342 ON THE JUICE OP THE SUGAR CANE. 
my aim to investigate from a physiological point of view the nature of 
this substance and its functions in the phenomena of the nutrition of the 
cane and in the formation of its saccharine principle ; nor have I traced 
for myself the plan of agitating such a question, and of establishing 
hypotheses which can only unprofitably turn aside our attention from 
the true path of investigation. My chief aim is to place in a clear point 
of view a well authenticated fact, and to indicate those consequences 
which daily result from it in our manufactories, during the extraction of 
the sugar, and which escapes our notice. 
Whatever method be adopted for the extraction of this cane-juice, 
be it by the press or the mill, fragments of cellular tissue and residuum 
are always brought down with the juice which, after a certain time, form 
at the bottom of the receiver a more or less abundant deposit varying 
according to the degree of compression employed. Particles like these 
which are foreign to the liquid, are rarely recognised by the naked eye, 
while under the microscope they exhibit those appearances peculiar to 
the crushed and torn material when vegetable structures are subjected 
to heavy pressure. A period of subsidence of about three quarters of 
an hour is sufficient time for these substances to separate from the 
liquid and to become precipitated to its lowest stratum. But, however 
long this period of subsidence may be, even though it may last until fer- 
mentation has set in, this liquid, even in its upper portions, never become 
limpid, and always assumes a milky appearance. When it is brought 
under the microscope in this state, it is then found that all these 
fragments and cellular remains have entirely disappeared/rom it. Were 
the juice of the cane simply formed by water holding in solution a 
certain number of these substances, it might be more or less coloured ; 
but after the precipitation of these organic particles, it should not 
however, retain that dim appearance which characterises it. This juice 
is, in fact, formed of two distinct parts, the liquid, and the solid. The 
first comprises the water holding in solution the immediate organic 
principles and saline substances ; the second is formed by corpuscles or 
granules suspended through the entire extent of the liquid, and which 
cannot be eliminated by those means which are used to separate the 
most minute cellular remains. These corpuscles are globular, formed 
of a thin covering, though solid and transparent, and which contain a 
species of nucleus or semi-fluid matter. Their greatest diameter is from 
three to five thousandths of a millimetre. I therefore, name these globules 
the granular matter of the juice, and they form an integral part of this 
liquid to which they communicate that slightly milky appearance which 
is peculiar to it. They are with difficulty precipitated from the upper 
layers of the juice when left to itself, though they may be easily separated 
from it by being passed through filtering paper, when the juice then 
passes through this vehicle entirely freed from all solid substance, 
becoming limpid with a slightly brown tinge similar to that of 
clarified syrup. 
