620  Production  of  Glycerin  from  Molasses.  { Am- sJe°putr-  fh^Tm- 
fruit  juices  are  subjected  in  the  usual  processes  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  jams  and  jellies  renders  it  unlikely  that  these  would  ever 
possess  any  considerable  antiscorbutic  value.  Nevertheless,  Harden 
and  Robinson  have  found  that  by  the  use  of  the  newer  extremely 
rapid  commercial  processes  of  concentration  without  the  application 
of  high  temperatures,  fruit  jellies  can  be  prepared  (from  the  apple, 
for  example)  which  are  by  no  means  devoid  of  antiscorbutic  potency, 
though  this  is  of  a  different  order  from  that  characteristic  of  the 
orange  and  lemon.  Surely  there  can  no  longer  be  any  excuse  for 
the  failure  to  avert  infantile  scurvy,  even  when  fresh,  unheated  milk 
is  not  available. 
PRODUCTION  OF  GLYCERIN  FROM  MOLASSES.1 
By  Arthur  R.  Ling. 
In  view  of  the  apparent  close  structural  relationship  between  the 
monohexoses,  glucose,  fructose,  etc.,  and  glycerin,  the  conclusion 
seems  justified  that  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  obtain  the  latter  com- 
pound by  the  fermentation  of  these  sugars  under  certain  conditions 
with  one  of  the  saccharomycetes  or  yeasts.  Nor  is  this  mere  specu- 
lation, for  be  it  remembered  that  Pasteur  in  1858  observed  that 
glycerin  and  succinic  acid,  albeit  in  traces  only,  are  invariable  prod- 
ucts of  the  so-called  alcoholic  fermentation  of  the  sugars,  and  this  is 
now  a  well-established  fact.  Moreover,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  glycerin  at  all  events  formed  in  this  way  owes  its 
origin  directly  to  the  sugars  and  not  to  the  secondary  constituents 
always  present  in  those  fermentable  liquids,  worts,  musts,  etc.,  met 
with  in  commerce.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  pointed  out  that 
F.  Ehrlich  showed  in  1907  that  the  higher  alcohols  and  esters  pres- 
ent in  fermented  worts  and  musts  are  derived  from  the  amino 
acids  and  not  from  the  sugars.  In  1909  he  brought  forward  evi- 
dence that  succinic  acid  is  formed  in  the  same  manner. 
Despite  numerous  attempts  to  obtain  glycerin  in  such  quantity 
by  the  fermentation  of  sugars  that  its  production  in  this  way  would 
become  commercially  profitable,  no  success  has  up  to  quite  recently 
been  met  with. 
1  Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,  May 
21,  1919. 
