CHEMISTRY. 389 



formate a ud chloroform. After the chloroform has all distilled off the 

 mixture swells up and evolves oxygen. (Ann. Chim. Phys., March, 1881, 

 V, xxii, 347.) 



Miiutz has stated, as a result of his investigations, that all natural 

 waters, whether rain, river, snow, or sea water, contain traces of alco- 

 hol. He describes his method of applying the iodoform test for alcohol, 

 whereby one part can be detected in a million parts of water. {Nature, 

 April, 1881, xxiii, G16.) 



Kiliani has made an elaborate study of inulin, the starch of the 

 artichoke. It appears to stand in very intimate chemical relations 

 with levulose, probably the anhydride of it. It passes into levulose 

 simply by warming for some time the water in which it is contained. 

 It is distinguished from levulose by the fact that the latter reduces the 

 copper test and ferments, while the former does neither. Dextrose, 

 when oxidized, yields comi^ounds having six atoms of carbon, while 

 levulose affords bodies containing less carbon. This the author ac- 

 counts for by supposing dextrose to be the aldehyde of mannite, and 

 levulose its ketone. (LicJ). Aim., ccv, 145 ; Am. J. ScL, February, 1881, 

 III, xxi, 138.) 



Musculus, in conjunction with Meyer, has succeeded in reconverting 

 dextrose back into dextrin. Twenty grams pure dextrose were treated 

 with thirty of concentrated sulphuric acid in small portions, 800 parts 

 of alcohol were added, the soluuon filtered and allowed to stand 8 days. 

 The abundant precipitate, when washed and dried, weighed ten grams, 

 and was a white amorphus powder. It proved to be the alcoholate of 

 dextrin, and on preparing the hydrate it possessed all the physical, 

 chemical, and organoleptic properties of a dextrin. {Bull. Soc. GMm.j 

 April, 1881, II, XXXV, 3G8.) 



Scheibler has studied the new derivative of glucose discovered by 

 Peligot, and called saccharin, and Avhich has the formula Ci2H220n. It 

 was prepared by boiling the solid starch sugar of commerce with dilute 

 milk of lime so long as lime salts separate. The liquid is freed from 

 lime, filtered, evaporated to a sirup, and allowed to crystallize. It expels 

 CO2 from CaCOs to form calcium saccharinate; but on removing the 

 lime, the saccharinic acid splits into saccharin and water. Saccharin 

 is dextro-rotatory, while its salts are Isevo-rotatory. {Ber. Berl. Chem. 

 Ges., December, 1880, xiii, 2212.) 



Eoscoe, in a lecture in the Eoyal Institution on Baeyer's synthesis of 

 indigo-blue, has stated that in 1879 the value of the indigo imported 

 into Great Britain was two million pounds sterling, the total production 

 of the world being twice that sum in value. The artificial paste which 

 yields indigo-blue on reduction, and which contains 25 per cent, dry 

 acid, is furnished at G shillings per pound. Though the price of the 

 artificial cannot yet equal that of natural indigo, yet it has advantages 

 which more than counterbalance this difference in i^rice. {Nature, July, 

 1881, xxiv, 227.) 



