Researches on Cellulose Part 1

Researches on Cellulose.

by C. F. Cross and E. J. Bevan.

PREFACE

This volume, which is intended as a supplement to the work which we published in 1895, gives a brief account of researches which have been subsequently published, as well as of certain of our own investigations, the results of which are now for the first time recorded.

We have not attempted to give the subject-matter the form of a connected record. The contributions to the study of 'Cellulose' which are noticed are spread over a large area, are mostly 'sectional' in their aim, and the only cohesion which we can give them is that of cla.s.sifying them according to the plan of our original work. Their subject-matter is reproduced in the form of a _precis_, as much condensed as possible; of the more important papers the original t.i.tle is given. In all cases we have endeavoured to reproduce the Author's main conclusions, and in most cases without comment or criticism.

Specialists will note that the basis of investigation is still in a great measure empirical; and of this the most obvious criterion is the confusion attaching to the use of the very word 'Cellulose.' This is due to various causes, one of which is the curious specialisation of the term in Germany as the equivalent of 'wood cellulose.' The restriction of this general or group term has had an influence even in scientific circles. Another influence preventing the recognition of the obvious and, as we think, inevitable basis of cla.s.sification of the 'celluloses'

is the empiricism of the methods of agricultural chemistry, which as regards cellulose are so far chiefly concerned with its negative characteristics and the a.n.a.lytical determination of the indigestible residue of fodder plants. Physiologists, again, have their own views and methods in dealing with cellulose, and have hitherto had but little regard to the work of the chemist in differentiating and cla.s.sifying the celluloses on a systematic basis. There are many sides to the subject, and it is only by a sustained effort towards centralisation that the general recognition of a systematic basis can be secured.

We may, we hope usefully, direct attention to the conspicuous neglect of the subject in this country. To the matter of the present volume, excluding our own investigations, there are but two contributions from English laboratories. We invite the younger generation of students of chemistry to measure the probability of finding a working career in connection with the cellulose industries. They will not find this invitation in the treatment accorded to the subject in text-books and lectures. It is probable, indeed, that the impression produced by their studies is that the industries in coal-tar products largely exceed in importance those of which the carbohydrates are the basis; whereas the former are quite insignificant by comparison. A little reflection will prove that cellulose, starch, and sugar are of vast industrial moment in the order in which they are mentioned. If it is an open question to what extent science follows industry, or _vice versa_, it is not open to doubt that scientific men, and especially chemists, are called in these days to lead and follow where industrial evolution is most active. There is ample evidence of activity and great expansion in the cellulose industries, especially in those which involve the chemistry of the raw material; and the present volume should serve to show that there is rapid advance in the science of the subject. Hence our appeal to the workers not to neglect those opportunities which belong to the days of small beginnings.

We have especially to acknowledge the services of Mr. J. F. BRIGGS in investigations which are recorded on pp. 34-40 and pp. 125-133 of the text.

