I 
392 PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AMERICA. 
gradually become sweet; by which simple expedient the 
full benefits from the whole of the crop may be secured. 
The transformations that take place in the plant are very 
interesting. In the month of August more water existed in 
it than in September, with a total absence of sugar, instead 
of which mucilage and pectin were ascertained to exist. These 
principles gradually disappeared during the month of Sep¬ 
tember, and gave rise to the formation of the sugar. 
Dr. Voelcker considers the larger amount of nitrogen in 
the immature grass is also worthy of notice, there being one 
per cent, less in the plants analysed by him in September 
than in those examined by him in August. Respecting this, 
he observes: “We have presented to us afresh proof that 
the nutritive value of food of the same kind is not regulated 
by the amount of nitrogen which it contains, but rather 
by the proportion of sugar. Indeed, I think it may be safely 
asserted that all green food, and likewise turnips and other 
roots, are immature, and more or less unfit for feeding, when 
they are rich in nitrogen. Fully ripe and very nutritious 
roots and grass always contain less nitrogen than the same 
food in an immature state, or than food of indifferent feeding 
qualities.” 
Dr. Sicard, of Marseilles, has produced from the Chinese 
sugar-cane many interesting substances, such as various 
kinds of flour made by grinding the seeds; specimens of 
sorgho bread; of sugars of different qualities ; of beer, cider, 
vinegar, and brandy, from the juice; several coloured dyes, 
a peculiar acid—the sorghotic,—and other preparations. He 
has likewise written and published two volumes, containing a 
description of the plant and of the processes by which it is to 
be utilised. 
RAVAGES MAKING BY PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AMERICA. 
In a private communication, dated the ISth of May, 
I860, received by Mr. Varnell from his friend, C. C. Grice, 
M.R.C.V.S., of New York, U.S., he states that “pleuro¬ 
pneumonia” is making such ravages among the cattle, that 
great numbers are being killed to prevent the spreading of 
this disease. 
