466 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
action of the strong sulphuric acid on the cellulose. The general 
appearance of the substance now in question, and some of its 
properties, seem to show a strong family resemblance to the 
dextrins proper, though the fact that it exhibits a higher reducing 
power than the true dextrins, fosters a lingering suspicion that it 
may possibly contain an amorphous sugar analogous with or even 
akin, in one sense, to isomaltose (gallisen). It is not impossible, 
indeed, that the mere act of adding strong alcohol to the syrup 
obtained on evaporating the neutralized product of an hydrolysis 
may serve to dehydrate a small portion of the dextrose in that 
solution, — that is to say, some dextrose-anhydride may perhaps 
be formed, and as this substance is but little soluble in absolute 
alcohol, enough of it might remain in the precipitate to account 
for the reducing action which solutions of the precipitate exhibit. 
However this may be, it is manifest that the major part of the 
precipitate insoluble in alcohol is a body of the same order as 
those which Hoenig and Schubert * have described as dextrins in 
their very elaborate research; and it especially resembles the 
‘¢ dextrin de ligneux”’ that was obtained long ago by Béchamp,tT 
by means of a method almost precisely similar to my own. 
Béchamp treated cotton or wood with strong sulphuric acid to 
which he subsequently added much water, and after thoroughly 
boiling the diluted liquor he neutralized it with calcium carbonate 
and evaporated the filtrate to a syrup. By means of strong 
alcohol he separated the ‘* dextrin de ligneux” from the syrup, 
while dextrose went into solution in the alcohol and was ecrystal- 
lized therefrom. The wood-dextrin thus obtained must have 
been contaminated like my own with small quantities of a calcium 
salt. It gave him a specific rotation of (a) j = 88°.9,{ while that 
of dextrin made from starch was (a) j = 176°, and that of soluble 
starch was (a) j = 211°. 
By an unfortunate typographical error in Bechamp’s article, as 
published in the Comptes Rendus, 51. 256, —that is, by the mere 
* Monatshefte fiir Chemie. 1885, 6. 708, and 1886, 7. 474. 
+ Annales de Chimie et de Physique. (2) 48. 463, and especially 1856 (3), 
46. 352. See,also,in Comptes Rendus. 1856, 42. 1213, and 1860, 51. 256. 
t If it be admitted, with Brown and Heron (Journal of the Chemical 
Society of London. 1879, 35. 605), that (a)7 : (a) D::24:21.54, then 
(g) {ee 88°. 9. =a) T= T8793; 
