Abstract
IN considering the subject of sugar, its produce, supply, uses, and adulteration, we enter upon a much wider field of inquiry than in either of our former articles, though the present has an intimate connection with our previous subjects; for neither coffee, tea, nor cocoa is usually considered properly prepared for table without the addition of sugar; it is used more or less in every part of the globe, for in the widest sense of the word, sugar is contained in most vegetable juices, indeed it is the principal food of young plants. In the rising sap of some trees in spring it is very abundant, as well as in the young stems of grasses. The starch stored up in many seeds at the time of germination is converted into sugar. The process of malting consists in forcing the seeds of the barley to germinate, and just at the time when most sugar is found, to stop their growth, so that the sugar is preserved for our use and not consumed by the growing plants. Sugar is extracted for the use of man from many distinct plants. Chemically considered, there are two kinds of sugar; one called cane sugar, which is obtained from the sugar-cane, the beet-root, the maple, &c.; the other called grape sugar, or glucose, which is chiefly found in grapes and various fruits. The bulk of the sugar used in this country is the juice of the sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum, and perhaps allied species), a gigantic perennial grass, growing usually ten or twelve feet high, but in some situations attaining fifteen or sixteen feet; it has a jointed stem, somewhat similar to that of the bamboo, the upper part having a series of long, narrow leaves, and the flowers produced in large, feathery panicles. Some doubt exists as to the true native country of the sugar-cane, though it is not at all improbable that it came from Southern China and India. The plant is now very extensively cultivated in the East and West Indies, China, the Mauritius, S. America, and other parts.
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JACKSON, J. Sugar . Nature 3, 150–151 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/003150a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003150a0