VIEW OF THE CHEMICAL PROCESSES FOR DISINTEGRATING WOOD. _Aqueous Alkalis._ | _Water._ | _Aqueous Acids._ | | Hydrolysis, aided by alkali | Hydrolysis, aided by acids | (_a_) Oxidising and hydrolytic— directly, also indirectly by | formed from the wood. (Fry, | combination with products of | 1867) | Nitric acid. (Coupier and resolution. (Watt and Burgess, | | Mellier, 1852. Barre and 1853. Houghton, 1857.) | Limit of action determined by | Blondel, 1861.) | reversal of hydrolysis, i.e. | | dehydration aided by oxidation. | Nitro-hydrochloric. (Orioli, | | 1865.) | | | | (_b_) Simply hydrolytic— | | | | Hydrochloric acid. (Bachet and | | Machard, 1864.) | | | | (_c_) Reducing and hydrolytic— | | | | Sulphurous acid. (Tilghmann, | | 1866. Pictet, 1882.) | | _Solutions of Alkaline | | _Bisulphites._ Sulphides._ | | | | Hydrolysis, aided primarily Hydrolysis, aided by alkaline | | by sulphurous acid, and bases directly and indirectly | | secondarily by combination of by combination with products. | | products with bisulphites, also | | by prevention of oxidation. Reversal of hydrolysis lessened | _Water, together with neutral | (Tilghmann, 1866. Mitscherlich, by presence of reducing agent. | Sulphites._ | 1874. Ekman, 1881. Francke, | | 1881.