ON THE COMPOSITION OF HONE"/. 
335 
it is especially abundant in the liquid honey contained in 
the cells of the comb. The proportion is so great, that a 
solution of this honey which had a deviation of 4-0.96$ 
acquired, after the action of acids, a rotation in the opposite 
direction equal to — 13.78 2. I have named liquid 
sugar of honey , the liquid portion of which can be extracted 
from honey by pressure. My experiments were made upon 
a sugar which had been extracted in 1841, and which has 
kept to this day without experiencing the least change, or 
exhibiting any sign of crystallization. This circumstance 
alone would suffice to distinguish it from the sugar altered 
by acids, which would soon have solidified into a mass of 
granular sugar. The liquid sugar of honey presents, how- 
ever, a great number of characters which belong to cane- 
sugar altered by acids. Like it, it is uncrystallizable, and 
may be reduced to the state of barley-sugar, transparent 
and solid, but which melts with great facility ; again, it re- 
sembles it in being very sensitive to the action of alkalies, 
and is readily destroyed by their influence. The two sugars 
have the same chemical composition, and enter into combi- 
nation with the alkalies. Thus the totality of these charac- 
ters would tend to confound these sugars; but they are dis- 
tinguished almost immediately by the absolute impossibility 
of converting the liquid sugar of honey into granular sugar, 
and by a very great difference in the rotatory power, which 
is nearly double in the liquid sugar of honey. 
The absolute rotatory power of this liquid sugar at the 
temperature of 55°.4 F. for the red ray and for a length of 
100 millimetres, was found equal to — 33.103 £, whilst 
that of sugar changed by acids was found under the same 
circumstances merely = 18°.933$. The liquid sugar of 
honey retains the rotatory power to the left, even after 
it has been brought to the solid state ; it is one of a very 
small number of bodies in which this peculiarity has been 
observed. 
The third sugar which forms part of the honey is distin- 
