THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



Professor George C. Diekman. 



SOURCES OF CELLULOSE. 



O. Reinke, in Chem. Ztg., states that 

 bean and pea stalks may be made to yield 

 a superior kind of cellulose. The raw 

 material is treated with caustic soda 

 under pressure, and the product thus ob- 

 tained is bleached with solution of potas- 

 sium permanganate i :iooo, and subse- 

 quently treated with sulphurous acid, and 

 then thoroughly washed with water. The 

 product is said to conform to the most 

 severe requirements for cellulose, and is 

 employed in the manufacture of the 

 various nitro-products. Twelve tons of 

 pea stalks yielded 7.88 tons of cellulose, 

 and 8 tons of bean stalks yielded 2.84 

 tons of the product. 



CHANGES IN FIXED OILS. 



Henry A. Gardner, in '(^hem. Rev. 

 ueber d. Fett-und-Harz Industrie, calls 

 attention to the fact that linseed and 

 ether fixed oils used in paints, are often 

 infected with micro-organisms. The in- 

 fection usually is caused by lack of 

 cleanliness during the pressing of the oil. 

 Many of these micro-organisms cause a 

 splitting up of the glycerides, which is 

 evidenced by the high "acid" number of 

 such oils. Many fixed oils upon standing 

 separate a mucilaginous substance in 

 which will be found many of the micro- 



organisms. Such decomposed oils when 

 mixed with many of the basic color 

 agents will produce definite compounds, 

 many of which possess colors dififerent 

 from such as are desired. Gardner rec- 

 ommends that all such oils be carefully 

 filtered in order to remove the mucilagi- 

 nous matter which separates, and also 

 that they be heated to 100° C., in order 

 to destroy the micro-organisms. 



METHYL-ORANGE AS INDI- 

 CATOR. 



Hecht, in Chem. Ztg., reports that 

 methyl-orange serves as an excellent in- 

 dicator for the titration of free sulphuric 

 acid in the presence of copper sulphate. 

 He states that in the acid solution 

 methyl-orange shows a red-violet color, 

 similar to that of neutral-red, and in 

 neutral solutions the color is light green, 

 or in presence of larger quantities of 

 copper sulphate, grass-green. 



Wogrinz and Halla have subjected this 

 method to an examination in connection 

 with estimation of free sulphuric acid in 

 copper-baths. They report that the 

 change in color of the end reaction is 

 very sharp, and that there is no danger 

 that excessive quantities of alkali will be 

 required because of possible hydrolysis 

 of the copper sulphate.. They further re- 



