80 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917. 
be retained in industry. A list of the more interesting patents in this 
connection is given below : 
Preparation of a sizing material from the juice of linseed, hemp-seed, 
plantain-seed, &c. (F. C. Calvert, Eng. Pat. 164, 1857). 
Obtaining fecula from bulbs of the lily type (R. I. C. Dubus, Eng. 
Pat. 2,801, 1857). 
Preparation of a mucilage from quince-seeds (G. Norris, Eng. Pat. 
2,240, 1861). 
Preparation of a substance named ‘ parapectin’ from the juice of 
the fruit of the arbutus tree by precipitating with alcohol. This substance 
resembles pectin but has greater consistency and strength (P. Mingaud, 
Eng. Pat. 1,649, 1865). 
Obtaining a mucilaginous substance from flax, China grass, sorghum, 
Phormium tenax, and other fibre-yielding material by boiling with alkali 
(T. Gray, Eng. Pat. 1,058, 1866). 
Preparing size from the fruit of the augustus palm (S. C. Dhondy, 
Eng. Pat. 7,458, 1891). 
Preparation of a gum from plants of the Mesembryanthaceae family 
(R. Haddon (R. My Glyvares), Eng. Pat. 23,555, 1898). 
Preparation of vegetable glue or sizing material from the palmetto 
palm and similar plants (F. Hepburn, Eng. Pat. 10,814, 1898). 
Obtaining a glutinous substance from beetroot by treatment with 
SO, and neutralising with chalk. The acid calcium salt which is obtained 
is evaporated in vacuo. The product is rendered gelatinous by an alkali 
or ammonia, but this property is obviated by previous treatment with 
H,O, (G. B. Ellis (F. Hornung), Eng. Pat. 22,788, 1898). 
Using mucilage from linseed for sizing yarn (J. Pate, Eng. Pat. 2,645, 
1901). 
Obtaining ‘ viscine’ from plants of the Ilex class (W. Loebell, Eng. 
Pat. 26,383, 1904). 
Obtaining gum for sizing purposes from flax, hemp, and other textile 
fibres (H. Sefton Jones, Eng. Pat. 18,537, 1907). 
Bacterial Gums. 
The bacterial gums are of interest in connection with the mode of 
genesis of exudation gums and also as to their influence in certain in- 
dustries such as sugar manufacture and brewing. A. Greig Smith appears 
to have been the first to connect the formation of gum, or gum flux, with 
bacterial action. In researches into the mode of formation of the gum 
from Acacia perennis (wattle-gum) he isolated from the twigs of the tree 
two kinds of bacteria, one of which, the most prevalent, named by him 
Bacterium acacie, when grown upon suitable media produced a slime 
of the araban-galactan class (‘Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.’ 1902, Pt. TI. 
Sept. 24). The view that a specific organism is responsible for the forma- 
tion of gum is also held by Bean and Edie (‘4th Report Wellcome Tropical 
Research Laboratories, Khartoum’) as a result of their researches. 
Attempts to inoculate gum-bearing trees with this organism, however, led 
only to a decreased product of gum. Ruhland (° Ber. Deutsch. botan. Ges.,’ 
1906, XXIV. 393) holds the contrary opinion, although he was able to isolate 
a bacterium—Bacillus spongiosus—from diseased cherry-trees which 
formed a gum yielding only arabinose on hydrolysis. R. Greig Smith 
