374 
VARIETIES. 
posits and mouldy vegetations formed in it, which were not examined. The 
liquid, which had spontaneously become clear, was decanted, evaporated at 
a gentle heat to the consistence of thick syrup. This syrup deposited some 
dark brown crystals, which were completely decolorized by being twice 
treated with animal charcoal. 
Sorbine contains no water of crystallization ; it can be fused without 
parting with any water. "With chloride of sodium it forms a compound 
which appears to crystallize in cubes. Sorbine is colorless, of an intense 
sweet taste, so that in this respect it cannot be distinguished from cane- 
sugar. The crystals are quite transparent, hard, grate between the teeth 
like sugar-candy, of spec. grav. 1-654; at 59° F. they are rectangular 
octahedra, belonging to the system of the right rectangular prism. Water 
dissolves nearly twice its weight of this sugar ; boiling alcohol takes up but 
very little, and again deposits it in crystals on cooling. A concentrated 
solution of this sugar resembled completely one of ordinary sugar ; the 
saturated syrup had a density of 1-372 at 59°. Sorbine and its syrup are 
therefore both somewhat denser than in the case of cane-sugar. Sorbine 
cannot be set in fermentation by yeast at 68°-86° ; dilute sulphuric acid 
does not alter its properties, and does not render it fermentable after being 
boiled with it for half an hour, nor does this treatment change its behavior 
towards polarized light. Concentrated sulphuric acid immediately attacks 
it ; the sorbine first turns reddish-yellow, and then with a gentle heat is 
converted into a black mass; nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid, with 
copious evolutions of red fumes; like cane-sugar, it furnishes more than 
half its weight of oxalic acid. On analysis it furnished 40-000 per cent, 
carbon, 6-66 hydrogen, and 53-34; and its formula is either C 12 H 12 O 12 or 
C 12 H 9 O 9 . — London Chem. Gaz., from Liebig's Annalen, March, 1852. 
On Dyeing with Sandal- Wood. By Anton Winner. — In order to dye as 
fine a red with sandal-wood as with madder, the author first exhausts the 
wood with boiling water. He then treats it with a cold filtered solution of 
chloride of lime as long as this becomes colored, and washes it perfectly 
with pure water. From the sandal-wood thus prepared the red coloring 
matter is extracted by a hot, but not boiling solution of soda, the wood being 
tied up in a linen bag ; the kettle is to be covered with a well fitting lid. 
The extract should have a deep red color tending to violet. Cotton, linen, 
and woollen stuffs are prepared with acid mordants, and dyed in it in the 
usual manner. The author obtained a beautiful scarlet by alternately 
treating the stuffs with a mordant of chloride of zinc and the above bath. 
The colors are durable, and particularly useful in saving cochineal, as stuffs 
which are to be dved with cochineal may previously receive a ground of 
the coloring matter of sandal-wood. — Ibid, from Kunst und Gewerbebl. fur 
Baiern, 1852, p. 149. 
Process for giving various Objects a - Pearly Lustre. By 0. Reinsch. — To 
produce the iridescence of mother-of-pearl on stone, glass, metal, resin' 