CELLULOSE

INTRODUCTION

In the period 1895-1900, which has elapsed since the original publication of our work on 'Cellulose,' there have appeared a large number of publications dealing with special points in the chemistry of cellulose. So large has been the contribution of matter that it has been considered opportune to pa.s.s it under review; and the present volume, taking the form of a supplement to the original work, is designed to incorporate this new matter and bring the subject as a whole to the level to which it is thereby to be raised. Some of our critics in reviewing the original work have p.r.o.nounced it 'inchoate.' For this there are some explanations inherent in the matter itself. It must be remembered that every special province of the science has its systematic beginning, and in that stage of evolution makes a temporary 'law unto itself.' In the absence of a dominating theory or generalisation which, when adopted, gives it an organic connection with the general advance of the science, there is no other course than to cla.s.sify the subject-matter. Thus 'the carbohydrates' may be said to have been in the inchoate condition, qualified by a certain cla.s.sification, prior to the pioneering investigations of Fischer. In attacking the already acc.u.mulated and so far cla.s.sified material from the point of view of a dominating theory, he found not only that the material fell into systematic order and grew rapidly under the stimulus of fruitful investigation, but in turn contributed to the firmer establishment of the theoretical views to which the subject owed its systematic new birth. On the other hand, every chemist knows that it is only the simpler of the carbohydrates which are so individualised as to be connoted by a particular formula in the stereoisomeric system. Leaving the monoses, there is even a doubt as to the const.i.tution of cane sugar; and the elements of uncertainty thicken as we approach the question of the chemical structure of starch. This unique product of plant life has a literature of its own, and how little of this is fully known to what we may term the 'average chemist' is seen by the methods he will employ for its quant.i.tative estimation. In one particular review of our work where we are taken to task for producing 'an aggravating book, inchoate in the highest degree ... disfigured by an obscurity of diction which must materially diminish its usefulness' ['Nature,' 1897, p. 241], the author, who is a well-known and competent critic, makes use of the short expression in regard to the more complex carbohydrates, 'Above cane sugar, higher in the series, all is chaos,' and in reference to starch, 'the subject is still enshrouded in mystery.' This 'material' complexity is at its maximum with the most complex members of the series, which are the celluloses, and we think accounts in part for the impatience of our critic. 'Obscurity of diction' is a personal quant.i.ty, and we must leave that criticism to the fates. We find also that many workers whose publications we notice in this present volume quite ignore the _plan_ of the work, though they make use of its matter. We think it necessary to restate this plan, which, we are satisfied, is systematic, and, in fact, inevitable. Cellulose is in the first instance a _structure_, and the anatomical relations.h.i.+ps supply a certain basis of cla.s.sification. Next, it is known to us and is defined by the negative characteristics of resistance to hydrolytic actions and oxidations. These are dealt with in the order of their intensity. Next we have the more positive definition by ultimate products of hydrolysis, so far as they are known, which discloses more particularly the presence of a greater or less proportion of furfural-yielding groups. Putting all these together as criteria of function and composition we find they supply common or general dividing lines, within which groups of these products are contained. The cla.s.sification is natural, and in that sense inevitable; and it not only groups the physiological and chemical facts, but the industrial also. We do not propose to argue the question whether the latter adds any cogency to a scientific scheme. We are satisfied that it does, and we do not find any necessity to exclude a particular set of phenomena from consideration, because they involve 'commercial' factors. We have dealt with this cla.s.sification in the original work (p. 78), and we discuss its essential basis in the present volume (p. 28) in connection with the definition of a 'normal' cellulose. But the 'normal' cellulose is not the only cellulose, any more than a primary alcohol or an aliphatic alcohol are the only alcohols. This point is confused or ignored in several of the recent contributions of investigators. It will suffice to cite one of these in ill.u.s.tration. On p. 16 we give an account of an investigation of the several methods of estimating cellulose, which is full of valuable and interesting matter. The purpose of the author's elaborate comparative study is to decide which has the strongest claims to be regarded as the 'standard' method. They appear to have a preference for the method of Lange--viz. that of heating at high temperatures (180) with alkaline hydrates, but the investigation shows that (as we had definitely stated in our original work, p. 214) this is subject to large and variable errors. The adverse judgment of the authors, we may point out, is entirely determined on the question of aggregate weight or yield, and without reference to the ultimate composition or const.i.tution of the final product. None of the available criteria are applied to the product to determine whether it is a cellulose (anhydride) or a hydrate or a hydrolysed product. After these alkali-fusion processes the method of chlorination is experimentally reviewed and dismissed for the reason that the product retains furfural-yielding groups, which is, from our point of view, a particular recommendation, i.e. is evidence of the selective action of the chlorine and subsequent hydrolysis upon the lignone group. As a matter of fact it is the only method yet available for isolating the cellulose from a lignocellulose by a treatment which is quant.i.tatively to be accounted for in every detail of the reactions. It does not yield a 'normal'

cellulose, and this is the expression which, in our opinion, the authors should have used. It should have been pointed out, moreover, that, as the cellulose is separated from actual condensed combination with the lignone groups, it may be expected to be obtained in a hydrated form, and also not as a h.o.m.ogeneous substance like the normal cotton cellulose. The product is a cellulose of the second group of the cla.s.sification. Another point in this investigation which we must criticise is the ultimate selection of the Schulze method of prolonged maceration with nitric acid and a chlorate, followed by suitable hydrolysis of the non-cellulose derivatives to soluble products. Apart from its exceptional inconvenience, rendering it quite impracticable in laboratories which are concerned with the valuation of cellulosic raw materials for industrial purposes, the attack of the reagent is complex and ill-defined. This criticism we would make general by pointing out that such processes quite ignore the specific characteristics of the non-cellulose components of the compound celluloses. The second division of the plan of our work was to define these const.i.tuents by bringing together all that had been established concerning them. These groups are widely divergent in chemical character, as are the compound celluloses in function in the plant. Consequently there is for each a special method of attack, and it is a reversion to pure empiricism to expect any one treatment to act equally on the pectocelluloses, lignocelluloses, and cutocelluloses. Processes of isolating cellulose are really more strictly defined as methods of selective and regulated attack of the groups with which they occur, combined or mixed. A chemist familiar with such types as rhea or ramie (pectocellulose), jute (lignocellulose), and raffia (cutocellulose) knows exactly the specific treatment to apply to each for isolating the cellulose, and must view with some surprise the appearance at this date of such 'universal prescriptions' as the process in question.

