of internal rearrangement of the character of an oxidation.

ZUR KENNTNISS DER IN DEN MEMBRANEN DER PILZE ENTHALTENEN BESTANDTHEILE.

E. WINTERSTEIN (Ztschr. Physiol. Chem., 1894, 521; 1895, 134).

~ON THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE TISSUE OF FUNGI.~

(p. 87) These two communications are a contribution of fundamental
importance, and may be regarded as placing the question of the
composition of the celluloses of these lowest types on a basis of
well-defined fact. In the first place the author gives an exhaustive
bibliography, beginning with the researches of Braconnot (1811), who
regarded the cellular tissue of these organisms as a specialised
substance, which he termed 'fungin.' Payen rejects this view, and
regards the tissue, fully purified by the action of solvents, as a
cellulose (C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}). This view is successively supported by
Fromberg [Mulder, Allg. Phys. Chem., Braunschweig, 1851], Schlossberger
and Doepping [Annalen, 52, 106], and Kaiser. De Bary, on a review of the
evidence, adopts this view, but, as the purified substance fails to give
the characteristic colour-reactions with iodine, he uses the qualifying
term 'pilzcellulose' [Morph. u. Biol. d. Pilze u. Flechten, Leipzig,
1884].

C. Richter, on the other hand, shows that these reactions are merely a
question of methods of purification or preparation [Sitzungsber. Acad.
Wien, 82, 1, 494], and considers that the tissue-substance is an
ordinary cellulose, with the ordinary reactions masked by the presence
of impurities. In regard to the lower types of fungoid growth, such as
yeast, the results of investigators are more at variance. The researches
of Salkowski (p. 113) leave little doubt, however, that the
cell-membrane is of the cellulosic type.

The author's researches extend over a typical range of products obtained
from _Boletus edulis, Agaricus campestris, Cantharellus cibarius,
Morchella esculenta, Polyporus officinalis, Penicillium glaucum_, and
certain undetermined species. The method of purification consisted
mainly in (a) exhaustive treatments with ether and boiling alcohol,
(b) digestion with alkaline hydrate (1-2 p.ct. NaOH) in the cold,
(c) acid hydrolysis (2-3 p.ct. H_{2}SO_{4}) at 95 deg.-100 deg., followed by a
chloroxidation treatment by the processes of Schulze or Hoffmeister, and
final alkaline hydrolysis.

The products, i.e. residues, thus obtained were different in essential
points from the celluloses isolated from the tissues of