RESEARCHES ON SUGAR, MOLASSES, &C. 123 
on the quantity being augmented, into grape sugar, and finally i 
into an uncrystallizable sugar, which appears to result from 
the union of an uncrystallizable brown matter, &c. There is 
also another kind of uncrystallizable sugar, resulting from the 
action of cane sugar on grape sugar. As soon as sugar has 
descended one degree in the scale, there is no means of 
restoring it to its place; it can be still further deteriorated, 
and here our knowledge respecting it ceases. 
It is then of the highest importance in the manufacture of 
cane and beet sugar, to saturate the free acids as soon as possi- 
ble, to destroy their influence, and also to keep the beet roots 
as short a time as convenience will allow; for, as the vital 
force diminishes in these roots, the chemical action increases, 
causing a deterioration of the sugar; and this takes place much 
more rapidly than is generally supposed, especially if the roots 
contain nitrate of potash; we have already noticed the inju- 
rious effects of nitric acid, and according to Berthollet it is 
always found in a free state in a fluid containing a free acid 
and nitrate of potash. Great progress has been made in the 
manufacture of beet sugar, but there exists 0.10 of sugar in the 
roots, and only 0.6 have been obtained by the most expert 
manufacturers, though there is every reason to believe that 
uncrystallizable sugar does not exist naturally in them, but is 
the product of the deterioration of the root from age, or errors 
in the process of extraction. 
Sugar from Starch. — If the manufacture of beet sugar has 
nearly arrived at perfection in France, this is far from being 
the case with sugar from starch. There was, till lately, no- 
thing produced but a dark syrup of a disagreeable taste; since 
the researches of Biot, Payen and Perroz, however, this manu- 
facture has much improved, and the products from Neuilly 
and especially those of M. Beudant, are very satisfactory in 
many respects. 
The use of malted barley to make syrup of starch, is not as 
advantageous as was supposed; in fact it is very difficult to 
always procure malt of the same quality, and the omission of 
