1-88 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
sugar in a state of purity, and that by a continuous opera- 
tion. The mechanism thus employed by Mr. Davies in 
September, 1847, appeared to leave little room for improve- 
ment. It was submitted to and approved of by the French 
Government) who commissioned the inventor to repair to 
Paris in the ensuing month of March to take the necessary 
steps for erecting a set of machinery on a larger scale on 
the French King’s Estate of Tremouillant in Martinique* 
Fortune seemed thus about to crown Davies laborious and 
successful trials ; but, like the course of true love, his ex- 
pectations were doomed to disappaintment* Before his 
appointed hour of embarkation arrived , cries of Vive la Re - 
jpublique were ringing throughout the French islands, and 
the new process with, no doubt, many a kindred scheme, 
was shelved for the time. Since that I have several times, 
in conjunction with Mr. H. Warner, repeated the process 
of slicing and drying the sugar-cane, with exactly similar 
results, namely : the extraction of all the contained sugar 
by displacement with cold water, in about one hour and 
twenty minutes, in the form of a pure syrup marking be- 
tween 22° and 23° Beaume. Within the last three years 
Mr. Warner directed his attention again to the slicing of 
the cane to ascertain how far he could succeed in extract- 
ing the sugar without recourse to drying the slices. After 
repeated trials, conducted with every precaution, he suc- 
ceeded in obtaining, by displacement, a liquor marking 9° 
of Beaume where the original juice of the cane marked 10° 
Beaume ; this was a great success, but not equal in results 
to the other mode where the slices were dried, because 
there was not only an original loss in not obtaining the 
whole sugar, but the juice had an opportunity of becoming 
