164 



by ammonia or potash, this liquid appears to contain a consider- 

 able quantity of cane sugar, mixed with much glucose, or that sac- 

 charine matter ^Yhich is found. in fruits; gTim or dexti-ine, phos- 

 phates, and probably malates of lime and magnesia. Trith sulphates 

 and chlorides, potash and soda, and a peculiar azotised matter, al- 

 lied to albumen, vrhich forms an insoluble compound with lime, is 

 not coagulable by heat or acids, and runs readily into putrefactive 

 fermentation. 



To fi'ee it from these constituents, and enable it to yield pure 

 and crystallisable sugar, the liquor, on enteiing the boiling-house, 

 is received into the first of thi^ee clariliers. of the capacity of from 

 three himdred to a thousand gallons each. Here it is subjected 

 to the action of lime-water, which checks the tendency to fermen- 

 tation, and neutralises any free .acid which it may contain. The 

 common defection process," says Mr. Pownes, ''in carefud hands, 

 seems susceptible of little improvement. Many other substances 

 than lime have been proposed and tried with more or less success, 

 some of which, in particular states of the cane juice, may prove 

 very useful ; but, for general purposes, nothing seems to answer so 

 well as neutralisation by lime, either in the form of lime-water or 

 milk of lime, added until the slightest possibletendency to alkalinity, 

 as ascertained by dehcate reddened litmus paper, is perceived. 

 The juice should be somewhat heated before the lime is added, and 

 afterwards raised quite to the boiling point. The fire is then to be 

 withdrawn, and the whole allowed to rest a short time." Such is 

 Mr. Fownes' description of the process of clarification : to which 

 I will venture to add, upon the authority of those who have ex- 

 perienced its good eflects, the joint use of the mucilage of tlie 

 Guazuma ulmifolia, or gun-stock tree, as it is popularly termed in 

 ]!Sevis from the use to v>-hich its timber has been applied. This is 

 the bastard cedar of Jamaica, or Orme d'Amerique, and Eois 

 d'Orme of the French, which may be found described by Lunan, 

 in the first volume of his •'"Hortus Jamaicensis," page 59, inider 

 the name of Bulroma Guaxunia. 



This tree presents in the interval between its outer bai-k of sap- 

 'wood, a mass of fibrous matter about half an inch in thickness, 

 richly impregnated with mucilage, which is obtained by macerating 

 the fibrous mass, conveniently divided into small shreds, for about 

 twelve hours, in warm ^^■ater. in the proportion of about two hauds- 

 ful to eight gallon? of water. Oithis solution, which is of a lighj:, 

 straw Color, and somewhat thickened, one gallon is to be added for 

 every hundred gallons of cane juice, after the clarifier has been 

 charged with the proper quantity of lime-water, and has become 

 lukewarm. The mixture should then be stii'red, and afterw'ards 

 allowed to settle till the scum has risen to the surface. The fii'e 

 must next be cautiously and gradually raised to the point of boil- 

 ing, when it must again be slackened, and the whole left to stand 

 for about forty minutes, by which time the mass of feculen- 

 cies will have risen to the surface, when the clear liquor under- 

 neath may either be drawn off by a siphon or cock ; the whole may 



