27o  Commercial  Glucose  and  its  Uses.      f  Am.  jour  pharm. 
'  (_       June,  1915. 
cilage,"  the  implication  being  that  it  is  only  fit  for  postage-stamps 
and  not  for  human  stomachs.  This  may  be  why  many  associate 
glucose  with  glue.  The  names  sound  alike  and  both  are  sticky,  but 
the  reasoning  is  like  assuming  that  all  gentlemen  are  gentiles.  Glucose 
makes  a  rather  poor  adhesive,  but  one  who  is  hard  put  for  mucilage 
might  so  use  it  with  indifferent  success  just  as  it  is  possible  to  use 
tapioca  pudding,  molasses  or  other  sticky  foods. 
Turning  to  the  advertising  literature  of  the  glucose  manufac- 
turers, we  note  that  many  eminent  authorities  laud  glucose  as  most 
wholesome,  that  it  is  the  principal  sweet  of  fruits  and  one  of  the  in- 
termediate products  of  the  digestion  of  starch  in  the  human  organism, 
is  found  in  the  blood — and  similar  statements,  all  of  which,  like  the 
damning  ones  of  some  pure  food  experts,  are  "  important  if  true." 
Notwithstanding  that  annually  between  thirty  and  forty  million 
bushels  of  Indian  corn  are  made  into  glucose,  comparatively  few 
except  those  engaged  in  the  numerous  industries  in  which  glucose 
enters  ever  see  the  product.  The  idea  of  the  general  public,  profes- 
sional as  well  as  the  laity,  seems  to  be  that  glucose  is  mostly  com- 
posed of  grape-sugar,  which  is  made  according  to  the  Kirchoff 
method  by  boiling  starch  and  oil  of  vitriol  and  neutralizing  the  mix- 
ture with  chalk.  Many  supposedly  up-to-date  cyclopaedias  make  such 
statements. 
Much  of  the  ignorance  concerning  this  important  food  product 
is  due  to  the  following  facts :  Pure  commercial  glucose  is  practically 
unknown  in  household  cookery,  and  so  is  not  sold  in  a  package  con- 
venient for  household  use.  While  it  is  in  multifarious  food  products 
found  on  the  grocers'  shelves,  it  is  rarely  seen  there  in  its  original 
state.  This  is  equally  true  of  raw  sugar.  Years  ago,  raw  open- 
kettle  sugars  were  familiar  to  all  New  England  housewives  and  were 
used  by  them  in  cooking.  Raw  sugars  made  by  modern  processes 
are  used  to  some  extent  now  in  England  and  European  countries, 
but  nowadays  few  of  the  citizens  of  this  country,  outside  of  the  sugar 
producing  districts,  ever  see  raw  sugars,  which  are  sent  directly  to 
the  refineries  in  packages  weighing  several  hundred  pounds,  each  and 
in  a  condition  not  fit  for  domestic  use.  Glucose,  like  refined  sugar, 
is  manufactured  in  comparatively  few  factories,  and  these  of  large 
capacity,  for  the  manufacture  of  glucose  requires  a  large  outlay  of 
capital  and  consequently  large  output.  The  cheapness  of  the  prod- 
uct makes  its  manufacture  profitable  only  on  a  large  scale.  This 
is  equally  true  of  sugar. 
