522 
TRANSFORMATION OF STARCH INTO DEXTRINE AND 
GLUCOSE. 
M. Musculus believes that the formation of dextrine and 
glucose is rather the result of a decomposition of the amyla¬ 
ceous matter than the simple assimilation of water. His 
reasons for supposing so are: 1. That diastase has no 
action on dextrine. 2. That dextrine and glucose appear 
simultaneously when starch is acted on by diastase, and 
always in the same relation, viz., one equivalent of glucose 
and two equivalents of dextrine. 3. The dilute sulphuric 
acid acts at first in the same way as diastase, but differs in 
this, that the reaction continues after all the starch has dis¬ 
appeared, only more slowly. If glucose be formed from 
dextrine by the assimilation of water, it is difficult to under¬ 
stand why its formation should be more rapid while some 
unchanged starch remains in the liquor than when only 
dextrine remains : the contrary ought to be the case. 4. The 
simultaneous appearance of dextrine and glucose takes place 
with sulphuric acid as well as diastase, and the proportions 
are the same.— Comptes llendus. 
ESTIMATION OF SUGAR IN URINE. 
Some time ago Briicke published the following process 
for detecting sugar in urine. Fresh urine is first treated 
with a concentrated solution of neutral acetate of lead, and 
filtered. The filtered acid is then precipitated with sub¬ 
acetate of lead, and again filtered. Ammonia is now added 
to the filtered liquor, and the presence of sugar in the 
precipitate so obtained is proved by the ordinary tests. 
The author now points out that the precipitate occa¬ 
sioned by the subacetate of lead always contains a small 
quantity of sugar, and therefore this reagent ought not 
to be employed when a quantitative estimation of the 
sugar is made. The subacetate of lead, the author states, 
gives no precipitate with a solution of pure glucose; but 
when glucose is added to normal urine containing only a 
trace of sugar, the precipitate obtained with the subacetate 
always contains sugar. It would appear, therefore, the urine 
contains something which makes sugar precipitable by the 
subacetate. The author confirms the statement he made in 
his former paper, that healthy urine of the human subject 
always contains small quantities of saccharine matter, and 
shows that this matter is fermentable. 
