Analysis of Sugar Cane, 



511 



Report of the Committee of the Academy, by M. Thenard, on the 

 Memoir of M. Peligot, of which the foregoing is an extract. 



Researches having for their object the exact determination of the 

 relative quantities of the different matters obtained immediately from 

 sugar cane, would at any time command the special attention of the 

 public, but at the present day, they possess a new degree of interest 

 from existing circumstances. 



M. Peligot therefore deserves praise for having undertaken such 

 researches, and the more so, that he has succeeded in correcting 

 very mischievous errors in an art so important as that of extracting 

 the sugar of the cane. 



The authors who have engaged in the analysis of vesou, or cane 

 juice, had regarded it as water, holding in solution sugar, gum, albu- 

 men, mucilage, a sort of soapy matter, acids, and different salts, as in 

 short, a very complicated liquid ; to which circumstance they attri- 

 buted the difficulty of extracting the sugar. 



M. Peligot shews, on the contrary, that filtered vesou is formed 

 simply of four parts of water and one of crystalizable sugar ; that 

 it is only sugared water, or at least, that the other organised or sa- 

 line substances found in it do not amount to 1.7 part per 100 of 

 its weight. 



Examining next how much juice is contained in the cane, he finds 

 with M. Avequin, that it holds 90 per cent. Therefore, as the sugar 

 forms a fifth of the vesou, the fresh cane must contain 18 per cent, 

 of sugar, a much larger quantity than that which has been always 

 allowed to it. 



How happens it, notwithstanding, that the manufacturers obtain 

 from the cane only six to eight parts of sugar, and three to two of 

 molasses from 100 parts of cane ? Or even according to M. Jabrun, 

 Delegate from Guadaloupe, that the sugar produced amounts to only 

 4 per cent., and the molasses to 1.7 ? It is because the rolling mill 

 extracts only ~ of the juice according to the researches of M. Peli- 

 got and M. Avequin, and only | according to M. de Jabrun. 



At all events it is now well established, that a great quantity of 

 sugar remains in the milled cane, and is burned with the bagasse. 



