Supplementary Chapter 317 



It is to be noted that in acetylating raw cotton the 

 removal of non-cellulose components reduces the yield of 

 product. 



These results appear to warrant the conclusions that the 

 OH groups of the celluloses in their original condition are in a 

 state of interior potential activity, which they lose under the 

 treatment incidental to purification and bleaching. This 

 would imply constitutional changes of the cellulose complex, 

 but does not exclude the possibility that these are in part re- 

 versible. It is an obvious suggestion that in the ester reactions 

 of the ordinary forms of ' pure ' cellulose there may be a play 

 of interior hydroxyl reactions affecting the process and modi- 

 fying the final product, but without influence on the net 

 quantitative results of the reaction. In the production of cellu- 

 lose nitrates there are particular indications of such reactions 

 (i) in the influence upon the reaction and product of the 

 proportion of water present in the ordinary reaction mixture 

 (HNO 3 + H 2 SO 4 ) ; (2) in the extreme variability of the 

 physical properties of the products, such as solubility in 

 ' neutral ' solvents and viscosities of the solutions. 



We may again mention the results obtained by Will and 

 Lenze (Berl. Ber. 31, 68) in 'nitrating' the hexoses, from 

 which it appears that the simple ketoses under extreme 

 nitration lose an additional molecule of water by interior re- 

 action. There is therefore some ground for a critical revision 

 of current assumptions in regard to the cellulose nitrates, and 

 also for concluding that some of the anomalies observed in the 

 group of acetates, and especially in the higher acetates, may be 

 adequately resolved by reference to the possibility of the 

 suggested complication of the ester reactions proper. 



Reactions of Decomposition. Action of Ozone. 

 This has been exhaustively investigated by C. Doree and 

 M. Cunningham (J. Chem. Soc. 101, 497 (1912) et seq.). Since 



