The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-01

stearine 1881, of sugar to Is, and of
theObrOmine ~.
The flavor of the chocolate is product
Bile, but Prof. Colby cogently argued that
such a synthetic product was not choCo-
late, and the reproduction of the sustain
tanning quality of the bean, its fatty sub
stance, was further to seek. In other
words the bean cannot be reproduced by
the synthesizing process, any more than
from the laboratory a synthetic COW can
be made. Analytic chemistry can tear
that bean apart and reduce it to its ele-
ments. The time is yet to come when the
discovery will be commercially available
That it will come the Frenchman does
and eager may doubt without injury to
that Unborn optimism which carries to
every high achievement.
Take another instance of NJ. Berthelot's
synthetic study: He has produced nico-
tine, which is the essential principle of
the tobacco leaf of commerce, by treating
salomine natural glucoside, with hydro
gen. The chemical process is an open
secret in the laboratory. The assertion
made by impregnating any. desir-
ed or desirable leaf with syn
thetic nicotine and rolling that
into a cigar is rather discouraging pros
pect to lovers of the weed. 1t is hardly
true that the leaf is merely so much dried
vegetable matter. 1t has constituent ex-
cellencies of its own apart from the nico-
tine which must be resolved, and then the
Tobacco leaf is not reproduced Here the
scientist approaches the great secret to
know which would place him almost on
a level with the angels. viii he grasp it?
NJ. Berthelot says that the science of
chemistry grew out of the search for two
things, the elixir of life and the philoso-
piers stone. And in the same breath he
admits that these two secrets will never
be revealed to living man. Yet that other
compounds almost as wonderful in their
way may be found he thinks it would be
dogmatic and rash to deny The poisonous
principle that enters into hemlock, known
as CONNIE, has been made synthetically,
and the constitutional differences from
nicotine are so slight that the transfer
matory process from CONNIE to nicotine
alone remains to be mastered In coal
tar NJ. Berthelot finds the compound from
which the nicotine of commerce is to be
made. Think of it, We smokers! Yet some
thing may happen at any moment in any
of the great chemical laboratories of the
world which will have a tendency to rev
olutionze thought on the subject.
No one who ever ate ice cream but is
familiar with the flavor of vanilla which
has all along been the product of the
tonka bean. Artificial vanilla is produc-
commercial article. In fact, confection-
ers in various places are using the chemi-
cal product, and the ton1a bean industry
is threatened Listen to BerthelOt: "All
the essential oils will eventually be made
direct. Nanillin 0he chemical substitute
for vanillD is very near in its chemical
constitution to the aromatic, the distinc-
tive principle of cloves and alspice Ar
tihcial cloves and all spice will probably
come next Flower perfumes too have
been fully analysed, and in time will be
largely synthesized. One of them, mead
oW-sweet, is being largely compounded
and sold. There are, consequently, no
virtues in the natural tobacco which are
likely to be missed in the artificial In
fact, the contrary state of affairs is more
probably" Here faith to move noun
tains is exemplified, but the promise will
have to be fulfilled before tobacco grow
ers need to shudder
Allusion has been made to therbromine
essential GVnfbegiZiOpr of
cocoa. Well, it is more than that. 1t is
at the basis of tea and coffee. The syn
thetic process of development shows
that from carbon and oxygen carbonic
oxide is produced; from carbonic oxide
and chloride comes carbonyl chloride;
from carbonyl chloride and ammonia
urea is produced, and whence also uric
acid: uric acid makes xanthine, this gives
theobromine, and it in turn gives out
theme of caffeine. So here is a chance for
the three great non-intoxicants of the age
the cups that cheer but which do not in
ebriate-tea, coffee. cocoa. With the
wavering in the balance, cocoa trees in
danger Of backward evolution to the
original wilderness. and tea and coffee
each other toward the horizon of CONNER
cial extinction. one is ready for anything
even the passing of his tobacco dreams
into cloudland. But it is not yet.
There is much more occasion for alarm
to the growers of sugar cane and vet
Prof. Colby, in reviewing this situation
in immediate danger from the synthe-
sized product. Here, as elsewhere in the
domain of research. the issue rests solely
upon an economic basis. When the syn
thetic production of sugar has reached a
stage of undisputed ability to compete
with the market price of the grown pro-
duct of beet and cane, then will be the
time for holders of securities to trembIe
Or IS has been the oft-repeated case they
can buy in the chemical process and still
hold sweet control. An invention for the
production of sugar has been almost per
fected. or at least that is the claim ad-
vanced. but here chemists will agree with
NJ. Berthelot that 1.-THE commercial syn
thetic manufacture of sugar is a more
difficult task than they imagine" mean
ing, of course, the inventors of the pro-
cess.
At the present moment one of the most
important branches of industry i'm this
garine. The idea rested simply upon the
firm belief Of the inventor that butter or
its substitute could be produced from beef
fat He was treading in the synthetic
path Of the chemist intermediateiy. so TO
speak for his process simply consisted il
extracting the oil from the fet by melt
ing. cooling and pressing II. This oil
then received "a milk treatment and was
aftorward churned and cOlorrd, according
TO tho artistic sense OF the dairyman
once the commercial conditions have
been met " Berfhclot holds synthetic
chemistry VIII DO The rest in the proIue-
ton Of foods 81 all kinds and COWS milk /
nss's milk and goats mills NAV DE fur Z
nished from the laboratory. Tbs calls
ru visions 81 cruel io Gov nra 81