NEW PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING SUGAR. 
cane ; it prevents the formation of other colored matters 
produced by the action of air on the pulp of the cane ; it 
also stops the production of those which are formed during 
evaporation, and above all of those which require for their 
developement the joint action of air and a free alkali. 
It seems that colored substances, which, under ordinary 
circumstances, are formed spontaneously by the exposure 
of the pulp of the sugar cane to the air, never make their 
appearance when bisulphite of lime is employed. By 
evaporating, at a low temperature, bisulphite of lime mixed 
with — 1, a common solution of sugar; 2, the crude sap of 
the sugar cane ; 3, the juice of beet root ; no coloration 
was produced. By an evaporation of the same substances 
at a high temperature, the coloration was scarcely visible ; 
indeed, with red beet root the color was completely 
destroyed, and the sugar obtained was perfectly white. 
It seems, then, that bisulphite of lime can be employed 
in the extraction of sugar : — 1st, as an antiseptic, prevent- 
ing the production and action of any ferment ; 2nd, as a 
substance greedy of oxygen, opposing any alteration that 
might be caused by its action on the juice ; 3, as aclarifier 
coagulating at a temperature of 212° all albuminous and 
other coagulable matters; 4th, as a body bleaching all pre- 
existing colored products; 5th, as a body opposing itself 
in a very high degree to the formation of colored sub- 
stances ; 6th, as a base capable of neutralising any hurtful 
acids which might exist or be formed in the juice, and 
substituting in their place a weak inactive acid, namely ? 
sulphurous acid. 
M. Melsens is of opinion that sugar can be obtained from 
the sugar cane with no other source of heal than a tropical 
sun, excepting only for the purpose of clarification ; in- 
deed, the bisulphite of lime prevents the crude juice of the 
cane, or the syrup obtained therefrom, from undergoing any 
changes; great rapidity in the process of crystallization, 
indispensable at present, becomes by using this salt unneces- 