The third division of our plan of arrangement comprised the synthetical derivatives of the celluloses, the sulphocarbonates first, as peculiarly characteristic, and then the esters, chiefly the acetates, benzoates, and nitrates. To these, investigators appear to have devoted but little attention, and the contribution of new matter in the present volume is mainly the result of our own researches. It will appear from this work that an exhaustive study of the cellulose esters promises to a.s.sist very definitely in the study of const.i.tutional problems.

This brings us to the fourth and, to the theoretical chemist, the most important aspect of the subject, the problem of the actual molecular structure of the celluloses and compound celluloses. It is herein we are of opinion that the subject makes a 'law unto itself.' If the const.i.tution of starch is shrouded in mystery and can only be vaguely expressed by generalising a complex ma.s.s of statistics of its successive hydrolyses, we can only still more vaguely guess at the distance which separates us from a mental picture of the cellulose unit. We endeavour to show by our later investigations that this problem merges into that of the actual structure of cellulose in the ma.s.s. It is definitely ascertained that a change in the molecule, or reacting unit, of a cellulose, proportionately affects the structural properties of the derived compounds, both sulphocarbonates and esters. This is at least an indication that the properties of the visible aggregates are directly related to the actual configuration of the chemical units. But it appears that we are barred from the present discussion of such a problem in absence of any theory of the solid state generally, but more particularly of those forms of matter which are grouped together as 'colloids.'

Cellulose is distinguished by its inherent constructive functions, and these functions take effect in the plastic or colloidal condition of the substance. These properties are equally conspicuous in the synthetical derivatives of the compound. Without reference, therefore, to further speculations, and not deterred by any apparent hopelessness of solving so large a problem, it is clear that we have to exhaust this field by exact measurements of all the constants which can be reduced to numerical expression. It is most likely that the issue may conflict with some of our current views of the molecular state which are largely drawn from a study of the relatively dissociated forms of matter. But such conflicts are only those of enlargement, and we antic.i.p.ate that all chemists look for an enlargement of the molecular horizon precisely in those regions where the forces of cell-life manifest themselves.

The _cellulose group_ has been further differentiated by later investigations. The fibrous celluloses of which the typical members receive important industrial applications, graduate by insensible stages into the hemicelluloses which may be regarded as a well-established sub-group. In considering their morphological and functional relations.h.i.+ps it is evident that the graduation accords with their structure and the less permanent functions which they fulfil. They are aggregates of monoses of the various types, chiefly mannose, galactose, dextrose, &c., so far as they have been investigated.

Closely connected with this group are the const.i.tuents of the tissues of fungi. The recent researches of Winterstein and Gilson, which are noted in this present volume, have established definitely that they contain a nitrogenous group in intimate combination with a carbohydrate complex.

This group is closely related to chitin, yielding glucosamin and acetic acid as products of ultimate hydrolysis. Special interest attaches to these residues, as they are in a sense intermediate products between the great groups of the carbohydrates and proteids (E. Fischer, Ber. 19, 1920), and their further investigation by physiological methods may be expected to disclose a genetic connection.

The _lignocelluloses_ have been further investigated. Certain new types have been added, notably a soluble or 'pectic' form isolated from the juice of the white currant (p. 152), and the pith-like wood of the aeschynomene (p. 135).

Further researches on the typical fibrous lignocellulose have given us a basis for correcting some of the conclusions recorded in our original work, and a study of the esters has thrown some light on the const.i.tution of the complex (p. 130).

Of importance also is the identification of the hydroxyfurfurals as const.i.tuents of the lignocelluloses generally, and the proof that the characteristic colour-reactions with phenols (phloroglucinol) may be ascribed to the presence of these compounds (p. 116).

The _pectocelluloses_ have not been the subject of systematic chemical investigation, but the researches of Gilson ('La Cristallisation de la Cellulose et la Composition Chimique de la Membrane Cellulaire Vegetale,' 'La Revue,' 'La Cellule,' i. ix.) are an important contribution to the natural history of cellulose, especially in relation to the 'pectic' const.i.tuents of the parenchymatous celluloses.

