Cellulose: An Outline of the Chemistry of the Structural Elements of Plants, With Reference to Their Natural History and Industrial Uses (Classic Reprint)

Preface to the New Edition ix bilities, viscosities of solution, and mechanical properties of continuous solid forms prepared from solutions. In accordance with this general and, at the same time, limited plan of the original, we have produced volumes of 1R esearches intended as supplements, in which the growth of the subject-matter is recorded in the form of abstracts of original memoirs. To these we have added critical notes intended as adumbrations of extensions of general theory, towards which all workers may be presumed to be striving, whether of set purpose or less consciously. In the twenty years period under consideration a conspicuous advance has followed the systematic investigation of typical colloids, towards a general theory of the colloidal state. Cellulose is the prototype of colloidal matter, and the exhaustive study of celluloses and derivatives in their infinitely varied forms, natural and artificial, promises to be the most important source of material for generalisations as to the condition of matter in colloids. At present there are none which command acceptance, and it is outside the scope of a text-book to discuss hypotheses and tentative theory. It is particularly in view of the somewhat nebulous aspect of this region of potentially exact science that we abstain from any present attempt to recast our original volume. It will be implied from this confession that we have little to note of really novel and fundamental importance that is, as contributing to a positive solution of problems of constitution or of the more immediate problem of the reacting unit of the typical cellulose. But there have been notable additions of experimental method, of new groups of derivatives, and evident progress in the critical appreciation of the subject. Normal Cellulose.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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