260 
Sorghum  Sugar. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1884. 
merce.  But  in  odor  and  taste  it  differs  somewhat,  as  it  has  retained 
some  of  that  peculiar  sorghum  flavor,  which  is  not  disagreeable,  and 
in  which  place  in  common  raw  sugar  is  found  a  taste  and  smell  of 
burnt  sugar. 
In  my  analysis  of  the  sorghum  sugar  I  found  the  following  con- 
stituents : 
Saccharose   92-00  per  cent. 
Glucose   4*50  per  cent. 
Moisture   1'50  per  cent. 
Ash   1 -10  per  cent. 
Impurities   0*90  per  cent. 
100-00 
The  amount  of  saccharose  was  ascertained  by  the  use  of  the  Wilde 
polariscope,  which  as  an  average  showed  92°.  With  the  same  instru- 
ment I  examined  samples  of  different  sugars  with  the  following 
results  (The  strength  of  the  solutions  was  10  grammes  of  sugar  and 
water  sufficient  to  make  100  cc.) : 
White  rock  candy  polarized  100° 
Yellow  rock  candy  polarized   93° 
Best  granulated  sugar  polarized   99° 
White  A  sugar  polarized   94° 
Common  raw  sugar  polarized   84° 
Sorghum  sugar  (4  experiments)   90°,  92°,  93°,  92° 
Common  raw  sugar  was  also  subjected  to  analysis  for  comparison : 
Saccharose   84-00  per  cent. 
Glucose   11*80  per  cent. 
Moisture   2*50  per  cent. 
Ash   0- 70  per  cent. 
Impurities   1*00  per  cent. 
100-00 
The  moisture  and  ash  of  granulated  sugar  was  also  ascertained  and 
found  to  be  respectively  0*55  and  0*44  per  cent.  This  shows  in 
reference  to  the  moisture,  that  the  more  glucose  contained  in  the  sugar, 
the  more  moisture  is  absorbed.  As  to  the  sorghum  sugar  the  com- 
parison is  very  satisfactory,  as  it  contains  eight  per  cent,  more  saccha- 
rose than  the  common  raw  sugar,  and  only  two  per  cent,  less  than  the 
A  sugar,  which  has  gone  through  a  refining  process.  This  very  satis- 
factory result  is  due  to  the  improved  machinery  of  which  the  vacuum 
pan  and  the  centrifugals  are  the  most  important,  and  without  which 
the  idea  of  sugar  making,  from  sorghum,  at  the  present  sugar  prices, 
might  be  given  up  as  almost  hopeless.  But  as  it  is,  sorghum  sugar 
can  compete  with  other  sugars,  both  in  price  and  quality. 
