166 
NEW PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING SUGAR. 
sary ; and more than this, the quantity of sugar now lost 
in the bagasse, in consequence of the impossibility of wash- 
ing it out unchanged, can be all collected by being dis- 
solved in water charged with bisulphite of lime. 
The only objection that can be made to the above pro- 
cess is, that the sugar obtained by means of bisulphite of 
lime has a sulphurous taste; this is true, but the taste is 
completely lost — 1st, by crushing the sugar and exposing it 
to the air, whereby the little sulphite of lime which there 
may be is converted into a tasteless sulphate ; 2d, by ex- 
posing the sugar to an atmosphere containing ammonia ; 
if this is done the sugar acquires a very agreeable flavor of 
vanilla, but is apt to become a little discolored ; 3d, by 
clarifying it until it loses 10 per cent, of its weight ; by this 
process a pure white sugar can be obtained, which will 
bear comparison with any sample produced at present. 
The last is the process recommended to be used on a large 
scale. The quantity of sugar which can be obtained from 
the sugar cane by adopting bisulphite of lime, as above 
recommended, is at least double that obtained by the usual 
processes. 
In consequence of M. Melsens having made all his ex- 
periments on the sugar cane at Paris, and therefore on a 
small scale, he is not able to state how bisulphite of lime 
can be best used in the large colonial sugar manufactories, 
but is compelled to leave the application of the principles 
on which his method depends to the intelligence of the 
manufacturers themselves. 
In the preparation of beet root sugar bisulphite of lime is 
quite as useful as in the extraction of cane sugar ; the way 
in which it is to be employed in the former is fully explained 
in the second article published in the 507th number of the 
Courier de V Europe, to which we must refer those among 
our readers who desire any further information on the sub- 
ject. — Chemical Gazette, January 15, l85G,from Gard. 
C/iron. December 15, 1849. 
