CHINESE AND AFRICAN SUGAR CANE. * 
373 
either in quantity or quality. It was even more colorless than 
sugar obtained by alcohol. All the sugar contained in the 
juice took a solid and crystalized form. The crystals were 
larg# and firm, not more colored than ordinary sugar candy. 
The traces of molasses were almost imperceptible. 
He changed the proportions of bisulphite ; experimented 
separately on the ripest canes, on the greenest, and on the 
worm-eaten, and in all cases the result was the production of 
crystalized sugar. He never found a spoonful of molasses that 
could not be crystalized. The analysis of the juice by nota¬ 
tion, and the action of the bisulphite on it were always the 
same, both as regards the quantity of sugar in solution, and the 
amount obtained by crystalization. 
The operation was so simple and so correct in its results, 
that he thought it almost necessary to do wrong expressly in 
order to fail to extract all the juice from the Sugar Cane, or 
the beet. 
But how was this to be done, when every one knows that 
juice extracted from the Sugar Cane is sometimes not more 
than half, and never more than three-fourths the quantity of su¬ 
gar really contained in the reeds ? There remains in the crushed 
canes at least a fourth of the sugar, because it cannot be 
pressed to dryness. To extract this by washing with water is 
impossible, on account of the rapidity with which fermentation 
takes place. 
But if bisulphite of lime be mixed with water used in making 
the washings, nothing is easier. There is no need for hurry. 
The water and pulp will not ferment, and the washings may be 
so perfect as to extract the last particle of sugar. These 
washings will be nearly as rich as the juice itself, and when 
evaporated, will produce the same large crystals of sugar. 
More than this, the skimmings and filter after having been sev¬ 
eral days exposed to the action of the air, were washed with 
water mixed with bisulphite, and being evaporated produced 
.crystalized sugar. 
Thus it renders the cane sugar almost as unalterable as min- 
