances, of animal carbon, and, lastly, in an exact 



