I7O TlMEHRl. 
so I have forwarded the books (a list of which is given below) addressed 
to you by the ship Ganges, which left Calcutta on the 1st of December. 
I hope the Society will find them a valuable addition to its library : — 
Bolingbroke's voyage to Demerara ; Marabunta ; Hindoo tribes and 
castes, 3 vols ; Edward's History of the West Indies, 6 vols. ; Sted- 
man's Surinam, 2 vols, ; Pinckard's West Indies, 3 vols, ; History of 
the West Indies, 5 vols. ; Eight years in British Guiana ; The West 
Indies, by Davy ; Gurney's Winter in the West Indies ; and The West 
Indian sketch-book, 2 vols. 
The Secretary was directed to tender the thanks of 
the Society to Mrs. Firth for her very handsome con- 
tribution to the library. 
Mr. Coster on The Sugar-cane as Fuel, —Mr, Coster 
read the following paper, entitled 
THE SUGAR-CANE AS FUEL. 
Some notes on the subject and a few remarks on the Hon. Mr. Rus- 
set's paper, by Maurice I. Coster, M.E. 
It is a known fact in chemistry, that every chemical combination is 
accompanied by a production of heat and every decomposition by a 
disappearance of heat. The chemical formula for crystallizable sugar 
is C12 H22 On. When sugar is burnt a complex chemical action takes 
place, the sugar is first decomposed into Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxy- 
gen, causing a disappearance of heat. The quantity so lost, I have 
not been able to ascertain, but it will do for all practical purposes, 
to assume it to be equal to and neutralized by the heat produced by 
the combination of the hydrogen and oxygen to form water. This 
water must be evaporated. 
Rankine gives the following regarding the effect of oxygen and 
hydrogen upon fuel. " The quantity of oxygen and hydrogen are to 
be left out of account, in determining the heat generated by the com- 
bustion of the fuel. If the quantity of water actually or virtually pre- 
sent in each pound of fuel is so great, as to make its latent heat of 
evaporation worth considering, that heat is to be deducted from the 
total heat of combustion of the fuel." Assuming that 1200 heat units 
are necessary to raise one pound of water from 86° Fahr, and evapo- 
rate it at 572°, the temperature of the products of combustion required 
