90 
ACTION OF IODINE, ETC., UPON SUGAR. 
It must be admitted that these strictures, though somewhat harsh in tone, are not 
without a certain degree of truth. It may, however, be urged, on the other hand, 
that they apply only to one branch, among many, of British manurial industry, and 
even to that branch only partially; for, since the British coprolite beds have been 
extensively worked, they have supplied fossil phosphate at a price so low as to super¬ 
sede, in a great measure, the supply of recent bones, for agricultural purposes, from 
continental countries. Nor do the laws of political economy permit us to doubt that 
undue scarcity, artificially created, gradually raises market price, to an extent which 
becomes at last prohibitory; so that the evil provides its own corrective. Of this, 
indeed, a very apposite illustration reaches the Reporter while he writes. M. Clemm- 
Lennig, manufacturer, of Mannheim, informs him that English fossil phosphates are 
being extensively exported to Germany; he himself (M. Clemm-Lennig) receiving con¬ 
siderable supplies of this material from British ports. The balance of trade seems, 
therefore, to be arriving at a just equilibrium in this matter, as indeed it always does, 
if only it be left to swing freely. 
(To be continued.) 
ACTION OF IODINE, BROMINE, AND CHLORINE UPON SUGAR. 
I do not know of any work upon chemistry,^ or of any chemist, having described the 
action of iodine on sugar; yet the changes "which take place between these two bodies 
deserve being studied by scientific men. 
1 have only to report a series of facts, the result of my experiments since 185G, in the 
preparation of the syrup of the iodide of iron, which led me to study the action of iodine, 
bromine, etc., upon sugar. 
I have observed the two following facts:— 
1st. The partial spontaneous decomposition of the syrup of iodide of iron by exposure 
to the air is arrested at a certain point, and does not go further, even if exposed for 
several months in a capsule only covered with paper. 
2nd. This syrup, slightly decomposed, or even coloured by the addition of a small 
quantity of iodine, becomes perfectly white after a long exposure to the sun’s rays or to 
a moderate heat; replaced in the dark, it resumes its amber colour. 
However, two vials hermetically sealed, each containing the syrup of iodide of iron, one 
coloured by natural decomposition, the other by the addition of a small quantity of iodine, 
were exposed for a year to the sun’s rays, then both syrups were colourless, and they 
remained so for more than a year, though they were left in a dark cellar, and in half- 
filled bottles. 
The first fact reverses the old theory of the decomposition of the syrup of iodide of iron, 
which was explained by the formation of a protoxide of iron and iodohydric acid, by 
means of the decomposition of the water into its two elements, and by the transformation 
of the protoxide of iron into sesquioxide of iron by the oxygen of the air. Evidently, 
should the decomposition of the water and of the iodide of iron operate thus, this process 
should continue to that point when all the iodide of iron is decomposed ; this does not 
take place. * 
To explain the second fact, I asked myself what became of the free iodine? for surely 
it could not combine itself with the protoiodide of iron to form a sesqui-iodide, the sesqui- 
iodide of iron being red, should have remained so. We know, on the other hand, that 
water dissolves hardly more than °f iodine, w'hich, after some chemists, is transformed 
into iodic and hydriodic acids. The last question was, then, to know how free iodine acted 
upon sugar. 
To elucidate this question I made various experiments with iodine and simple syrup. 
I soon found that, with a moderate and prolonged heat, this metalloid added to the syrup 
was subject to a great chemical change. 
One to ten grains of iodine, added to one ounce of simple syrup, in a strong bottle 
closed with a glass stopper, the whole exposed in a water-bath at a moderate heat 
(G0° C.), are dissolved little by little, and give the liquid a reddish-brown colour: but 
after several hours, the whole being always kept at the same temperature, the syrup 
See Gmelin’s Handbook, vol. xv. 252.—Ed. Am. Jour. Phann. 