Indirectly also the researches of Tollens on the 'pectins' have contributed to the subject in correcting some of the views which have had a text-book currency for a long period. These are dealt with on p.

151. The results establish that the pectins are rather the soluble hydrated form of cellulosic aggregates in which acid groups may be represented; but such groups are not to be regarded as essentially characteristic of this cla.s.s of compounds.

~Furfural-yielding Substances~ (Furfuroids).--This group of plant products has been, by later investigations, more definitely and exclusively connected with the celluloses--i.e. with the more permanent of plant tissues. From the characteristic property of yielding furfural, which they have in common with the pentoses, they have been a.s.sumed to be the anhydrides of these C_{5} sugars or pentosanes; but the direct evidence for this a.s.sumption has been shown to be wanting. In regard to their origin the indirect evidences which have acc.u.mulated all point to their formation in the plant from hexoses. Of special interest, in its bearings on this point, is the direct transformation of levulose into furfural derivatives, which takes place under the action of condensing agents. The most characteristic is that produced by the action of anhydrous hydrobromic acid in presence of ether [Fenton], yielding a brommethyl furfural

C_{6}H_{12}O_{6} - 4H_{2}O + HBr = C_{5}H_{3}.O_{2}.CH_{2}Br

with a Br atom in the methyl group. These researches of Fenton's appear to us to have the most obvious and direct bearings upon the genetic relations.h.i.+ps of the plant furfuroids and not only _per se_. To give them their full significance we must recall the later researches of Brown and Morris, which establish that cane sugar is a primary or direct product of a.s.similation, and that starch, which had been a.s.sumed to be a species of universal _matiere premiere_, is probably rather a general reserve for the elaborating work of the plant. If now the aldose groups tend to pa.s.s over into the starch form, representing a temporary overflow product of the a.s.similating energy, it would appear that the ketose or levulose groups are preferentially used up in the elaboration of the permanent tissue. We must also take into consideration the researches of Lobry de Bruyn showing the labile functions of the typical CO group in both aldoses and hexoses, whence we may conclude that in the plant-cell the transition from dextrose to levulose is a very simple and often occurring process.

We ourselves have contributed a link in this chain of evidence connecting the furfuroids of the plant with levulose or other keto-hexose. We have shown that the hydroxyfurfurals are const.i.tuents of the lignocelluloses. The proportion present in the free state is small, and it is not difficult to show that they are products of breakdown of the lignone groups. If we a.s.sume that such groups are derived ultimately from levulose, we have to account for the detachment of the methyl group. This, however, is not difficult, and we need only call to mind that the lignocelluloses are characterised by the presence of methoxy groups and a residue which is directly and easily hydrolysed to acetic acid. Moreover, the condensation need not be a.s.sumed to be a simple dehydration with attendant rearrangement; it may very well be accompanied or preceded by fixation of oxygen. Leaving out the hypothetical discussion of minor variations, there is a marked convergence of the evidence as to the main facts which establish the general relations.h.i.+ps of the furfuroid group. This group includes both saturated and unsaturated or condensed compounds. The former are const.i.tuents of celluloses, the latter of the lignone complex of the lignocelluloses.

The actual production of furfural by boiling with condensing acids is a quant.i.tative measure of only a portion, i.e. certain members of the group. The hydroxyfurfurals, not being volatile, are not measured in this way. By secondary reactions they may yield some furfural, but as they are highly reactive compounds, and most readily condensed, they are for the most part converted into complex 'tarry' products. Hence we have no means, as yet, of estimating those tissue const.i.tuents which yield hydroxyfurfurals; also we have no measure of the furfurane-rings existing performed in such a condensed complex as lignone. But, chemists having added in the last few years a large number of facts and well-defined probabilities, it is clear that the further investigation of the furfuroid group will take its stand upon a much more adequate basis than heretofore. On the view of 'furfural-yielding' being co-extensive with 'pentose or pentosane,' not only were a number of important facts obscured or misinterpreted, but there was a barrenness of suggestion of genetic relations.h.i.+ps. As the group has been widened very much beyond these limits, it is clear that if any group term or designation is to be retained that of 'furfuroid' is 'neutral' in character, and equally applicable to saturated substances of such widely divergent chemical character as pentoses, hexosones, glycuronic acid, and perhaps, most important of all, levulose itself, all of which are susceptible of condensation to furfural or furfurane derivatives, as well as to those unsaturated compounds, const.i.tuents of plant tissues which are already furfurane derivatives.

