Pectocelluloses and Mucocelluloses 219 



(adipocellulose) under these conditions involves a reiterated 

 round of treatments consisting of 



Alkaline hydrolysis . . Boiling in solutions of NaOH, Na a CO 3 ,&c. 



Oxidation \ Hypochlorite solutions and atmospheric 



* * oxidation (grassing). 



Souring .... Treatment with dilute acids in the cold. 



It must be remembered, however, that the problem is not the 

 removal of the non-cellulose constituents of the fibre itself these 

 disappear almost entirely in the earliest alkaline treatments 

 but of compound celluloses of the other two main groups. 



The further investigation of the pectose of flax fibre has not 

 been prosecuted according to the methods of later years. Such 

 investigations will, no doubt, be undertaken in due course. 



FLAX CELLULOSE has been mentioned incidentally to the 

 general treatment of the celluloses. So far no reactions have 

 been brought to light in which it is differentiated from cotton 

 cellulose, with perhaps one exception, viz. its lesser resistance to 

 hydrolysis. Thus H. Miiller mentions (Pflanzenfaser, p. 38) 

 that flax cellulose isolated by the bromine method lost, on 

 boiling five times with a dilute solution of sodium carbonate 

 (i p.ct. Na 2 CO 3 ), 10 p.ct. of its weight. The statements of 

 R. Godeffroy (abstracted in J. Soc. Chem. Ind. 1889, 575), 

 that flax cellulose is distinguished from cotton cellulose by its 

 reducing action upon silver nitrate in boiling neutral solution, 

 are erroneous, the reaction resulting from residual impurities, 

 which, for the reasons given, are extremely difficult to isolate. 

 Flax cellulose may therefore, for the present, be regarded as 

 chemically indistinguishable from cotton cellulose. 



The oil and wax constituents of the raw fibre will be 

 described under the group of adipocelluloses. 



OTHER PECTOCELLULOSES. As far as investigation has pro- 

 ceeded, it appears that pectose, or pectose-like substances, are 

 associated with all fibrous tissues of the unlignified order. 



