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. | | ||Oxygen|Hydrogen -------------+-------+-------+-------+---------+-------++------+-------- Lignin, or | | | | | || | Woody Fibre| 51.45 | 42.73 | 5.82 | or51.45 | 48.55 || | Starch | 43.55 | 49.63 | 6.77 | 43.55 | 56.45 || | Sugar | 42.47 | 50.63 | 6.90 | 42.47 | 57.53 || | Gum | 42.23 | 50.84 | 6.93 | 42.23 | 57.77 || | Alcohol | 51.98 | 34.32 | 13.70 | 51.98 | 38.99 || | 9.03 Acetic Acid | 50.22 | 44.15 | 5.63 | 50.22 | 46.91 || 2.87 | Resin | 75.94 | 13.34 | 10.72 | 75.94 | 15.16 || | 8.90 Wax | 81.79 | 5.54 | 12.76 | 81.79 | 6.30 || | 11.01 -------------+-------+-------+-------+---------+-------++------+-------- By a reference to the foregoing table it will be easily understood how slight a change in the proportion of the ingredients of any one of the substances contained therein will convert it into an entirely different one. In chemistry we are able, to a certain extent, to imitate the operations of nature; but we must follow in the same course laid down by her; thus, we can convert woody fibre, or sawdust and starch, into sugar, gum, alcohol, and acetic acid; but we cannot convert alcohol, acetic acid, or gum into sugar, starch or woody fibre; and of such importance is a slight alteration of the proportions of these elements--carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen--that the abstraction of carbon from sugar, and the addition of a portion of the prime support of life, vegetation and combustion, oxygen, changes the harmless sugar into the most violent of poisons, oxalic acid, which consists of 26.57 carbon, 70.69 oxygen, and 2.74 hydrogen.