Physics and Chemistry. 415 
soluble in dilute acetic acid. If however, the fluid be poured into 
water, a tenacious precipitate is thrown down, which by washin 
in water, solution in alcohol, treatment with animal charcoal, an 
gave it the formula €,,H,,(€,H,0),6,,. Saccharose (cane 
sugar) affords under similar conditions, a precisely similar saturated 
body. fecwpe A aray ena oe dissolves when heated with ace- 
tic oxyd to and afford sticky mass, becoming soon pul- 
verulent, an ing ee: the sabes © .974154(€,, O) sO, 5. 
After giving the above facts in his Journal, Pirie says in a note 
that these inter esting results are in com lete accordance with the 
hexyl hydrid €,H,,, coming directly from a seven-acid alcohol 
6H,(OH),. This Soho, because two of its hydryl atoms are 
united to one car atom, is not, probably, capable of pa 
On attempting to pearane it, it would , just as in the case of the 
dehyd-alcohols (for example, the alcohol €H,—€H | oe when 
set free from its well known acetic ether €H,—€H | e160) 
decompose into water and its first anhydrid, €,H, \< (OH),. 
This substance is grape sugar (dextrose). As the conversion of 
mannite into mannitan (©,H,(9H), into €,H, | (on), ) shows, 
the polyacid alcohols are very easily converted into anhydri rids. If 
how the grape sugar loses still more water, two results may take 
place: 1st, two molecules may together lose the water, wielding 
2 le eH, 4 (Ops 2 od 
in this case the anhydrid @ , which is cane sugar, 
H, (OH), 
milk sugar, ete.; or 2d, the molecule of water may be taken 
from a ‘single molecule of dextrose, affording then the triacid 
aleohol € eH, 49 ; this is starch, cellulose, ete. The nume- 
rous isomers in these ' groups are easily accounted for; they Lave 
their cause as it would seem, partly in differences in the structure 
of the hexyl radical no doubt, but chiefly in the variations in the 
mode of grouping of the © and the oO According to this 
Ad Lah fe the saturated oad — m grape 8 
hes Bote, ),9,, is muc 
€,H,(€, HI 39) 8, ok Schiitzenberger aauich to be eh 
If this be the true formula, then it appears that grape sugar by the 
OSs Of water, is conv ertec into the ae ether of cane sugar, 
Ch Mei II, v, 264, May 15, 1860. ¥. B 
