A Manual of the Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds

TEE CARBON COMPOUNDS.
INULTN
Occurs, together with synanthTose (page 287), in the roots of Inula
Heknium, Eelianthm tvberosus, &c. It is a light, white powder,
•which is sparingly soluble in cold water. In hot water it dissolves
to a mucilaginous liquid, from which, on cooling, the greater
part of inulin is again deposited as powder. Iodine imparts a
brown colour to it, By boiling with dilute acids it is converted
into levulose.
OLYCOQEN
Is a white, amorphous powder, resembling starch, and occurring in the
liver of several auimala, and in the tissues of the embryo, in the
yolk of egg, and some mollusca, It dissolves in cold water to an
opalescent liquid, and gives a brown colour with iodine. By
the action of ferments or dilute aoids it is readily converted into
dextrose.
CELLULOSE, OR MONIK,
Forms a large proportion of the solid parts of all plants. The
pare substance is readily prepared by treating fine linen or cotton
with dilute potash-solution, dilute acids, ether, &c, to remove all
adhering impurities. In the pure state it is perfectly white, exhibiting
the structure of that part of the plant from which it has been
obtained, It is insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether, but readily
soluble in a solution of cupric hydroxide in ammonia. On adding an
acid to this solution, it is precipitated as an amorphous mass.
Concentrated sulphurio acid dissolves it in the cold; on adding
water to this solution, white amorphous flakes separate out, which
are coloured blue by iodine, like starch. By the continued action of
sulphurio acid, it is converted into dextrin and dextrose.
If unsized paper be dipped for a few seconds in a cold mixture
of two volumes of concentrated sulphuric acid and oue volume of
water, and then washed with water and ammonia, the so-called parchment
paper is obtained,
By the action of concentrated nitric acid on cellulose, it is without
change of form converted into a nitric ether, the composition and
properties of which vary according to the mode of preparation.
Gun-cotton C,,H14O4(NOJ)J.—-To prepare this body, cotton-wool is
first immersed in a boiling dilute solution of potassium carbonate,
then washed with water and well dried. It is now steeped for a few
minutes in a cold mixture of one part of concentrated nitrio acid
and three parts of oil of vitriol, then squeezed, and again placed in a