nsistency. (Since corn starch is commonly used as the raw material for
this process, these syrups are often spoken of as "corn syrup.") The
sweetness of glucose is about three-fifths that of ordinary cane sugar.

Glucose exhibits all the properties of hexoses which have been described in
general terms above. It is a reducing-sugar, and is easily fermented. The
specific rotatory power of _d_-glucose is +52.7 deg. But when glucose is
dissolved in water, it exhibits in a marked degree the phenomenon known as
"mutarotation"; that is, freshly made solutions exhibit a certain definite
rotatory power, but this changes rapidly until it finally reaches another
definite specific rotation. In other words, glucose is "birotatory," or
possesses two distinct specific rotatory powers, and the changing rotation
effect in aqueous solutions is due to the change from one form to the
other. When dissolved in alcohol, it does not exhibit this change in
rotatory power. In order to explain this phenomenon, it is necessary to
assume that there are two modifications of _d_-glucose, which have been
designated respectively as the [alpha] and [beta] forms. The possibility of
the existence of these two forms is explained by the assumption of the
closed-ring arrangement of the glucose molecule, as indicated in the
following formulas which represent the two possible isomeric arrangements:

HO-C-H H-C-OH
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
H-C-OH \ H-C-OH \
| O | O
HO-C-H / HO-C-H /
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
C-H C-H
| |
H-C-OH H-C-OH
| |
CH_{2}OH CH_{2}OH
[alpha]-Glucose [beta]-Glucose

It is assumed that the [alpha] modification (with its specific rotatory
power of +105 deg.) is the normal form for crystalline glucose, but that
when dissolved in water it is changed into an _aldehydrol_, i.e., a
compound containing two additional OH groups, which later breaks down
again, into the [beta] modification (with i