No. 5. — 1850.] SUGAR MANUFACTURE. 



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drained syrups granulated well on being boiled a second and 

 third time ; but if not for the lime, a very small portion of 

 syrup or molasses would drain from it on the very first 

 boiling, as I have since proved. Our toddy-drawer boiled a 

 lot from which the lime had been extracted by egg, and to 

 his great surprise the result was a jaggery actually whiter 

 than that made from bark toddy. 



I need not tell any sugar maker that it is a popular error 

 to think that eggs make sugar or syrup white. The 

 albumen has no decolorising power at all, but only removes 

 those impurities which would have made the sugar dark. 

 If therefore we extract these by any other means it will do 

 equally well. If it be true, what the natives tell us, 

 that bark will not prevent the juice from fermenting some- 

 what in rainy weather (though that I doubt), if we are 

 compelled to use lime, it is just as well that we know how 

 to get it out. A nut is sold in the bazaars called in Tamil 

 kaddukai, and used by the tanners, but it is not the true 

 gallnut. On the addition of an infusion of the powdered 

 nuts to the strongly limed but clear liquor, a very abundant 

 precipitate took place. The liquor, being filtered, was as 

 brilliantly transparent as rock crystal, and all the sub- 

 sequent processes perfectly satisfactory. I now find that 

 the solution or infusion of kaddukai should be added to the 

 liquor at the temperature of 140° to 160°, and that filtered 

 a minute after reaching the boiling point. The precipitate 

 was a reddish brown colour. The result of this experiment, 

 which I have repeated since, using another material, gave 

 the sugar No. 2. The kaddukai infusion gives a dark blue 

 or nearly black colour with the muriate of iron, and forms 

 a precipitate with the solution of gelatine. The following 

 day, to give this experiment its collateral test, I ground 

 twenty-five canes, which produced me two and a half gallons 

 of juice, at 9°, to which I added two drams of lime. On the 



