SUGAR. 
the best sugar in the world for the refiner, the 
muscovado is purified in conical moulds, from the 
‘inverted apex of which, the molasses drips out, 
leaving the sugar crystallized and dry, the upper 
or broader part of the mould containing the best 
sugar, the quality decreasing towards the apex. 
The whole contents of the mould, weighing two 
or three hundred-weight, are, however, mixed to 
equalize the quality, and the whole is sent home 
in bags made of the palm leaf. The molasses, 
rival with water and fermented, is employed to 
manufacture rum. A spirit is likewise drawn 
from the fermented juice of the cane; those 
plants attacked by the rats in the field, and al- 
ready in a state of incipient fermentation, being 
devoted to this purpose. In very damp districts, 
the cane yields no crystallizable sugar ; the whole 
of the juice is therefore employed in the produc- 
tion of spirit, termed in the Mauritius arrack, in 
the West Indies taffia. Both this and rum are 
exceedingly injurious to the human frame, until 
they have acquired considerable age; and the 
cause of the unwholesomeness is this :—The ace- 
tic acid in the cane juice is not wholly neutral- 
ized by the lime first used to temper this juice, 
because a portion remains in combination with 
that part of the saccharine liquid that after- 
wards forms molasses, in which substance acetic 
acid may always be detected. Added to this, 
the attenuation of the wash proceeds so rapidly 
in tropical climates, that acetification has com- 
menced ere distillation begins. The consequence 
is that acetic acid rises with the spirit, which 
therefore comes over, attended with acetic ether 
and a quantity of free acetic acid, both mixed 
with the spirit and rendering it exceedingly un- 
wholesome. Time will make the ether evapo- 
rate, or nearly so; but the acetic acid will re- 
main. This might be obviated, and these two 
spirituous preparations rendered less deleterious, 
by treating the wash with lime, by which the 
acetic acid might be wholly neutralized in the 
still. In India there exists a much more primi- 
tive mode of making sugar from the cane than 
the one we have described ; but the canes of that 
generally light and sandy soil yield a sugar very 
deficient in fermentable qualities, and of little 
value to the refiner. 
Raw sugar brought to England is converted 
into loaf or white sugar by being deprived of its 
impurities, which consist of mucilage, gluten, 
molasses, caramel, and some other matters, to 
say nothing of absolute filth. The sugar is first 
made into a pap with hot water, as a diluted so- 
lution in water would deteriorate it. This pap 
is next put into conical forms or moulds, and 
allowed to drain, which clears it from much of 
its coarse treacle and other substances. It is 
then mixed with a small portion of lime-water, 
some bullock’s blood, and a quantity of animal 
charcoal, and injected with steam admitted 
through various orifices, by which it is dissolved 
and incorporated with the albumen of the blood 
SULPHATES. 
and with the bone charcoal, and these with each 
other and the blood, into a homogeneous mass. 
This now undergoes various operations of filter- 
ing and separation from the refining ingredients, 
until the pure sugar remains in the form of a 
limpid and highly plgnieea syrup, which is then 
evaporated to the crystallizing point under great 
pressure, in what are termed vacuum-pans, and 
then poured into conical moulds. These, after a 
few days, are placed in a stove heated to 130 or 
140 degrees, where they remain until they are 
baked hard. The loaves are now taken out of 
the moulds and covered with blue paper, in which 
condition they are ready for sale. 
SUGAR-CANE. See Saccuarum and Suear. 
SUGAR OF LEAD,—chemically, Acetate of 
Lead. A salt composed of lead and acetic acid, 
and much used in medicine, in surgery, in che- 
mical reagency, and in several of the arts, par- 
ticularly that of calico-printing. It is made, on 
a small scale, by dissolving either litharge or car- 
bonate of lead or white oxide of lead in distilled 
vinegar,—and, on a large scale, by a coarse and 
operose process with sheet-lead and distilled vine- 
gar. In its pure state, it is inodorous, and has 
a sweet astringent taste, and forms in irregular 
masses which look like lumps of sugar, but are 
aggregations of white, glossy, right oblique-angled 
prisms terminated by dihedral summits. It has 
a specific gravity of 2°35, and slowly effloresces 
by exposure to the air, and dissolves in about 
four times its weight of water at 60° Fahrenheit. 
It is a powerful poison in even small quantity ; 
yet, when administered in minute doses. with 
corrective accompaniments, and under circum- 
stances of due caution, it is employed by the hu- 
man physician as a mighty astringent and seda- 
tive, and as a valuable remedy in various kinds 
of internal hemorrhages; and as the principal 
medicinal ingredient in a lotion, it serves well, 
in both human and veterinary practice, as a re- 
medy for inflammation of.the eyes. 
SUGAR PEA. See Pra. 
SULPHATES. Salts consisting of sulphuric 
acid in combination with alkaline and metallic 
bases. Several exist in a natural state; those of 
lime and baryta are particularly abundant; and 
all may be artificially formed by the action of 
sulphuric acid either on the metals and alkalies 
themselves, or on the metallic oxides or their 
carbonates. Six—those of baryta, tin, lead, mer- 
cury, antimony, and bismuth—are utterly inso- 
luble; six—those of lime, strontia, silver, cerium, 
zirconia, and yttria—are sparingly soluble ; and 
all the rest are soluble in water. When any sul- 
phates, except those of soda, potash, lime, lithia, 
strontia, and baryta, are subjected to a white 
heat, they suffer decomposition, one portion of 
their sulphuric acid escaping unchanged, and 
another portion passing into sulphurous acid and 
oxygen; and when any sulphates whatever are 
mixed with carbonaceous matter and ignited, 
the oxygen both of the acid and of the oxide 
