392 The War against Agriculture . [July, 
against this country. No great success was achieved at first, 
but the idea was not abandoned at the fall of the first French 
empire. On the contrary, it was taken up in Belgium, 
Germany, Austria, and Russia ; and by dint of great perse- 
verance, a wonderful amount of skill, — both chemical and 
mechanical, — and lastly, though not least, by duties on the 
importation of colonial sugar, and by bounties on the ex- 
portation of the beet-root product, it has become a formidable 
rival to the true sugar. What would have been the case in 
an open market, especially if the same amount of scientific 
skill were applied to the cane as to the beet-root, may, how- 
ever, still be doubted. 
Beet-root sugar, when refined, — in other words, when freed 
from extraneous matter, — is, as I have before intimated, 
generally considered not merely equal to, but identical with, 
cane-sugar. Latterly, however, doubts are springing up. 
Some persons, possessing a very delicate organ of taste, 
profess that they can distinguish the two, and hive-bees are 
said to refuse beet-sugar if cane-sugar is within reach. One 
thing is certain : the beet-sugar has done very serious injury 
to certain important British colonies, to the trade between 
them and the home kingdoms, and to the sugar-refiners of 
England and Scotland. 
But cane-sugar, whether obtained from the cane or the 
beet, finds a formidable rival in glucose, a lower kind of sugar 
produced by the aCtion of sulphuric acid upon starches, and 
especially upon those of maize and of the potato. Glucose, 
it must be remarked, is not chemically identical with true 
sugar ; it has a lower sweetening power, and fortunately so 
far it refuses to crystallise, so that it cannot be introduced 
into lump sugar, or into the beautiful crystalline product 
once made by Finzel. But it is largely used in some parts 
of the world in the adulteration of soft sugars and honey, in 
the manufacture of jams, of various sweetmeats, and of 
wines. Now glucose as it occurs in Nature, though less 
sweet than cane-sugar, is a perfectly wholesome substance. 
Not so the artificial glucose made from the potato. It con- 
tains certain products which on fermentation yield amylic 
alcohol— the notorious “ fusel ” oil. Hence wines, spirits, 
cordials, &c., obtained from the fermentation of such glucose 
are decidedly unwholesome. Even in the unfermented state 
it is to be viewed with suspicion, as articles of food 
sweetened with it are very apt to occasion symptoms of 
indigestion. 
Glucose must, in short, be regarded not as an artificial 
sugar, but as an adulterant, and it is to be regretted that it 
