, 1888-12-14
A CURIOUS PRODUCT.
INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING
SACcHARlN AND IT'S USES.

The New sweet Manufactures from Coal
Ta-Used Now in Cake, Candy and
Champagne-whRt an American Chem
list s~ays-NredIcal Uses.
The curious product from coal tar
known as saccharin was introduced by a
French chemist two years ago, since
when a factory for its production has
been established in Westerhausen, near
h old historic town of Magdeburg, in
Prussia. Saccharin has become SO for
midable u rival OF cane and beet root
sugar for many manufacturing purposes,
that the producers of these look upon the
new material with great disfavor. Late
French papers state that the French
sugar manufacturers have begun q cam
paign against it, and the Society of Ag-
r~iculturists have petitioned the govern
ment to forbid its manufacture, as being
prejudicial to the beet root sugar trade,
although experiments have shown that
it is not noxious.
1t has been found that in its pure state
it is difficult of solution, but this defect
il corrected by the addition of an aka
line bicarbonate that is added by small
portions to the saccharin mixed In the
water. No heat is employed, as under
tho influence of heat soda will transform
saccharin into salicylio ncid. Neither
hies, bees nor other insects will touch
saccharin in any form, but physicians
are already prescribing it for patients
afflicted with diseases which will not
admit of their taking sugar.. A gentle
man to whom sugar was forbidden tried
snccharin, using it alone to sweeten
lemon juice and stewed cranberries. He
found that 1t would not mix, and ex-
perlmented with various things to rem
edy 1t, but was unsuccessful until he
thought of glycerine; one dram of sac
charm with one pound Of glycerine,
heated to solution, makes a mixture
closely resembling honey, and one that
readily dissolves in water, milk, tea,
coffee, wines and liquors.
ITS SwEETESING POWER.
S~accharin is used now in cake, candy
and champagne. Its sweetening power
is 300 times greater than that of sugar.
and it has neither the latter's nutritive
nor injurious properties. 1t does not
ferment, and IL in M way altered by the
action of yeast and other ferments. In
addition TO this, it has also antiseptic
properties which make it useful In pre-
serving articles of food. 1t is a condi-
ment, or spice, and should never be
tasted in its pure state.
A distinguished American chemist,
when askedJfor some information re-
speeding the new material, said: Sac
charm is really in many ways a re-
markable product. 1t Is the sweetest
substance known. One part of 1t in TO-
600 parts of water will give the water a
p%erceptibly sweet taste equal to one part
of cane sugar in 250 parts of water, and
a solution of n in 10000 is intensely
sweet. In appearance it is a white
crystalline powder, soluble in 230 parts
of water at 20 dogs. centigrade, and is
easily soluble in alcohol and ether. Its
scientific name is benzoyl sulphonic
amide.
Cautiously enough, saccharin is in no
way related to the class of sugars (carb-
hydratesl, either chemically or physio-
logically. 1t ia not only unfermentable,
but IL possesses an ~anti-zymotic action;
that is, it retards the ammoniacal fer
mentations ID certain secretions. 1t is
indigestible, inert and non-ppisonous,
when AIKEN N the stomach, and passes
out unchanged. These properties give it
an important place in dietetics, phar-
macy and therapeutics. When mixed
with the food of diabetic or obese
patients it enables them to indulge In
sweetened dishes which ordinarily must
be denied them on account of the inturi-
GUS effects of sugar under such condi-
tions.