CHINESE AND AFRICAN SUGAR CANE. 
375 
His process had given 12 pounds of refined sugar from the 
extracted juice, and by the washings he saved the other six 
pounds, all refined sugar. In other words he extracted all the 
sugar contained in the reeds, with but a trifling loss. 
In these experiments he concluded that one per cent, of the 
weight of the reeds of the solution of bisulphite of lime at 10° 
of Baume, was the proper quantity—that is one pound of the 
solution was sufficient for 100 pounds of reeds. With that 
amount he took out all the sugar in a solid form, leaving the 
bagasse fit only for the manure pile, or manufacture of straw 
paper. 
He went even further. lie took beet juice which contains 
but 10 per cent, sugar. To this he added 4 per cent, of the 
solution, and clarified it by boiling and filtration. He then 
put it into a pine vessel pierced with holes, into each of which 
he had drawn a string which hung down, thus affording numer¬ 
ous means for the juice to run off, and also giving a large sur¬ 
face for evaporation. This vessel was placed in a current of 
air. As fast as the juice -was collected in a vessel placed under 
the strings, it was poured over again. This was repeated sev¬ 
eral times, and the concentrated juice or syrup, as it had become 
at last, placed in a flat vessel, where it all crystalized. 
I shall not follow M. Melsens further in his experiments with 
the juice of the beet. Suffice it to say that he has overcome 
the most serious difficulties which the manufacturers of sugar 
had encountered. He has shown that there need be no hurry¬ 
ing the process of evaporation, nor serious loss of saccharine 
matter. He has proved that with ripe cane, there need be little 
or no molasses made; all may be crystalized. 
In 1853, Mr. Ramsey, of Trinidad, visited many of the su¬ 
gar manufactories in France, and called on M. Melsens, and 
staying with him tw'O days, saw and assisted him in going over 
many experiments, with which he was perfectly satisfied. He 
was shown letters from several foreign places, and especially 
one from Java, which states that the writer had used the bisuN 
