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Chemistry. — “d-Sorbinose and 1-sorbinose ( w-tagatose) and their 
configurations.” By Prof. C. A. Lopry DE Bruyn and Mr. 
W. ALBERDA VAN EKENSTEIN, communicated by Prof. LOBRY 
DE BRUYN. 
The configuration of d-sorbinose, a substance which has been known 
for a long time, has not up to the present been made out with 
certainty. It is only known that this sugar is a ketose, that it 
yields d-sorbite on reduction and that it can be formed again from 
this latter alcohol by oxidation. 
d-Sorbinose which was formerly difficult to prepare in a tolerably 
large quentity, is now more easily obtained by the method of 
BeRTRAND !). According to the interesting method of this chemist, 
sorbite can ve oxidised to sorbinose by means of Bacterium xylinum 
(and B. aceti). By this method we have obtained yields of 25 to 30 
percent ©); we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. BEYERINCK of 
Delft for the pure cultures of Bact. xylinum. 
The final experiments with d-sorbinose were brought to a conclusion 
in the beginning of 1898; they proved that, on reduction with 
sodium amalgam, d-idite is formed as well as d-sorbite. The former 
alcohol was recognised, in the form of its tribenzal-compound, as the 
optically opposite form of tribenzal-/-idite prepared from /-idonic acid. 4) 
This result was obtained many months before the publication, 
at a meeting of the Société chimique, by G. BERTRAND from the fact 
that on reducing d-sorbinose a second hexite is produced, in addition 
to sorbite, which according to BERTRAND must be d-idite.*) The 
publication of our work was, however, postponed because in the 
course of an investigation of w-tagatose (a new ketose which is 
formed along with tagatose by the action of alkalis on- galactose 5) 
it was becoming more and more probable that this sugar was to 
be regarded as /-sorbinose. More than a year ago, the two ketoses 
were submitted to a comparative crystallographic examination ; 
Mr. VAN Lier was good enough to make this examination in the 
laboratory of Prof. ScHROEDER VAN DER KoLk at Delft. The result 
1) Bull. Soc. chim. 15, 1196, 627. 
*) 200 gr. sorbite gave 50 to 60 grams of pure sorbinose. 
*\ Recueil 18, 150. 
*) Report of the mceting of March 11. 1898; Bull. 19. 259. In the publication rela- 
ting to this communication (Bull. 19, 347) no details are given about the reduction 
of d-sorbinose to idite or about its configuration; Bertranp has also not returned 
to the subject. 
5) Recueil 16, 267. 
$$ 
