Committee on Glucose

The request for the appointment of a committee of the Academy on the vexed question of glucose was received from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue a few days after the request for a committee on methyl alcohol. In a letter addressed to President Rogers, dated April 27, 1882, the Commissioner remarks:

“There is now pending before Congress a bill (H. R. 3170) ‘to tax and regulate the manufacture and sale of glucose,’ which bill proposes to so amend the internal-revenue laws as to impose a special tax upon the manufacturers of, and dealers in, glucose, and to levy a tax on the article in its solid, liquid, and semi-liquid form.

“In view of this, I have respectfully to request the appointment of a committee of the Academy to examine as to the composition, nature, and properties of the article commercially known as glucose, or grape sugar.

“This office desires to be informed as to the saccharine quality of this product as compared with cane sugar or molasses, and also especially as to its deleterious effects when used as an article of food or drink, or as a constituent element of such articles.

“Numerous specimens of the article in question are in the possession of this office which will be placed at the disposal of the Academy.

“Any expense necessarily incurred in conducting this inquiry will be paid upon the presentation of a properly prepared bill for that purpose.” [Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1883, p. 66.]

In accordance with the request contained in this letter the President, Wm. B. Rogers, appointed the following committee to consider the question at issue: Ira Remsen, C. F. Chandler, G. F. Barker. The committee reported on September 18, 1882.

The magnitude of the starch-sugar industry in the United States will be appreciated from the consideration of some statistics taken from the report of the committee of the Academy and from other sources. In 1882 there were 32 glucose and starch-sugar factories in the country with an estimated capacity of 43,000 bushels of corn a day. In 1884 there were 29 factories capable of utilizing 40,000 bushels a day. In 1902 the factories had been reduced by combination to five which, however, used 175,000 bushels of corn a day. The combined capital of four of these companies amounted to $80,000,000. At the beginning of the present century the domestic consumption of corn syrup and corn sugar amounted to 1200 million pounds annually. The exports for the decade 1893-1903 amounted to more than 1700 million pounds, valued at $28,000,000.

The report of the committee was one of the most extensive made during the first half century of the Academy and covered 77 printed pages. It contained, besides a general introduction, a summary of the history of the starch-sugar industry, an account of the several varieties of glucose and starch-sugar, and of their chemical composition, an inquiry into the healthfulness of glucose as food, analyses of commercial samples of glucose and starch-sugar with special reference to adulteration, and a list of factories. To this were added fourteen pages of extracts from literature relating to starch-sugar, a bibliography covering 28 pages, and a list of patents.

The results of the work of the committee are summarized in eight paragraphs referring to the following subjects: The history of starch-sugar, the process of manufacture, the extent of the industry, the utilization of the products, the relation of starch-sugar to other sugars, the organic constituents, the healthfulness of glucose as a food.

“In conclusion, then, the following facts appear as the result of the present investigation: 1^st. That the manufacture of sugar from starch is a long-established industry, scientifically valuable and commercially important. 2d. That the processes which it employs at the present time are unobjectionable in their character, and leave the product uncontaminated. 3^d.That the starch sugar thus made and sent into commerce is of exceptional purity and uniformity of composition, and contains no injurious substances. And, 4^th, that though having at best only about three-fifths the sweetening power of cane sugar, yet starch sugar is in no way inferior to cane sugar in healthfulness, there being no evidence before the committee that maize starch sugar, either in its normal condition or fermented, has any deleterious effect upon the system, even when taken in large quantities.” [Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1883, p. 88.]