1882O The War against Agriculture . 393 
is permitted to be sold under such deceptive names as “new 
process sugar.” There is great reason to fear that the ma- 
nufacture of glucose will be an injury both to the consumers 
and the producers of sugar. 
There are a series of chemical compounds which, some 
thirty years ago, were introduced into commerce with great 
flourish of trumpets, and which are still largely used in 
flavouring confectionery, beverages, &c. I refer to certain 
compound ethers which simulate the taste and smell of the 
pear, the apple, the pine-apple, the raspberry, the melon, the 
quince, &c. That these ethers are really present in the fruits 
in question is not proven, and there is reason to suspect that 
— despite their similarity in flavour and odour to the cha- 
racteristic principles occurring in these fruits — their physio- 
logical action is different, and their use of doubtful safety. 
However this may be, these essences have not affected the 
cultivation and sale of fruit. That, thanks to their aid, 
jams are now concocted in America and elsewhere which 
contain not a particle of fruit, is an unpleasant fact. 
The reader will perhaps be surprised to learn that an 
attempt has been made to obtain artificially coffee and cocoa, 
or at least their essential principles, caffeine and theo- 
bromine. These bodies have actually been produced, though 
whether at a remunerative price I am not prepared to say. 
The raw material is xanthine, one of the ingredients of 
Peruvian guano, — in other words, of the dung of sea-fowl ! 
Even, however, if caffeine and theobromine can be thus ob- 
tained as cheaply as in the natural way, it does not follow 
that coffee and cocoa can be artificially produced in their 
entirety from this somewhat repulsive source. 
Vanilla ranks among the tropical products endangered. 
Several processes for its formation have been devised. By 
one of these it is elaborated from coniferine, — a semi-fluid 
matter found beneath the bark of pine trees, — whilst in 
another the essential oil of cloves is the starting-point. The 
actual production of this aromatic principle, so as to be 
every way identical with the natural growth, is beyond all 
dispute. But it may still be questioned whether the project 
is commercially successful, since the cultivation of the vanilla 
plant in Trinidad, Mauritius, the Seychelles, &c., is in a very 
flourishing condition, and the planters are reaping a most 
satisfactory profit. 
Turning from dainties to medicines, we find that most 
persevering attempts have been made at the artificial pro- 
duction of quinine. It is almost a trite saying that Mr. 
Perkin was seeking to form this drug when he came upon 
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