372 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
1st. It is a powerful antiseptic, preventing the production 
or action of fermenting matters in the juice. 
2d. It has so great an affinity for oxygen that it is capable 
of preventing the changes which the' presence of that agent 
causes in the juice during the process of manufacture. 
3d. At the temperature of boiling water, it defecates the 
juice, and removes from it all the albumen, fibrine, casein, and 
other coagulable matters, except a very small portion wffiich 
turns first violet, and after brown, giving a slight tinge to the 
sugar. 
4th. It carries away.the pre-existing color in the juice. 
5th. It is capable in the highest degree of preventing the 
fermentation of coloring matter in the pulp or juice during the 
manufacture. 
6th. It is capable of neutralizing all the hurtful acids which 
may exist, or be found in the juice, substituting for them an 
acid almost inert, (sulphurous acid,) which will be driven off 
by the heat of evaporation, or by contact with air necessary to 
dry the grained sugar. 
Under what form, and in what quantitity shall the bisulphite 
of lime be applied to the Cane or beets ? These questions 
next demanded Mr. Melsen’s attention, and to determine which, 
he entered upon another series of experiments. 
He obtained from the Island of Murcia, 100 pounds of fresh 
Sugar Cane, for his experiments. They reached him in Pa¬ 
ris, at his labaratory, in fair condition, though pronounced by 
persons who had been in the colonies, and acquainted with Su¬ 
gar Cane, imperfectly ripened, and therefore they might be ex¬ 
pected to yield a large supply of molasses. A good many were 
also w r orm-eaten. 
He extracted the juice by means of a coarse beet grater 
and press, adding bisulphate of lime during the operation of 
grinding. It was clarified by boiling, and simply filtered 
through a cloth strainer ; boiled a second time and filtered, and 
then left to crystalize slowly. This it did to almost perfect dry¬ 
ness. An analysis by alcohol could have given nothing better 
