BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 87 
The sugary matters obtainable from unfermented barley wort 
were doubtless of some importance formerly in northern countries. 
in times when cane sugar was unknown to the western nations, 
and honey, whey, and malt extract were the only available sac- 
charine matters. According to Du Chaillu,* a dark brown prepa- 
ration of milk-sugar, known as myost, is still made on Norwegian 
saeters by evaporating whey to dryness. It is eaten in thin slices, 
and with bread and butter. Women and children are especially 
fond of it. 
These primitive products represent what may fairly be called 
the bronze age in respect to methods of sweetening, a stage in the 
progress towards civilization which the Japanese appear to have 
arrived at very early; that is to say, they seem to have systema- 
tized their methods of procedure long ago, and speedily to have 
brought them to perfection. The point of special interest is that 
at very early periods, hundreds of years ago, most nations learned 
how to obtain sweetness from the cereal grains by methods of 
changing the starch in these grains to sugar. As a means of 
obtaining alcohol from such sugar these methods have everywhere 
been largely developed and perfected, though as a source of sugar 
for household use they languished and fell into disuse in Europe, 
and were practically discarded altogether when cane sugar, brought 
from southern countries, had become abundant. But while the 
making of sugar in this way was given up long ago by the western 
nations, the Japanese developed and improved the old process 
and brought it to perfection some centuries apparently before it 
was taken up anew in Europe, for it is to be remembered that it is 
only so recently as the last half of the nineteenth century that 
any glucose was made in Europe that could for a moment be 
ce »mpared, in respect to excellence, with the normal Japanese 
product. 
In view of the great differences between Japan and the United 
States as regards crops and agricultural and manufacturing methods 
and processes, it is not easy to form a just opinion as to the possi- 
bility of replacing economically the Japanese method of making 
midzu-ame, by means of malt, in many small establishments, 
by the American method of acting in large factories by way of 
* In his Land of the Midnight Sun, London, 1881, 1. 395. 
