OCR Text |
Show MELEZITOSE. All Uintls of sugar arc high, but some kinds are much higher thau others, lu fact, there is one kind which is priceless. price-less. Even tho government of the Cnited States, rich as it is, cannot buy this particular kind of sugar, because thero is none to buy. The government, however, has come by a few kilograms kilo-grams of it and tho experts iu the bureau bu-reau of chemistry are correspondingly happy. MeWitose is one of the rarest of sugars. In very minute quantities it has been available to scientists for many years, but theiie has never been sufficient to permit of extensive experimentation. ex-perimentation. JCow, with the aid of somo Pennsylvania bees, tho department depart-ment of agriculture has come into possession pos-session of a few particles of the precious pre-cious substance and there is hope of carrying on tests with it to such an extent ex-tent that a means of quantity production produc-tion may be found. It is worthy of note that the bees which oanie to the aid of the government govern-ment lost their lives iu the effort, but it may develop that t Lo sacrifice will tint have bceu in vain. A bulletin describing the quest for mclezitose says that tho bees in certain cer-tain sections of Pennsylvania were storing up honey that crystallized, with the result that, in the following winter, win-ter, the bees were uot able to digest it, and starved. The crystallized substance in the honey was found lo be melezitose, which derives its name from "melez, " lie French name for the larch tree, upou which it was originally discovered in the form of honeydew. It also occurs oc-curs in a sugary incrustation, or mannathe man-nathe manua of the Scriptures ou a luminous tree in Persia and adjoining adjoin-ing countries. Recently it has been found in a similar product on the Douglas Doug-las fir iu British Columbia. And now it has turned up iu Pennsylvania, Penn-sylvania, stored away in the honeycomb honey-comb in numerous hives. The theory respecting its presence in hives is an interesting oue and has been worked ; out to tins conclusion: i Tiie scrub' piuc, and rarely other species of pine, are subject to attack i-y a plant louse and by a Scale insect, in the course of their life activities these insects produce a honeydew, which is rich in meleiitose. In drv summers, after ;he white tdovcr ilowcrs have ceaW to yield honey, the bees 1 turu to this honeydew, and collect it; but it crystallizes as fast as they store it away. This occurred in 1917 and 1918, and heavy losses werie suffered by beekeepers. bee-keepers. In 1919 the weather was so moist during July that no melezitose was gathered by tho bees at all. But it will probably be collected in the future when the summer is dry; and the honey of Pennsylvania and possibly pos-sibly of other sections may afford a permanent source of 6ugar previously so rare as to be only imperfectly known. Tho bureau of chemistry extracted considerable quantities from the honey of 1917 and 1918, and is making elaborate elab-orate experiments with it. Pare as it has always been, there is a defiuito de-maud de-maud for melezitose for use in scientific scien-tific laboratories. It can bo distinguished distin-guished from other sugars, we are informed, in-formed, "by certain peculiarities of crystallization observable with tho polarizing microscope.'' Respecting distinguishmeut, it may be remarked that this presents formidable difficulties; difficul-ties; first, because it isn't everybody who has a pound or two of melezitose lying about; and, second, because it isn't everybody, either, who has a pound or two of "other sugars" lying about availablo for purposes of comparison. |