374 Dr. P. J. Cammidge. Observations on the [Apr. 5, 



with distilled water until the washings were neutral to litmus, was 

 suspended in 100 c.c. of distilled water, treated with sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 filtered, and the filtrate gently warmed to expel the excess of gas. It was 

 then cooled and again filtered. The resulting clear solution was then 

 examined as follows : — 



A. The fluid gave all the usual carbohydrate reactions : Molisch's test 

 was positive ; heating with concentrated sulphuric acid caused it to quickly 

 blacken ; Moore's test gave a brown coloration ; Tollen's ammoniacal silver 

 nitrate solution showed a black precipitate at room temperature in a few 

 minutes ; alkaline solutions of copper sulphate and bismuth were readily 

 reduced, but a solution of copper acetate in acetic acid (Barford's test) was 

 not reduced, showing that the carbohydrate was not dextrose. The presence 

 of free aldehyde was excluded by the absence of any reaction with a solution 

 of rosaniline decolorised by sulphur dioxide. 



B. Examined with the polariscope the fluid was found to be optically 

 inactive. 



C. Fifty cubic centimetres of the solution were mixed with 2 grammes of 

 phenylhydrazin hydrochlorate and 6 grammes of sodium acetate, and heated 

 in a water-bath at 100° C. for two hours. On cooling, a dense flocculent 

 light yellow precipitate appeared. Microscopically, this was found to 

 consist of long, flexible, hair-like crystals, which, on being irrigated with 

 33-per-cent. sulphuric acid, disappeared within a few seconds of the acid 

 reaching them, suggesting that they were either a pentosazone or 

 rnaltosazone.* The precipitate was filtered off, well washed with cold 

 distilled water, and recrystallised from hot 10-per-cent. alcohol three times. 

 It was then dried in a hot-water oven, cooled in a desiccator, and examined. 



(1) The crystals were found to be soluble in water at 60° to 70° C, like a 

 pentosazone. f 



(2) A melting-point of 178° to 180° C. was obtained with seven of the 

 specimens ; one, that obtained from the patient with sub-acute pancreatitis, 

 softened at 160° C, but did not completely melt until the temperature 

 reached 178° to 180° C. 



(3) Estimation of the nitrogen-content by Dumas's method gave 17 - 02 per 

 cent., 17 - 01 per cent., 1662 per cent., 17"00 per cent., 16'40 per cent., 

 16'86 per cent., 17'H per cent., 17'08 per cent, of nitrogen, readings which 

 fall within the limits of experimental error of the calculated l7 - 07 per cent, 

 of nitrogen for pentosazone. 



* 'Koy. Med. Chi. Soc. Trans.,' vol. 88, p. 265. 



t Neubauer and Vogel, 'Analyse des Hams,' 1898, p. 88. 



