ugar; but
as, under the present plan, we have no means of so doing, the acetic
acid, which is forming during the whole process of evaporation (as
fermentation still goes on), unites with the lime before it can be
dissipated by the heat, and thus not only forms acetate of lime, but
causes the re-solution of the precipitated feculencies, thus rendering
it necessary to add a fresh portion of lime in the tache, a proceeding
always to be avoided, if possible, but generally necessary in boiling
down sour liquor. Take a small portion of cane-juice (hot or cold) in
a tumbler, and temper it with lime until the feculencies are
precipitated and the flakes perfectly visible, then add vinegar by
drops, and it will be found that the flakes will speedily disappear
and be re-dissolved, showing that lime has a greater affinity for
acetic acid than starch, and that, although when added to sour
cane-juice, it neutralises the acidity, still that result is a
consequence, not the cause, of the application, and is highly
injurious. Lime is one of the greatest known solvents of vegetable
matter; it dissolves albumen, gluten, gum and lignin, or woody fibre,
forming soapy compounds with wax, resin, and, chlorophyle. Ordinary
cane-juice contains about three parts of resin to every 100 of sugar,
and the projection of a small piece of soap into a tache full of
granulating syrup will soon convince any one of the effect likely to
result from the presence of that material. Although, by tempering hot,
we get rid of a very great quantity of the substances on which lime
acts injuriously, a considerable portion of them remain in suspension,
the quantity of albumen contained in the cane-juice not being
sufficient to carry them all off by coagulation; on the addition of
the lime, however, they are entirely dissolved and as the impurities
left behind consist chiefly of gluten, the liability of the liquor to
ferment is greatly increased by its retention, that being the
fermenting principle contained in wheat and other vegetable
productions prone to that process.

One hundred parts of Albumen consist of Carbon, 52.88; Oxygen, 23.88;
Hydrogen, 7-54; Nitrogen, 15.70. Gluten, nearly same as Albumen.

-------------+-------+-------+-------+---------+-------++------+--------
100 parts | | | | | ||Excess! Excess
consist of |Carbon.|Oxygen.|Hydro- | Carbon. | Water.|| of | of
| | | gen. |