BEET  SUGAR. 
507 
Oleic  Acid. — MM.  Bolley  and  Borgmann  have  examined  the 
question  whether  oleic  acid  is  susceptible  of  distillation  without 
decomposition,  and  they  establish  that  this  acid  is  volatilized  un- 
altered at  the  temperature  of  482°  F.,  in  a  current  of  super- 
heated steam.  But  they  have  also  determined  that  at  a  more 
elevated  temperature  decomposition  sets  in,  and  the  product  be- 
comes contaminated  with  derivative  products,  acid  and  neutral, 
among  which  are  capric  and  caprilic  acids,  and  some  hydro- 
carbons. 
This  state  of  things  explains  therefore  the  preference  that 
soapmakers  accord  to  oleic  acid  from  lime  soap,  to  the  detriment 
of  oleic  acid  by  the  action  of  sulphuric  acid  and  subsequent  dis- 
tillation. The  former  saponifies  best  and  more  completely  than 
acid  distilled  at  an  irregular  temperature,  because  it  is  exempt 
from  neutre  fats,  which  embairass  the  soapmaker. — Repert.  de 
Pharm.,  Mai,  1866. 
BEET-SUGAR— PROGRESS  OF  ITS  MANUFACTURE  IN  FRANCE 
AND  GERMANY. 
We  copy  the  following  interesting  remarks  upon  the  produc- 
tion of  beet-sugar  in  Europe,  from  the  Monthly  Report  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  for  April.  They  occur  as  an  intro- 
duction to  a  communication  upon  the  same  subject  addressed  by 
our  Consul  at  Berlin  to  the  State  Department.  The  communica- 
tion itself  is  statistical  and  contains  little  in  addition  to  the  in- 
formation contained  in  the  communication  of  our  intelligent  cor- 
respondent, Mr.  Hirsh,  which  appeared  in  a  recent  number  of 
the  Journal,  and  we  therefore  omit  it : 
Although  the  manufacture  of  beet-sugar  was  first  established 
in  France,  yet  the  fact  that  the  beet  yielded  sugar  was  first 
ascertained  by  MargrafF,  a  Prussian,  in  1747.  But  no  practical 
good  was  accomplished  by  him.  Twenty-five  years  afterward, 
another  chemist  of  Berlin,  Archard,  renewed  the  investigation  of 
the  subject,  under  the  encouragement  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
but  it  was  not  until  1795  that  he  published  anything  in  reference 
to  it.  In  theory  he  maintained  the  utility  of  the  manufacture, 
not  only  for  the  sugar  that  the  beet  would  yield,  but  because  of 
the  profitable  use  that  might  be  made  of  the  leaves  and  pulp 
