SOME PROBLEMS IN THE CELLULOSE FIELD.* 



BY AI/VTN S. WHEELER. 

 Professor of Chemistry, University of North Carolina. 



The vegetable cell is a laboratory in which are carried out 

 a most remarkable series of chemical reactions. As we con- 

 template the immense number of organic compounds of all 

 degrees of compounds which are formed within the walls of 

 the plant cell we are convinced that this is the chemical lab- 

 oratory par excellence. Two features impress us particularly: 

 first, the silence in which the operations are carried on; sec- 

 ond, the narrow range of medium temperatures required. 

 Notwithstanding this apparent simplicity of conditions the 

 products are of the most various kind. Some of these man is 

 able to synthesize in his own crude way; others are still the 

 secrets of nature. It is utterly impossible for man to prepare 

 certain naturally occurring compounds except at a tempera- 

 ture which would burn the plant tissue. We are led to wonder 

 whether forces exist of which we are unacquainted or whether 

 we are merely unable to control the forces already familiar to 

 us. It would be difficult to say which supposition is the more 

 probable. It will be granted that investigation into the 

 activities of the cell is of profound importance. In fact it 

 has been said that "it is in the plant cell where synthetical 

 operations are predominant that we have to look for the foun- 

 dations of the 'new chemistry' which may be expressed broadly 

 as the relation of matter to life." 



Among the products which result from the activities of the 

 cell is cellulose, an essential constituent of all plant tissue. 

 Plant physiologists have been accustomed to identify cellulose 



♦Reprinted from The Chemical Engineer, Vol. II., No. 8, July. H»05. 



106 [Nov. 



