406 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
as was shown also by E. Schulze * in the case of the coffee bean, 
a single fusion with caustic potash is not competent to remove 
from the palm-cellulose all the paramannan which is admixed or 
combined with it. Attempts to overcome this difficulty have been 
made by Gilson,t who dissolved in Schweizer’s reagent the crude 
fibre obtained from the coffee bean and threw down the real cel- 
lulose from this solution by means of a current of carbonic acid 
gas. E. Schulze { also has analyzed the mixture approximately 
by hydrolizing the crude fibre and adding to the solution of dex- 
trose, mannose and xylose thus obtained enough phenyl-hydrazin 
acetate to throw down the mannose. The difficultly soluble 
mannose-hydrazon thus formed was collected on a tared filter and 
weighed. Xylan might be determined, as furfurol, in a special 
portion of the crude fibre and the sum of the weights of the man- 
nose and xylose be then subtracted from the total weight of the 
mixed sugars obtained by hydrolizing the fibre. 
It is of interest to compare the above given determination of 
cellulose in date stones by Lange’s KHO process with other 
determinations of crude fibre made by me many years ago § in this 
material by the Weende process, for where Lange’s process shows. 
33.42% of cellulose, the Weende process had shown 26.08% and 
24.74%. The explanation of this disagreement would seem to be 
that the repeated action of the dilute acid and alkali in the Weende 
process had dissolved out the paramannan from the date stones. 
more completely than a single fusion with caustic alkali could do. 
A similar remark will apply to the so-called cellulose obtained 
from the ivory nut by Lange’s KHO process. For in this case 
also it is evident that a very considerable part of the paramannan 
in the nut was not made soluble by the single fusion with potash. 
This question of the amount of real cellulose in the ivory nut has. 
been much debated both by chemists and botanists. In several 
instances thoroughly trustworthy analysts (S. W. Johnson, among 
others) have reported as little as 5 to 7.5% of crude fibre in the 
ivory nut, while other observers have noted quantities amounting 
* Landwirthschaftliche Jahrbiicher. 1894, 23. 26. 
+ Tollens’s Kohlenhydrate. 2, 250. 
t Zeitschrift fiir physiologische Chemie. 19. 58. 
§ Bulletin of the Bussey Institution. 1. 373. 
