SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM. 
261 
is mixed with lime, in the proportion of one pint of lime to one 
hundred gallons of juice, and heated to the temperature of 140.^ 
A thick scum soon forms on the top, from under which the clear 
liquor is drawn off, by a cock, into a large copper boiler, where it 
is briskly boiled till the bulk of the liquor is very considerably 
diminished. The boiling is successively repeated in four other 
progressively smaller coppers, and from the last, removed into 
shallow wooden coolers, where it crystallizes; it is then put into 
hogsheads, liaving holes at the bottom, into which the stalk of a 
plantain leaf is thrust. Through these holes the molasses drain off, 
and the process is finished. In this state the sugar is imported into 
Europe, under the name of raw or muscovada sugar. The loaf, or 
refined sugar is prepared in Europe, by first grinding the raw sugar^ 
then dissolving it in lime water, and clarifying with bullock's blood ; 
the liquid is then boiled down to a proper consistence, the impurities 
being skimmed off as they rise, and poured into conical earthen 
vessels, where it is allowed to drain, and any uncrystallizable impure 
syrup which may remain, runs through the perforated apex of the 
cone. , To obtain the purer sorts of loaf sugar, the loaves are re-dis- 
solved and heated a second time, when it obtains the name of 
refined sugar, and fetches a proportionably higher price. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. Raw sugar has a 
strong sweet taste, and a slight but peculiar odour ; refined sugar is 
inodorous, and proportionably milder in. taste, and when two pieces 
are struck together in the dark, emits a vivid phosphoric light. Raw 
sugar is in concrete masses, consisting of small irregular crystals, of 
a yellowish colour. Sugar is soluble in its own weight of cold water, 
it ^s also soluble in alcohol, and the solution affords crystals on 
evaporation. According to Berzelius, 100 parts of sugar in its 
ordinary state, contains 5.3 of water. Oils readily combine with 
sugar, and the mixture is miscible with water. Lime and the fixed 
alkalies unite with sugar, and form compounds, without any sweet- 
ness of taste. The concentrated mineral acids decompose and dis- 
solve sugar, but the weaker simply dissolve it ; and many of the 
vegetable acids when united to it prevent it from crystallizing. The 
hydro-sulphurets, sulphurets, and phosphurets decompose sugar, 
and convert it into a substance bearing a great resemblance to gum. 
When exposed to heat, it melts, swells, and becomes black. When 
sugar is boiled with peroxide of mercury and acetate of copper, 
these salts are converted into protoxides ; oxymuriate of mercury is 
converted into calomel, and sulphate of copper and nitrate of mer- 
cury are reduced to a metallic state. According to the analysis of 
VOL. II. 2 ^ 
