276  Commercial  Glucose  and  its  Uses.  {Amj^er'i9i5arm' 
trose)  have  been  made  by  dilution  experiments  on  the  pure  sugars, 
but,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  no  relative  tests  of  the  sweetness  of 
commercial  glucose  as  now  made  have  been  published.  Taking 
this  vaiue  to  be  0.5  for  the  solids  in  glucose,  sugar  at  5  cents  is  cheaper 
as  a  sweetener  than  glucose. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  very  little  candy  is  made  with  glucose  as  the 
only  sweet.  Usually,  candy  contains  60  per  cent,  or  more  of  cane- 
sugar,  the  sweetening  of  the  glucose  being  of  much  less  importance 
than  the  other  properties  it  imparts  to  the  mixture. 
It  seems  reasonable  to  infer  that  commercial  glucose,  rather 
than  being  a  serious  competitor  of  cane-sugar,  has  really  increased 
the  consumption  of  the  latter,  especially  in  candies.  Because  of  the 
great  advantages  from  the  use  of  glucose  in  candy-making,  the  indus- 
try has  had  an  impetus  which  has  greatly  increased  sugar  con- 
sumption. 
The  relative  wholesomeness  of  candies  made  from  glucose  and 
those  made  from  cane-sugar  has  never  been  decided,  and  may  never 
be.  The  dextrins  of  "  glucose  "  as  now  manufactured  are  in  great  part 
in  combination  with  the  malt-sugar  and  seem  in  every  way  identical 
with  the  malto-dextrins  obtained  by  the  action  of  malt  on  starch,  and 
are  digested  more  in  the  intestines  than  in  the  stomach  as  compared 
with  pure  sugar  candies.  Whether  this  is  an  advantage  or  not,  the 
physiologists  must  decide. 
Glucose  is  extensively  used  in  industries  not  making  food  prod- 
ucts. It  is  used  in  cheap  soaps,  for  "  filling  "  leather  and  tanning 
extracts,  and,  as  many  of  its  uses  in  such  industries  are  apparently 
for  adulteration,  such  practices  have  no  doubt  added  to  its  reputation 
as  the  "  champion  adulterant."  As  was  pointed  out  in  an  article  in 
a  previous  number  of  this  magazine,2  on  the  industrial  uses  of  sugar, 
the  highly  respectable  beet-sugar  of  99  per  cent,  purity  is  used  in 
Europe  for  precisely  the  same  purposes,  the  choice  between  sugar 
and  glucose  as  a  "  filler  "  being  merely  a  matter  of  price.  Cane-sugar 
has  also  been  used  extensively  to  "  fill  "  coal-tar  dyes  and  adulterate 
chocolate  without  having  its  respectability  seriously  impugned. 
In  view  of  the  undoubted  commercial  importance  of  glucose  as  a 
food  product  it  would  seem  as  if  its  value  in  dietetics  and  food 
economics,  as  well  as  its  relative  wholesomeness,  ought  to  be  studied 
in  the  light  of  a  proper  knowledge  of  its  special  characteristics.  To 
2  Science  Conspectus,  No.  2,  1913. 
