BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 455 
solved matter was small in proportion to that which went into 
solution. ‘This matter undissolved by alcohol was taken up with 
water, decolorized with bone-black, and tested with Fehling’s 
liquor and in the polariscope. ‘Taking the sugar found as ‘‘ dex- 
trose” the rotatory power was quasi(a) D = 63°.66, while the 
matter that dissolved in the alcohol gave quasi(a) D = 63°.69 
when similarly tested. 
Subsequent trials, made after the study of birch and maple 
woods as above described, gave the results which here follow: 
Sixty grams of the cotton cloth were left to soak during 24 hours 
with 70 c.c. of sulphuric acid of 90% H,SO,, the mixture was 
poured into enough boiling water to reduce the acid to the 
strength of 3.5%, and the boiling was continued during three 
hours over a free flame. The filtrate was neutralized with barium 
hydroxide and evaporated to a syrup which was treated with 
successive portions of strong alcohol, as long as the alcohol 
became colored. The matter insoluble in alcohol gave quasi 
(a) be 715.26. 
Attempts to obtain crystals from the matter insoluble in aleo- 
hol, by operating in the manner described on page 448, failed, 
though an abundance of inorganic matter was encountered. 
After expelling alcohol, by warming upon a water bath the matter 
insoluble in alcohol, a small quantity of water was added to a 
portion of it, the mixture was heated to a temperature somewhat 
higher than 50°, and set aside in an exsiccator over sulphuric 
acid. The mass hardened somewhat, although no crystals ap- 
peared. Another portion was tested for mucic acid by treating 
it with nitric acid after it had been dried for a short time at 
about 100° and left over night in an exsiccator, but the precipi- 
tate formed by the action of nitric acid was found to consist 
wholly of inorganic matter. When ignited on platinum foil it did 
not blacken, but remained white and unchanged. 
In the hope of. removing this inorganic contamination, a part 
of the matter insoluble in alcohol was dissolved in water, a cur- 
rent of carbonic acid was passed through the solution during 
several hours, and the whole was boiled thoroughly. No precipi- 
tate of barium carbonate formed, not even when these processes 
were repeated a second time. The solution was then evaporated 
and the residue was heated to 100°, after which it was taken up 
