462 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
& Co.) was dissolved in water, and the solution was evaporated 
(without boiling) to a syrup which was treated with cold, strong 
alcohol. Only a part of the syrup dissolved in the alcohol, while 
there was left undissolved a sticky, stringy mass similar in 
appearance to the matter insoluble in alcohol so constantly ob- 
tained in the experiments on wood and cotton. The matter 
soluble in alcohol gave quasi(a) D = 58°.1. The matter insoluble 
in alcohol was dried at 100° and weighed. Its rotatory power 
(true) was found to be (a) D = 53°.03, calculated on the weight 
of the solution examined. When tested with Fehling’s liquor, 
84.56% of the ue dextrose was indicated and a rotation of 
quasi (a) D = 62°.7 
In order to be sure that the dextrose neuen upon was really 
in the state, not of the anhydride, but of a hydrate, —such as 
would naturally be present in the liquors obtained by hydrolyzing 
cotton or wood, — three grm. of dextrose anhydride, dissolved in 
water, were boiled for some time, for the purpose of changing 
the anhydride to the hydrate, and the solution was evaporated to 
a syrup upon which a quantity of strong alcohol was poured. In 
this case the strong alcohol, either cold or hot, readily dissolved 
the larger part of the syrup. To all appearance more than three 
fourths of the syrup went into solution when treated with succes- 
sive portions of the alcohol, while less than one quarter of the 
syrup remained undissolved. Jt is perhaps not impossible, even 
in this case, that the strong alcohol may have dehydrated some of 
the dextrose which had been held in solution as a hydrate, and 
have thrown it down as an anhydride. If this conception be 
valid, it follows that some part of the reducing power exhibited 
by the ‘‘ matter insoluble in alcohol,” obtained from wood and 
cotton, may really be due to the presence of dextrose in that 
matter. But, on the other hand, it may equally well be true 
that the aqueous solution in this experiment was. not boiled long 
enough, before it was evaporated, to change all the original 
anhydride to a hydrate. It is not impossible perhaps that if 
the aqueous solution of the dextrose anhydride had been boiled 
longer than it was, the conversion might have been so complete 
that alcohol would have dissolved everything. Lack of time has 
prevented me from studying this point. 
