142 ANNUAL RECOBD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



with lcvulosc. It reduces silver and copper solutions, forms 

 oxalic acid when oxidized by nitric acid, does not crystallize, 

 and rotates the polarized ray to the left, though its rotatory 

 power appears to be weak. 



Krusemann has studied the reduction-products of levulosc, 

 and at the same time those of glucose, in order to compare 

 these two sugars together. The reduction was effected by 

 sodium-amalgam, and the substance obtained was the same for 

 both, and identical with mannite. The constitutional formu- 

 la proposed by Fittig for this body will require modification. 



Berthelot several years ago discovered a new complex su- 

 gar in the Briancon manna, an exudation from the larch, to 

 which he gave the name of melezitose. Villiers has now iden- 

 tified with this a sugar obtained from Lahore, and there 

 known as turanjbin, being an exudation from Albagi mau- 

 morum, a spiny bush belonging to the leguminosae. 



Vincent has examined the products obtained by the dry 

 distillation, in close vessels, of the residue left after ferment- 

 ing beet -root molasses, called vinasse. He has identified 

 methylamine, methyl alcohol, sulphide and cyanide, hydro- 

 cyanic acid, formic, acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric, and 

 caproic acids, phenol, and a series of liquid bases. 



Brunner and Brandenburg have succeeded in detecting 

 succinic acid in the juice of unripe grapes. They were led to 

 examine for it by the fact that nascent hydrogen, acting on 

 ethyl oxalate, produced tartaric acid and glycolic acid. The 

 same reduction process the authors believe, therefore, to go 

 on in the plant. 



Hermann has observed an interesting and novel formation 

 of salicylic acid by the prolonged action of sodium on suc- 

 cinic ether. Since succinic acid belongs to the fatty series, 

 while salicylic acid, belongs to the aromatic, the result is a 

 conversion of one into the other a rare thine: in organic 

 chemistry. Moreover, the constitution of the former enables 

 that of the latter to be fixed with certainty. 



Perkin has effected a simpler synthesis of coumarin (the 

 odorous principle of the Tonka-bean, the melilot, etc.) by boil- 

 ing salicyl hydride with acetic oxide and sodium acetate. 

 With other aromatic aldehydes other syntheses were effected, 

 some of them of great interest. 



Baeyer, the successor of Liebig at Munich, has published 



