256 
Sorghum  Sugar. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharnu 
{       May,  1884. 
attempt  to  reconcile  their  differences,  but  with  a  manifest  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  writer  to  accept  Fownes  as  the  more  trustworthy 
authority.  The  internal  evidence  does  not  support  this  view.  When 
we  examine  the  table  in  comparison  with  the  others  in  common  user 
we  are  at  once  struck  Avith  the  lawless  irregularity  of  its  intervals. 
That  there  exists  any  corresponding  irregularity  in  the  amount  of  con- 
densation which  takes  place  when  alcohol  and  water  are  mixed  in 
varying  proportions,  we  cannot  believe.  That  such  cannot  be  the  case 
is  indeed  capahle  of  mathematical  demonstration.  Fownes'  table  was 
based  directly  upon  synthetical  experiments,  which  are  said  to  have 
been  very  carefully  conducted.  Every  alternate  term  in  the  table  is 
the  result  of  a  direct  determination,  the  remaining  terms  being  then 
supplied  by  interpolation.  The  table  is,  in  fact,  simply  a  collection  of 
independent  observations,  each  subject  to  its  own  error,  whereas  in  a 
completed  table  the  errors  are  made  to  correct  and  neutralize  one  another 
by  a  process  of  equalization  of  intervals.  Helmer's  task  was  only 
imperfectly  done,  in  that  he  made  no  attempt  thus  to  idealize  the  table 
which  he  adopted  as  a  foundation  for  his  own.  We  cannot  but  hope 
that  the  next  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  will  contain  an  ideal  alco- 
hol table,  at  once  more  concise  and  more  comprehensive  than  the  pre- 
sent, more  nearly  correct  in  all  its  values  than  any  that  has  yet  been 
published,  and  that  it  shall  not  need  to  be  a  mere  echo  of  some  for- 
eign "  authority." 
SORGHUM  SUGAR. 
By  Oscar  Houck,  Ph.G. 
From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
The  different  kinds  of  sorghum  (Sorghum  saccharatum),  now  under 
cultivation  in  the  United  States,  are  varieties  and  hybrids  from  two 
main  groups ;  the  one  the  Chinese  sugar  cane,  or  sorgho,  or  sorghe, 
from  China  and  India,  and  the  second  the  African  sugar  cane,  or 
imphee  from  the  south  of  Africa.  As  varieties  of  the  first  group,  we 
have  the  regular  sorghum,  Honduras  cane,  honey  top,  sprangle  top,  etc. 
Of  the  second  group  the  most  important  are,  the  Liberian  imphees, 
white  African,  white  mammoth,  Iowa  red  top  and  wolf's  tail.  As 
hybrids,  the  early  amber  is  the  most  common,  early  orange  and  a  num- 
ber of  others.    These  hybrids  need,  as  also  their  names  indicate,  a 
