This is the principal point to which the confectioner has to direct his attention; for if he is not expert in this particular, all his other labour and knowledge will be useless: it is the foundation on which he must build to acquire success in his under takings.

* Charcoal varies in its qualities, according to the wood from which it is prepared. That made from porous woods, such as the willow, alder, etc., is the best for clarifying liquids; animal charcoal, or bone black, is also equally good, on account of its light and porous nature; that made from hard woods is only fit for fuel, as it does not possess the clarifying and decolouring properties like that made from the more soft and porous woods. When newly prepared, or if it has been kept free from air, it has the property of absorbing all putrid gases; "it is also capable of destroying the smell and taste of a variety of animal and vegetable substances, especially of mucilages, oils, and of matter in which extractive abounds; and some articles are said to be even deprived of their characteristic odour, by remaining in contact with it, as valerian, galba-num, balsam of Peru, and musk. The use of charring the interior of water-casks, and of wrapping charcoal in cloths that have acquired a bad smell, depend upon this property. None of the fluid menstrua with which we are acquainted have any action whatever, as solvents, upon carbon." - Parish Pharmacologia.

There are seven essential points or degrees in boiling sugar; some authors give thirteen, but many of these are useless, and serve only to show a critical precision in the art, without its being required in practice; however, for exactness, we will admit of nine, viz:--1. Small thread. 2. Large thread. 3. Little pearl. 4. Large pearl. 5 The blow. 6. The feather. 7. Ball. 8. Crack. 9. Caramel. This last degree derives its name from "a Count Albufage Caramel, of frames, who discovered this method of boiling sugar." - Gunta's Confectioner.

In describing the process, I shall proceed in a different manner to other writers on the subject, by classing it under different heads, according to the uses to which it is applied.