ON  MELEZITOSE  A   NEW  SPECIES  OF  SUGAR. 
63 
which  is  equal  to  4-208  degrees,  and  especially  by  a  greater 
stability. 
As  regards  melitose,  it  possesses  a  rotary  power  scarcely 
differing  from  that  of  melezitose,  and  which  varies  in  the  same 
way  under  the  influence  of  sulphuric  acid.  But  melitose  fer- 
ments much  more  easily,  and  with  a  special  character,  for  it 
ferments  only  by  half ;  moreover,  it  furnishes  mucic  acid. 
From  these  facts,  we  see  that  cane  sugar,  long  isolated  by  its 
character,  becomes  the  type  of  a  category  of  saccharine  bo- 
dies, whose  number  goes  on  always  multiplying.  The  same  re- 
mark also  applies  to  grape  sugar. 
Indeed,  the  word  glucose,  formerly  applied  to  grape  sugar 
only,  now  designates  a  whole  series  of  distinct  saccharine  prin- 
ciples, such  as  grape  glucose,  malt  glucose,  the  glucose  of  fruits, 
of  ligneous  matter,  lactic  glucose,  and  perhaps  the  glucose  of 
gum,  &c. ;  all  these  glucoses  are  saccharine  bodies,  directly  fer- 
mentable, alterable  by  the  alkalies,  capable  of  reducing  potas- 
sio-tartrate  of  copper,  &c. 
In  the  same  way,  by  the  side  of  cane  sugar,  are  grouped  va- 
rious difficultly  fermentable  sugars,  unalterable  at  100°  C. 
(212°  F.)  by  the  alkalies  and  by  potassio- tartrate  of  copper, 
represented  at  130°  C.  (266<>  F.)  by  the  formula  C12HnOn, 
modified  by  the  acids,  and  converted  into  new  sugars  belonging 
to  the  category  of  the  glucoses. 
I  found  some  years  ago  the  first  example  of  this  new  series 
of  sugars  analogous  to  cane  sugar,  melitose  ;  last  year,  I  pub- 
lished a  second  example,  trehalose.  The  mycose  of  Mitscher- 
lich,  since  discovered,  and  melezitose,  increase  the  number  of 
sugars  of  this  group. 
It  will  henceforth  be  essential  to  take  account  of  these  re- 
sults in  analytical  researches  relating  to  the  study  of  saccha- 
rine matters,  and  no  longer  to  confound  with  cane  sugar  analo- 
gous sugars,  as  doubtless  has  been  done  more  than  once,  or  re- 
lying only  on  the  general  reactions  which  their  solutions  present, 
and  without  seeking  to  isolate  the  sugars  themselves  in  the  pure 
state. 
These  results  merit  attention  no  less  in  a  synthetical  point  of 
view ;  they  prove  that  the  artificial  formation  of  cane  sugar  is 
