52 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE REFINING OF SUGAR. 
Whatever the merits of this process may be, it appears 
that there are two patents for the discovery of it. Some 
months before the date of Dr. ScofTern's patent, Mr. Sievier 
took out a patent for certain improvements in the manufac- 
ture of sugar. This patent was sealed on the 12th of July, 
1847, and specified on the 12th of January, 1848. Among 
other substances proposed to be used for purifying and de- 
colorizing saccharine solutions, is mentioned, diacetate of 
"lead, the excess of which is directed to be removed by pass- 
ing a stream of sulphurous acid gas through the liquor. 
This process, and that patented five months afterwards by 
Dr. Scoffern, are, in fact, identical. 
The circumstances of this case have been subject of con- 
versation among scientific men for several months past. We 
are informed that Mr. Sievier, after taking out his patent, 
required, as is usual in such cases, the services of a profes- 
sional Chemist, to perfect the details of the invention before 
entering them in the specification. A period of six months 
is allowed by law for this purpose ; and in this instance Dr. 
Scoffern was the Chemist employed, at a salary of about 
fifteen shillings a-day, for making the necessary experi- 
ments, which were conducted at Mr. Sievier's house. The 
result of this transaction was that the confidential assistant 
subsequently claimed the most important parts of the pro- 
cess as his own, and proceeded to take out a separate patent 
for them. We refrain, for the present, from offering an 
opinion upon the justice of this claim, but believe it will, ere 
long, be contested in a court of law. 
M. MELSEN'S PATENT. 
We pass now to notice the other process to which we 
have already alluded as having excited considerable inter- 
est on the Continent. This process is the invention of M. 
Melsens, a Professor of Chemistry at Brussels. It consists 
in the use bisulphite of lime, which is added to the juice of 
the cane or beet-root, for the twofold purpose of preventing 
fermentation, and of separating, by coagulation, most of the 
