Then there is the scent of vanilla, and the
growers of the vanilla bean have lost greatly in consequence. There is
also heliotrope perfume prepared from coal-tar, and other extracts for
scenting toilet soaps.
But the most remarkable of all the products of coal-tar is _saccharine_,
which was first discovered by Fahlberg, a German, who was conducting
experiments in coal-tar under the direction of Professor Remsen, of the
Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.
This substance is infinitely sweeter than any cane-sugar--more than two
hundred times as sweet--so that the smallest drop sweetens more than a
tablespoonful of sugar. But it does not nourish like cane or beet sugar,
while at the same time it is not injurious, and it preserves fruit
perfectly.
Persons suffering from certain diseases, when sugar in any form cannot
be taken, can have their diet rendered much more acceptable by the use
of saccharine. The taste is very pure, and more quickly communicated to
the palate than that of cane-sugar.
It seems wonderful that from a substance which, a generation ago, was
used only as wagon grease and for kindling fires, such colors,
medicines, perfumes and sweetness should be extracted!
BE SURE HOW YOU BEGIN.
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