4^8 
Dr. Ure on the ultimate analysis of 
Remarks on the preceding analyses. 
l. Sugar. The sugar which I employed had been purified 
by Mr. Howard’s steam process, and was so well stov,e- 
dried, that it lost no appreciable portion of its weight, when 
enclosed along with sulphuric acid in vacuo. The diabetic 
sugar has a manifest excess of oxygen, which I believe to be 
the case with all weak sugars, as they are called by the sugar 
refiners. I consider this excess of oxygen as the chief cause 
which counteracts crystallization, and therefore the great 
obstacle to the manufacturer. The smallest proportion of 
carbon, which I have ever found in any cane sugar, was up- 
wards of 41 per cent. The experiments on starch and gum 
were among the earliest which I made, and the results differ 
so much from those given by other experimenters, that I 
shall repeat the analyses at the earliest opportunity. The 
constituents of the above three bodies, referred to the prime 
equivalent scale, will be approximately as follows : 
Sugar. 
Starch. 
Gum. 
Carbon 5 atoms 
3-75 
45-4 
5 atoms 
3-75 
40.5 
4 atoms 
3 -o 
35 - I 2 S 
Oxygen 4 
4.00 
48.5 
5 
5.00 
54.0 
5 
5.0 
58.90 
Hydrogen 4 
0.50 
6.1 
4 
0.50 
5-5 
4 
0.5 
CO 
8.25 
100.0 
9.25 
100.0 
8.5 
100.00 
I conceive the purest and strongest sugar to be constituted 
as here represented. 
All the elementary principles of organic nature may be 
considered as deriving the peculiar delicacy of their chemical 
equilibrium, and the consequent facility with which it may be 
subverted and new modelled, to the multitude of atoms 
