Brown and the oxidation of mannitol

In 1886 Brown described the properties of two organisms. Bacterium aceti and Bacterium xylinum. He had isolated them from the surface of a 

This work again illustrates the problems of reading too much into the early literature. Even at the time, the experiment was thought unsatisfactory. Brown suggested that the six weeks needed for the mannitol to crystallize was the reason why there were doubts that this compound really 

A major advance came with detailed insight into the stereochemistry of sugars (Fischer, 1891). This crucial description clarified their chemical relationships, but would suggest that, in Brown s experiments, D-glucose (3) should be reduced to D-glucitol (7), not to o-mannitol (8). The former 

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