470 ON THE JUICE OF THE SUGAR-CANE. 
ducing such fermenting element. The azotised substances of the juice 
which I have already comprised in three categories, and designated by 
the terms granular matter, albuminous matter, and matter coagulable 
by alcohol, have all the property of exciting fermentation in this liquid ; 
but all three do not act with the same energy, and one of them only is 
apt to determine alcoholic fermentation properly so called ; whilst the 
other two — albumen, and the matter coagulable by alcohol and non- 
coagulable by heat — give rise at the same time to acid products, and are 
much slower in action. Granular matter is, therefore, the source of the 
most active fermentation developed in cane-juice in contact with the 
oxygen of the air, and it contributes besides in the most special manner 
to the transformation of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid. 
This remark leads us to an application, the utility of which can be 
appreciated by the distiller; it is the mixing of a small quantity of the 
scum taken from the surface of the juice when at the boiling point wit h 
the syrups which ferment with difficulty. The granular matter in this 
scum then gives rise to a fermentation which it would be useless to 
attempt to produce by ordinary means. 
I will not just now insist further on these different particularities ; 
for I think I have sufficiently traced the important point which this 
substance plays in colonial manufacture, and have shown all the advan- 
tages which would result by eliminating it from the juice even at the 
time it escapes from the mill. I have, however, pointed out a method 
which could incontestably render great service to our colonial industry 
were it brought into operation by some skilful mechanician. 
The accumulation of this complex azotised matter mentioned above, 
in the " Clairce," and the syrups, is a fact which, to the present time, 
has not sufficiently arrested the attention of the sugar-manufacturer in 
the colony, but which, nevertheless, is well worthy of a careful and 
especial study. I have already shown that it is to this substance 
must be attributed that viscid consistence of the juice, and that altera- 
tion and viscid fermentation, the cause of which has been so differently 
appreciated by writers on the subject. 
The presence in any notable quantity of so deliquescent a body in 
the syrup is an obstacle to the crystallization of the sugar, in which, 
besides, it excites rapid fermentation when a sufficient proportion of 
water is added to the saccharine liquid. It is essential to remark that 
no agent hitherto employed in our colonial manufacture of sugar has 
any effect on this substance, which almost entirely escapes, and becomes 
more and more concentrated in the liquids to be worked up by our 
machines. The use of an agent capable of combining with this viscid 
matter, and able to precipitate it in the syrups, would, without doubt, 
considerably increase the yield of sugar. The alcohol which is obtained 
in Mauritius at so reduced a price, would, in my opinion, here find a 
very useful application. 
