JaNUARV I, 1891,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
473 
which of course would give a much larger profit, but 
in order to sell the quantity required they must reduce 
the price, I imagine. If it ia possible to get agents 
in all the towns that it is desired to be repre- 
sented in, a very small quantity sold annually by 
each agent will do it. 
November 24th. — The more I look at the scheme of 
this Company the less objectionable it seems. I got so 
far as that it required to earn 10 per cent on its turnover 
to pay 0 per cent on its total capital when I last wrote to 
you i think. I have now got a step further, viz : that 
inasmuch as a man gets 2 shares for one, 6 per cent 
will be equal to 12 per cent to him and therefore 5 per 
cent on the turnover will yield equal to 6 per cent 
making a very feasible and workable thing of it. I have 
no doubt the thing is in the hands of respectable people 
and will with push and energy prove success.” We hear 
from Messrs. Wattson &Farr this morning that they 
are successful in getting some good Agents and think 
• he cj-operative scheme will work very well, 
t 
BARK AND DRUG REPORT. 
(From the Chemist and Druggist.) 
London, Nov. 6th. 
OtNCHOjjA.— At the periodical auctions held on Tuesday 
a moderate quantity of bark was offered, the catalogues 
comprising 
Packages Packages 
Ceylon bark ... .1,675 of which 1,432 were sold 
Ease Indian bark 
.. 322 
do 
'268 
do 
Java bark 
.... 42 
do 
42 
do 
S. American bark .. 
... 354 
do 
196 
do 
Total 
2,393 
do 
1,938 
do 
It will, therefore, be seen that of the Eastern barks 
offered over 85 per cent were disposed of, while the 
proportion of bark sold to the total offered was about 
1 per cent. The auctions opened with fairly steady com- 
petition, but gradually the demaxid slackened, and liolders 
occasionally accepted a slight decline on the previous 
rates for manufacturing barks. The tone of the market 
was barely steady, aud the unit cannot be quoted higher 
than from IJd to Igd per lb. Druggists’ barks, however, 
particularly red shavings, were very well competed for 
aud brought full prices. The assortment of bark was a 
poor one, especially that of Ceylon bark, ordinary Succi- 
rubra chips aud root making up the bulk of the 
supply. But there were several parcels of good strong 
Crown bark imported from Bombay. 
The prices were evidently considered low enough by some 
speculators to tempt them to secure a small quantity, aud 
about 9 tons were thus bought through a firm of brokers. 
It should be well understood that the mere weight of 
bark purchased affords no guide whatever to the quinine 
yield represented by it, firms who by a sm ll quantity 
of bark by weight frequently taking the ricliest lots 
aud vice versa. 
Quinine. — The point reached this week is the lowest 
which has been known for some months. At the close 
of last week about 30,000 oz of German bulk in the 
second-hand sold at Is per oz., and the week opened 
with further sellers at that figure. Another parcel of 
20,000 oz subsequently sold at 11 Jd per oz while for 10,000 
February and April delivery 12Jd was accepted ; since 
then, however, the market has somewhat improved, and 
t closes today with buyers at Is per oz., but no sellers 
at that figure. The result of the Amsterdam bark sales 
may, however, afl'ect the position of the article again. 
We hear of a sale of 5,000 oz second-h nd German today 
at 12id per oz for February. 
THE ARTIFICIAL ITIODUCTION OF SUGARS. 
Barely have Bukty-two years elapsed since the 
great German chemist Wohler prepared urea artifici- 
ally. I'p to that date the opinion was generally held 
that all chemical compounds which are found in the 
bodies ol animals or pi vuts could not be made arti- 
licially. They, it was said, are the results of vital 
acMon, and the endeavour to prepire them in the 
laboratory was considered as impossible, and almost 
as wicked as to try to manufacture an homunculus. 
Wbhler’s discovery at ouoe dissipated that false notion 
anil since his time the labours of chemists 
have resulted in the manufacture of hundreds 
of compounds formerly only obtainable by natural 
prqoeasea carried on in living organisms. The latest 
and perhaps the most remarkable of these triumphs 
of synthetic chemistry has just been made known 
to ns. The group of bodies termed by chemists the 
carbo-hydrates— because they are composed of carbon 
united with oxygen and hydrogen in the proportion 
in which those two elements combine to form water 
— contain the well-known series of sugars, gums, and 
starches. The chemical composition of these bodies 
has long been known, but a knowledge of their con- 
stitution that is, the mode in which their several 
constituent parts are put together— has only recently 
been acquired. It is clear that until we know 
what is the structure of a complicated arrangement 
of atoms, it ia useless to attempt to build up that 
arrangement. We must have a plan of the house be- 
fore we can build it. Such a plan of the structure 
of the sugars is now in our possession, and their 
artificial production has therefore become a possi- 
bility, and in the hands of a distinguished German 
chemist. Professor Emil Fischer, of Wiirzburgj that 
possibility has just been converted into a reality. 
The various steps by which this great resu't has 
been accomplished can only be explained and ap- 
preciated by those familiar with the intricacies of 
modern organic chemistry. But the importance 
of the discovery ia patent to all. The group of 
carbo-hydrates (sugar and starch) are, next to the 
albuminoids (eggs and flesh), the most important 
material needed to support animal life. Indeed, the 
vegetarians would, and perhaps rightly, place them first. 
Can we look forward to a time when the chemist will 
mannfaoture our sugar, when the sugar-cane and the 
beet-root will cease to be planted, because their pro- 
ducts can be more cheaply manufactured from coal or 
wood? Results apparently as improbable have hap- 
pened. Who could have foreseen that the thousands 
of acres upon which the madder-plant grew in France 
and Turkey would now yield corn aud hay, because it 
was found that the dye tormerly obtained from that 
plant can be more cheaply ma lo from coal-tar ? So, 
too, indigo has been artificially obtained, and who 
can tell that a recent new process for its 
manufacture may not prove fatal to the indigo 
planter P That the process of making sugar 
artificially is now too expensive to compete 
with JSature is, therefore, no proof that cheaper pro- 
cesses will not be discovered ; indeed, that this will 
happen may be taken for granted. So that,” looking 
back to the enormous strides which chemistry has 
made during the last half-century, and seeing what 
has already been accomplished, he would be a bold 
man who should dare to define the limits of her 
power, or to declare that our grandchildren may not 
use artificial sugar to sweeten their tea, and that 
Jain iica may know the sugar- oai e no more. From 
a biological point of view, too, this discovery is 
of deip interest and importance. We know nothing, 
or as good as uotliing, of the prccesaes by which 
sugar is produced in the p ant, nor how this sugar 
is transformed into starch, iat, and woody fibre. 
Are the.'-e results due to a special vital force, or does" 
this expression merely serve as a cloak for our 
ignorance, and will careful investigation show that 
these substances are built up in the plant by 
methods similar to those which are now successfully 
employed in our laboratories ? That this latter is 
the true view is the belief of the chemist, and nearer 
towards that end the discovery of Fischer has un- 
doubtedly brought us. 
An interested physiological question now presents 
itself. Supposing that these artificial sugars were to be- 
come articles of common diet, what will be their effect 
on the animal economy? That two chemical compounds 
may possofs the same composition, and even the same 
chemical arrangement of their parts, and yet act dif- 
ferently from a physiological point of view, is well- 
known. And still more likely will this be if the arti- 
ficial sugar differs in composition from the natural 
one. The blood and tissue which are formed from the 
artificial carbo-hydrates may differ from those which 
are the results of the assimilation of the natural 
sugars. If the pig and the goose were fattened on an 
artificial diet, their fat might differ from that which 