From the chemical point of view such terms are perhaps superfluous. But physiological relations.h.i.+ps have a significance of their own; and there is a physiological or functional cohesion marking this group which calls for recognition, at least for the time, and we therefore propose to retain the term furfuroid.[1]

~General Experimental Methods.~--In the investigation of the cellulose group it is clear that methods of ultimate hydrolysis are of first importance. None are so convenient as those which are based on the action of sulphuric acid, more or less concentrated (H_{2}SO_{4}.3H_{2}O - H_{2}SO_{4}H_{2}O). Such methods have been frequently employed in the investigations noted in this volume. We notice a common deficiency in the interpretation of the results. It appears to be sufficient to isolate and identify a crystalline monose, without reference to the yield or proportion to the parent substance, to establish some main point in connection with its const.i.tution. On the other hand, it is clear that in hydrolysing a given cellulose-complex we ought to aim at complete, i.e. _quant.i.tative, statistics_. The hydrolytic transformation of starch to dextrins and maltose has been followed in this way, and the methods may serve as a model to which cellulose transformations should be approximated. In fact, what is very much wanted is a systematic re-examination of the typical celluloses in which all the constants of the terms between the original and the ultimate monose groups shall be determined. Such constants are similar to those for the starch-dextrose series, viz. opticity and cupric reduction. Various methods of fractionation are similarly available, chiefly the precipitation of the intermediate 'dextrins' by alcohol.

Where the original celluloses are h.o.m.ogeneous we should thus obtain transformation series, similarly expressed to those of starch. In the case of the celluloses which are mixtures, or of complex const.i.tution, there are various methods of either fractionating the original, or of selectively attacking particular monoses resulting from the transformation. By methods which are approximately quant.i.tative a mixture of groups, such as we have, for instance, in jute cellulose, could be followed through the several stages of their resolution into monoses. To put the matter generally, in these colloidal and complex carbohydrates the ordinary physical criteria of molecular weight are wanting. Therefore, we cannot determine the relations.h.i.+p of a given product of decomposition to the parent molecule save by means of a quant.i.tative ma.s.s-proportion. Physical criteria are only of determining value when a.s.sociated with such constants as cupric reduction, and these, again, must be referred to some arbitrary initial weight, such as, for convenience, 100 parts of the original.

Instead of adopting these methods, without which, as a typical case, the mechanism of starch conversions could not have been followed, we have been content with a purely qualitative study of the a.n.a.logous series obtainable from the celluloses under the action of sulphuric acid. A very important field of investigation lies open, especially to those who are generally familiar with the methods of studying starch conversions; and we may hope in this direction for a series of valuable contributions to the problem of the actual const.i.tution of the celluloses.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In this we are confirmed by other writers. See Tollens, _J. fur Landw._ 1901, p. 27.

SECTION I. GENERAL CHEMISTRY OF THE TYPICAL COTTON CELLULOSE

(p. 3)[2] ~Ash Const.i.tuents.~--It is frequently a.s.serted that silica has a structural function _sui generis_ in the plant skeleton, having a relations.h.i.+p to the cellulosic const.i.tuents of the plant, distinct from that of the inorganic ash components with which it is a.s.sociated. It should be noted that the matter has been specifically investigated in two directions. In Berl. Ber. 5, 568 (A. Ladenburg), and again in 11, 822 (W. Lange), appear two papers 'On the Nature of Plant Const.i.tuents containing Silicon,' which contain the results of experimental investigations of equisetum species--distinguished for their exceptionally high 'ash' with large proportion of silica--to determine whether there are any grounds for a.s.suming the existence of silicon-organic compounds in the plant, the a.n.a.logues of carbon compounds. The conclusions arrived at are entirely negative. In reference to the second a.s.sumption that the cuticular tissues of cereal straws, of esparto, of the bamboo, owe their special properties to siliceous components, it has been shown by direct experiment upon the former that their rigidity and resistance to water are in no way affected by cultivation in a silica-free medium. In other words, the structural peculiarities of the gramineae in these respects are due to the physical characteristics chiefly of the (lignified) cells of the hypodermal tissue, and to the composition and arrangement of the cells of the cuticle.

_'Swedish' filter papers_ of modern make are so far freed from inorganic const.i.tuents that the weight of the ash may be neglected in nearly all quant.i.tative experiments [Fresenius, Ztschr. a.n.a.l Chem. 1883, 241]. It represents usually about 1/1000 mgr. per 1 sq. cm. of area of the paper.

