SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 317 
sugar-making in general, but they have also not been tried. Without 
them, however, a point has been reached, when, with vacuum pans, 
Centrifugal machines, appareils a triple ejfet, and other old inventions 
and new applications, white sugar can be as cheaply made as brown, 
and when, were it not for the scale of duties, we should receive all our 
sugar in a fit state for immediate use. With regard to M. Reynoso's 
process, the following particulars are extracted from a paper read by 
that gentleman before the French Academie des Sciences, and reported 
in the ' Comptes Rend us ' of that body. M. A. Rejnoso commences by 
saying : — ' The process for the treatment of saccharine juices, which I 
have the honour to submit to the Academie is divided into two parts. 
1st. Defecation. Chemists have long been occupied with the advantages 
that would result were aluminous substances used in sugar manufac- 
tures. Alum, sulphate of alumina, and alumina itself, in a more or 
less pure state have been tried with variable success in sugar 
manufactories. Evans has described in detail the way in which 
alum and the sulphate of alumina were used, and speaks of the 
good results that had been obtained in the English colonies. I my- 
self have employed sulphate of alumina under different circumstances, 
but have seen that, side by side with considerable advantages, the use 
of this substance leads to serious inconveniences. Acid phosphate of 
lime has been used in Cuba since 1860, and particularly in 1 Q 63, in M. 
D'Aldama's works, by Mr. Swift, a distinguished American refiner, and 
I about that time described his process. I believe that I can now use 
alumina in a way to produce a defecation, perfect in a commercial 
point of view, and that I at the same time succeed in eliminating hurt- 
ful substances. The substance I use is acid phosphate of alumina. 
After having put it directly into the cane juice, the mixture is treated 
with lime ; free alumina and phosphate of lime are thus formed. The 
reactions resulting from acid phosphate of alumina, from alumina, from 
phosphate of lime, and from lime added in slight excess, do away with 
the colouring matters, azotized bodies, &c, in such a way that only a few 
of the salts are left that originally existed in the juice. This defecation 
may be compared to that produced by sub-acetate of lead, but it has not 
its inconveniences. 2ndly. Separation of the water. To evaporate the 
water contained in the purified juice, I employ cold instead of heat I 
prevent in this way the numerous and complex reactions which, under 
the simultaneous influence of air and water, and heat coming between 
the different matters of which the juice is formed, cause the change in 
the colour of the sugar. By means of a rapid cooling, produced in 
suitable machines, I change the juice into a Magma — formed of a mix- 
ture of water reduced to the state of small pieces of ice, and of a syrup 
more or less dense, according to the conditions of the operation. To 
separate this mixture I have recourse to centrifugal machines, and I end 
the process by evaporating the syrup in vacuo. The details of the pro- 
cess will be found in my memoir.' This memoir has not yet been made 
