us caustic soda,
yielded 0.96 grm. (3 per cent.) of hemicellulose.

When cellulose is dissolved in Schweizer's solution, the residue is, by
repeated extraction with aqueous sodium hydroxide, completely converted
into the soluble form. On evaporating the ammonia from the Schweizer's
extract, at the ordinary temperature and on a water-bath respectively,
different amounts of cellulose are obtained; more hemicellulose is
obtained, by caustic soda, from the heated solution than from that which
was not heated. In this operation the pentosanes are more influenced
than the hexosanes; pentosanes are not always readily dissolved by
caustic soda, and hexosanes are frequently more or less readily
dissolved. Both occur in lignin, and are then undoubtedly indigestible.
These points have to be considered in judging the digestibility of these
carbohydrates.

A comparison of analyses of clover, at different periods, in the first
and second years of growth, shows that both cellulose (Schweizer's
extract) and lignin increase in both constituents. In the second year
the lignin alone increased to the end; the cellulose decreased at the
end of June. In the first year it seemed an absolutely as well as
relatively greater amount of cellulose, and lignin was produced in the
second year; this, however, requires confirmation. The amount of
pentosanes in the Schweizer extract was relatively greater in the second
than in the first year, but decreased in the lignin more in the second
year than in the first: this result is also given with reserve.

DIE CONSTITUTION DER CELLULOSEN DER CEREALIEN.

C. F. CROSS, E. J. BEVAN, and C. SMITH (Berl. Ber., 1896, 1457).

~THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CEREAL CELLULOSES.~

(p. 84) Straw cellulose is resolved by two methods of acid hydrolysis
into a soluble furfural-yielding fraction, and an insoluble fraction
closely resembling the normal cellulose. (a) The cellulose is
dissolved in sulphuric acids of concentration, H_{2}SO_{4}.2H_{2}O,
H_{2}SO_{4}.3H_{2}O. As soon as solution is complete, the acid is
diluted. A precipitate of cellulose hydrate (60-70 p.ct.) is obtained,
and the filtered solution contains 90-95 p.ct. of the furfuroids of the
original cellulose. The process is difficult to control, however, in
mass, and to obtain the latter in larger quantity the cellulose (b) is
digested with six times its weight of 1 p.ct. H_{2}SO_{4} at 3 atm.
pressure, the products of the action being (1) a disintegrated ce