Researches on Cellulose | Page 2

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.

CONTENTS
THE MATTER OF THIS VOLUME MAY BE DIVIDED INTO THE
FOLLOWING SECTIONS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION--DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT IN GENERAL
OUTLINE 1
SECTION
I. GENERAL CHEMISTRY OF THE TYPICAL COTTON
CELLULOSE 13
II. SYNTHETICAL DERIVATIVES--SULPHOCARBONATES AND
ESTERS 27
III. DECOMPOSITIONS OF CELLULOSE SUCH AS THROW
LIGHT ON THE PROBLEM OF ITS CONSTITUTION 67
IV. CELLULOSE GROUP, INCLUDING HEMICELLULOSES AND
TISSUE CONSTITUENTS OF FUNGI 97
V. FURFUROIDS, i.e. PENTOSANES AND
FURFURAL-YIELDING CONSTITUENTS GENERALLY 114
VI. THE LIGNOCELLULOSES 125
VII. PECTIC GROUP 152
VIII. INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNICAL. GENERAL REVIEW 155
INDEX OF AUTHORS 177

INDEX OF SUBJECTS 178

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 pass 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 pronounced 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 classify the subject-matter. Thus 'the
carbohydrates' may be said to have been in the inchoate condition,
qualified by a certain classification, prior to the pioneering
investigations of Fischer. In attacking the already accumulated and so
far classified 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 constitution 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 quantitative 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 quantity, and we must leave that criticism to the fates. We