376 
it is always the immediate principle whence al- 
cohol is evolved, and is in every case resolvable 
into alcohol with loss of carbon and oxygen; so 
that it is far more correctly designated the alco- 
holizable principle than the principle of sweetness. 
The elementary transpositions by which it passes 
into alcohol and carbonic acid are noticed in the 
article AnconHoL; the process in which these trans- 
positions take place is described in the article 
Fermentation; the forced or artificial evolution 
of it from the starch of grain preparatorily to its 
conversion into alcohol is described in the article 
Maur; the process of converting it into the alco- 
holic constituent of malt liquors is noticed in the 
article Bkewine; the natural evolution of it from 
the starch of seeds as food for nascent plantlets 
is explained in the article Gurmination; the 
part which it plays in the progress of the growth 
and the maturation of plants is noticed in the 
article Nurririon; the purposes which it serves 
as an ingredient in the food of man and of some 
of the lower animals are glanced at in the article 
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES; the uses of a coarse and 
impure form of it in the feeding of cattle are ad- 
verted to in the article Monassns; the plant from 
which the chief bulk of the sugar of commerce 
is manufactured is described in the article Sac- 
cHARUM; the making of sugar from beet-root and 
the sugar-maple is noticed in respectively the 
articles Bret-Sucgar and Marie; and a wide 
variety of other topics connected with the na- 
ture, powers, transmutations, preparation, or uses 
of sugar, are noticed in the articles Biron, Car- 
rot, Fruit, Liquorice, Borassus, Paum, Mixx, 
Syrup, Honry, and many others. 
Sugar, we have said, on being excited by a fer- 
ment, becomes alcohol or spirit; and this, by a 
continued natural operation, and by the aid of 
another ferment, is convertible into acetic acid 
or vinegar. But two conditions are essential to 
these changes,—dilution with water and a cer- 
tain amount of temperature. Sugar, as it exists 
naturally in vegetable matter, forms an extremely 
diluted solution, which, combined with other 
matters, constitutes the juices of vegetables. In 
this state, if in contact with its natural ferment, 
one of the principles of gluten which exists in 
all fruits and other vegetable products, it will 
commence the process of alcoholization, which 
being effected under great agitation and ebulli- 
tion in the liquid, is termed fermentation. Al- 
cohol itself under this fermentation is formed 
only in a diluted state, in which, being combined 
with the other principles also of the fruit, it is 
termed wine. When the whole of the sugar is 
converted into alcohol, and the temperature is 
at the proper point, acetification begins, and the 
alcohol, by a new kind of fermentation, hecomes 
acetic acid; in a word, the wine is converted 
into vinegar. Pure dry sugar, separated from 
every other substance, will not ferment at all, 
and therefore will not become alcohol; neither 
will a thick syrup of pure sugar. In its dry and 
SUGAR. 
crystallized state, therefore, or in that of syrup, 
sugar remains unchanged; only in the latter 
form, as the water evaporates by the operation 
of heat, time, or any other cause, crystals of sugar 
will form on the sides of the vessel above the sur- 
face of the liquid. And as pure undiluted sugar 
is not convertible into alcohol, so the pure spirit 
obtained from the vinous liquid by distillation is 
not convertible into acetic acid, because, in its 
concentrated form, alcohol, like sugar, is un- 
changeable. ; 
There are three distinct kinds of sugar to be 
found in the products of organized matter. The 
first contains the greatest quantity of ferment- 
able matter, and therefore yields the most spirit. 
It is found in the sugar-cane, in beet-root, in the 
maple, in the carrot, the turnip, the parsnip, in 
cabbage-stalks, in the stalks of all the gramine- 
ous tribes of vegetables, and in the leaves, blos- 
soms, and green stalks of most other plants. It 
is likewise one of the constituents of honey. This 
sugar, when purified, and freed from foreign mat- 
ter, is extremely white and hard, crystallizing 
into oblique four-sided prisms, that have sum- 
mits with two sides. It is obtained from the 
vegetables that possess it, by pressing out and 
evaporating their juice, which holds it, with other 
matters, in such a state of diluted solution, that it 
is ever ready, the moment it is separated from its 
natural vehicle, to enter into spontaneous vinous 
fermentation. All the sugars obtained from the 
sources just mentioned are identical in their pro- 
perties; but that yielded by the white beet-root 
has a greater power of cohesive attraction than 
the produce of any other sugar-bearing plant, not 
even excepting the sugar-cane ; and its crystals, 
in its purest form, are therefore larger and much 
harder.—The second kind of sugar does not form 
regular crystals, but, in its purified state, ex- 
hibits a white, hard, concrete body, having the 
shape of a cauliflower. It is inferior to the for- 
mer in saccharine or alcoholic principle, because 
it contains less fermentable matter, the ratio of 
this inferiority being as six toten. This descrip- 
tion of sugar exists ready formed in all kinds of 
sub-acid fruits, when ripe, such as grapes, apples, 
pears, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, oranges, 
and many other varieties, its vehicle being the 
juice of the fruit, which holds it in solution,— 
ready, as stated with reference to the first kind, 
spontaneously to form wine. Starch is chemi- 
cally converted into this kind of sugar by being 
treated with sulphuric acid; and when the sac- 
charification is complete, the acid is separated 
from the sugar by means of lime, with which it 
unites. Diastase, a principle extracted from 
crushed malt by maceration in water, also con- 
verts starch into sugar. Gum may likewise be 
changed into sugar by sulphuric acid,—which 
will likewise saccharify glue. But the same de- 
scription of sugar may be derived from still more 
singular sources, one of which is sawdust. This 
substance is composed, as every one knows, of 
