ON THE JUICE OF THE SUGAR-CANE. 365 
manner those organic substances besides sugar, as well as mineral salts 
which, enter into the formation of cane-juice. 
Kegarded in a general manner, cane -juice is sugar water holding in 
solution a certain quantity of organic and mineral principles. Consider- 
ing then particularly only the sugar and the water, and grouping the 
other remaining substances into two distinct categories, according to 
their vegetable or mineral nature, I have deduced the average composi- 
tion of the juice of Mauritius canes of the different species cultivated in 
the Island, from numerous analyses, all of which were made, during the 
last two years,upon canes which had reached maturity, but grown in locali- 
ties differing in soil and temperature. 
Water 
81-00 
Sugar 
18 36 
Mineral salts 
0-29 
Organic substances 
0-35 
100-00 
The average composition of fresh cane, relatively speaking, can be 
deduced approximatively from that of the juice when the loss of a given 
weight of cane subjected to a complete dessication is known; but the 
juice contained in the bagasse being less rich in sugar than what has 
been extracted, and the washing of dessicated cane being also a long 
and difficult operation, it is easier, and at the same time more exact to 
have recourse to direct experiment. To determine this composition of 
the cane, so far as the water, the saccharine, and the ligneous matter 
alone are concerned, I analysed a certain number of canes of different 
species growing in localities which can be assumed as representing in 
respect to climate, the average of those in which the cultivation of the 
cane is carried out on the largest scale. I here append these analyses 
which were made on canes in average and comparable conditions.* 
• * The want of space has necessitated me to omit a long and elaborate table in 
which the results furnished by seventy-eight analyses are recorded, and which 
gives an exact account of the variations of these different substances according to 
the age of the cane, the period at which it has been manipulate 1, the portions of 
the plant examined, and the localities of its growth. The relative richness in 
saccharine matter of the various kinds of cane is also tabulated, as well as the 
differences in the quality of the sugar of the same canes subjected to various de- 
grees of pressure. The indications of the polarizing saccharometer and the 
results of chemical analysis are also recorded ; the whole table being a compen- 
dium of the series of experiments made.— (Translator.) 
Q Q 2 
