Therefore the color test was tried with the ester mixture 

 prepared in one of the early experiments by lolling the ori- 

 ginal plant material with hydrochloric acid and alcohol. 

 Methyl fuxfurol was found here also, this method indeed giv- 

 ing hetter results than that of Maquenne, ^ The presence of 



■I 

 free ramnose has thus heen shown in the original material, 



in the first precipitate hy lead acetate, and in the filtrate 

 ftom this precipitate. Txperiments to he described under 

 "The Poison" showed that the ether extract from the Soxhlet 

 apparatus contained a substance which yielded rhamnose when 

 hydrolyzed by dilute sulphuric acid. 



The presence of free gallic acid, fi set in, and rhamnose 

 in the plant can be readily explained by a series of assump- 

 tions for which there is a considerable amount of experimental 



evidence. There is reason to believe that tannin-like bodies 



1 

 are formed at the expense of chlorophyll , that complex 



tannin bodies can be broken down by acetic acid (also found 



in Rhus toxicodendron ) into a tannic acid and a glucoeide 



(for example, the "fustin-tannide" mentioned above yields 



tannic acid and fisetin-glucoside) ; and finally that the 



glucoside can be hydrolyzed by acids or enzymes giving, in 



the sumach plants, fisetin and rhamnose. 



Hitrogenous ferments which can effect the hydrolysis of 



glucosides and give rise to sugars are freq^uently found in 



1. Comptes rendus CIV, 892, 



-37. 