_The form of an 'ash'_ derived from a fibrous structure, is that of the 'organic' original, more or less, according to its proportion and composition. The proportion of 'natural ash' is seldom large enough, nor are the components of such character as to give a coherent ash, but if in the case of a fibrous structure it is combined or intimately mixed with inorganic compounds deposited within the fibres from solution, the latter may be made to yield a perfect skeleton of the fibre after burning off the organic matter. It is by such means that the mantles used in the Welsbach system of incandescent lighting are prepared. A purified cotton fabric--or yarn--is treated with a concentrated solution of the mixed nitrates of thorium and cerium, and, after drying, the cellulose is burned away. A perfect and coherent skeleton of the fabric is obtained, composed of the mixed oxides. Such mantles have fulfilled the requirements of the industry up to the present time, but later experiments forecast a notable improvement. It has been found that artificial cellulose fibres can be spun with solutions containing considerable proportions of soluble compounds of these oxides. Such fibres, when knitted into mantles and ignited, yield an inorganic skeleton of the oxides of h.o.m.ogeneous structure and smooth contour. De Mare in 1894, and Knofler in 1895, patented methods of preparing such cellulose threads containing the salts of thorium and cerium, by spinning a collodion containing the latter in solution. When finally ignited, after being brought into the suitable mantle form, there results a structure which proves vastly more durable than the original Welsbach mantle. The cause of the superiority is thus set forth by V.

H. Lewes in a recent publication (J. Soc. of Arts, 1900, p. 858): 'The alteration in physical structure has a most extraordinary effect upon the light-giving life of the mantle, and also on its strength, as after burning for a few hundred hours the constant bombardment of the mantle by dust particles drawn up by the rush of air in the chimney causes the formation of silicates on the surface of the mantle owing to silica being present in the air, and this seems to affect the Welsbach structure far more than it does the "Clamond" type, with the result that when burned continuously the Welsbach mantle falls to so low a pitch of light emissivity after 500 to 600 hours, as to be a mere shadow of its former self, giving not more than one-third of its original light, whilst the Knofler mantle keeps up its light-emitting power to a much greater extent, and the Lehner fabric is the most remarkable of all. Two Lehner mantles which have now been burning continuously in my laboratory for over 3,000 hours give at this moment a brighter light emissivity than most of the Welsbachs do in their prime.' ...'The new developments of the Clamond process form as important a step in the history of incandescent gas lighting as the discoveries which gave rise to the original mantles.'

It has further been found that the oxides themselves can be dissolved in the cellulose alkaline sulphocarbonate (viscose) solution, and artificial threads have been spun containing from 25 to 30 p.ct. of the oxides in h.o.m.ogeneous admixture with the cellulose. This method has obvious advantages over the collodion method both in regard to the molecular relations.h.i.+p of the oxides to the cellulose and to cheapness of production.

UNTERSUCHUNGEN uBER VERSCHIEDENE BESTIMMUNGSMETHODEN DER CELLULOSE.

H. SURINGAR AND B. TOLLENS (Ztschr. angew. Chem. 1896, No. 23).

~INVESTIGATION OF METHODS OF DETERMINING CELLULOSE.~

_Introduction._--This is an exhaustive bibliography of the subject, describing also the various methods of cellulose estimation, noted in historical sequence. First, the Weende 'crude fibre' method (Henneberg) with modifications of Wattenberg, Holdefleiss, and others is dealt with.

The product of this treatment, viz. 'crude fibre' is a mixture, containing furfuroids and lignone compounds. Next follows a group of processes which aim at producing a 'pure cellulose' by eliminating lignone const.i.tuents, for which the merely hydrolytic treatments of the Weende method are ineffectual. The method of F. Schulze--prolonged digestion with dilute nitric acid, with addition of chlorate--has been largely employed, though the composition of the product is more or less divergent from a 'pure cellulose.'

Dilute nitric acid at 60-80 (Cross and Bevan) and a dilute mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids (Lifschutz) have been employed for isolating cellulose from the lignocelluloses. Hoffmeister modifies the method of Schulze by subst.i.tuting hydrochloric acid for the nitric acid. Treatment with the halogens a.s.sociated with alkaline processes of hydrolysis is the basis of the methods of Hugo Muller (bromine water) and Cross and Bevan (chlorine gas). Lastly, the authors notice the methods based upon the action of the alkaline hydrates at high temperatures (180) in presence of water (Lange), or of glycerin (Gabriel). The process of heating to 210 with glycerin only (Honig) yields a very impure and ill-defined product.