252 Scientific Intelligence. 



3. On Quinite, the simplest Sugar of the Inosite group. — 

 Since Maquenne proved inosite to be a six-fold hydroxylized 

 bexamethylene, it was to be expected that the hydroxyl deriva- 

 tives of this substance which are poorer in oxygen would possess 

 sugar-like properties. Baeyer has now succeeded in reducing 

 the 7>diketone of bexamethylene by means of sodium amalgam 

 to the glycol of bexamethylene. To purify it, he converted it 

 into the diacetyl derivative and this on saponification with barium 

 hydrate gave the pure glycol, C 6 H ia 2 . It is cistrans-paradioxy- 

 hexamethylene and resembles in appearance and behavior a sugar 

 of the mannite group. It is permanent toward permanganate 

 solution and Fehliug's solution, tastes at first sweet and then 

 bitter. It is easily soluble in water and alcohol, fuses at 143°- 

 145°, and distils without decomposition. According to its forma- 

 tion it is a hexahydro-bydroquinone, and in that case would afford 

 on heating with chromic acid quinone. Since it possesses sugar- 

 like properties and is the simplest representative of the inosite 

 group, the author proposes for it the name quinite. The prepara- 

 tion of this substance opens the way apparently for the produc- 

 tion of other hydrobenzene compounds. — Ber. Berl. Chem. Ges., 

 xxv, 1037, March, 1892. g. f. b. 



4. On the Relation betioeen the Color of Compounds and, 

 their Chemical Constitution.— -From an extended study of a large 

 number of colored compounds both organic and inorganic, 

 Schutze has obtained some results going to show a relation be- 

 tween the color of these substances and their chemical constitu- 

 tion. These results be sums up as follows : (1) A displacement 

 of the absorption from the violet toward the red corresponds to 

 the color-changes greenish-yellow, yellow, orange, red, reddish- 

 violet, violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, etc. ; this order of 

 change being called " lowering the tint." A displacement from 

 red to violet corresponds to an inverse color change, i. e., to a 

 "raising of the tint." (2) Atoms and atomic groups on entering 

 a molecule produce, for compounds of the same chromophore and 

 for the same solvent, a characteristic lowering of color-tint 

 (bathochromic groups) or a raising of the color tint (hypsochro- 

 mic groups). (3) Hydrocarbon radicals act always bathochromic; 

 so that in homologous series the shade deepens as the molecular 

 mass rises. (4) The color-changing action of the elements of the 

 same periodic group also increases with an increase in the atomic 

 mass. (5) Addition of hydrogen is always accompanied by a 

 raising of the tint. (6) The raising or lowering of the color-tint 

 (displacement of the absorption toward the violet or the red) by 

 the substitution of hypsochromic or bathochromic groups, or by 

 the addition or removal of hydrogen, is the more decided the 

 nearer the chemical change which takes place is to the chromo- 

 phore. In general the distances of the atoms from one another 

 given by structural formulas correspond to their actual distances; 

 in some cases, however, it appears that as in the di-derivatives of 

 benzene, the substituents in the para position are nearer to each 



