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CHEMICAL NEWS,}

June 6, 1863.

Notices of Patents-Correspondence.

each. By the decomposition of the tarry matter, abundance of gas, containing sulphuretted hydrogen, is evolved. which should be let into the furnace and there consumed. The carbon and hydrogen reduce partially the oxide of iron, opening up the structure of the mineral,-a disintegrating action which is assisted likewise by the escape of carbonic acid and water from the carbonate of calcium. When the disengagement of gas terminates (usually in about an hour), the operation is concluded by withdrawing the charge and placing it in sheet iron receptacles to cool. The product so obtained is a mixture of phosphates with small proportions of quicklime and carbon, and may either be directly employed as a manure, or enriched by an admixture of nitrogenous organic matters, such as blood, fæcal and liquid excreta, or other animal refuse, upon which substances it operates as a disinfectant.

The general scheme of this invention appears well calculated to fulfil the object in view. Sombrero Island phosphate stands especially in need of some such treat

ment.

Grants of Provisional Protection for Six Months. 1036. Alcide Poirrier, Paris, and Charles Chappat, Fils Paris, "Improvements in the manufacture of blue and violet colouring matters suitable for dyeing and printing." 1084. George Holcroft, Manchester, "Improvements in the construction of pyrometers."

1086. Michael Henry, Fleet Street, London, "Improvements in apparatus for manufacturing béton and artificial stone, pugging clay, and other similar purposes, and in the production of artificial stone, and artistic, ornamental, and decorative articles, works, and surfaces."-A communication from François Coignet, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris. -Petitions recorded April 29, 1863.

192. Heinrich Caro and John Dale, Manchester, "Improvements in obtaining colouring matters, part of which improvements is also applicable to dyeing and printing." Petition recorded January 21, 1863.

940. Richard Archibald Brooman, Fleet Street, London, "Improvements in hardening and colouring gypseous limestone and sand and calcareous stones." A communication from Pascal Nicolas Balthazar Fioravanti, Paris. Petition recorded April 14, 1863.

963. Richard Knight, Dunkirk, France, "Improvements in treating and preparing iron, copper, and other wires for telegraphic and other uses, for the purpose of preserving them from corrosion or decay."

967. Robert Calvert Clapham, Walker, Northumberland, "Treating the waste liquor from bleaching-powder stills, in order to obtain hydrochloric acid and other products therefrom."

973. William Stevenson Macdonald, Manchester, "Improvements in apparatus for drying animal, vegetable, and mineral substances."

985. Alfred Ford, Stewart's Buildings, Battersea Fields, Surrey, and Richard Rigg, Great Winchester Street, London, "An improved method of re-forming and re-using old or waste vulcanised india-rubber."

1015. John Benjamin Daines, Little Argyle Street West, London, "Improvements in the preparation of stone, plaster, compo, iron, wood, and such like substances, so as to preserve them from decay.'

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1109. Edmund Richard Southby, Wareham, Dorsetshire, "Improvements in the extraction of scents from plants, flowers, and other odoriferous substances."

1116. William Walsh, Manchester, "Improvements in obtaining and purifying oxalate of soda, which improvements are also applicable to the manufacture of oxalic acid."

1148. Thomas Holliday, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, “An improved blue colouring matter." Petition recorded May 7, 1863.

Notices to Proceed.

42. Charles Tiot Judkins, Ludgate Street, London, "New alloys."-A communication from Moses Gerrish Farmer, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.

44. John Leigh, Manchester, "Improvements in the treatment of gas produced by the distillation of coal, cannel, bituminouss hale, boghead, mineral oils, petroleum, or other combustible substances, and for the obtaining of certain products therefrom."

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48. Edward Vincent Gardner, Berners Street, London, 'Improvements in the treatment of petroleum and mineral oils, and in apparatus employed therein."

70. Robert Thomson Monteith, St. Malo, France, and Robert Monteith, Crystal Terrace, Cecil Street, Greenleys, Manchester, "Improvements in the manufacture of dyes from aniline and its analogues."-A communication from Georges Auguste Jules Delvaux, Rue Corneille, Paris.Petition recorded January 8, 1863.

522. Edward Brown Wilson, Parliament Street, Westminster, London, "An improvement or improvements in the manufacture of an alloy or alloys of titanium and iron."-Petition recorded February 25, 1863.

956. Isham Baggs, Cambridge Terrace, London, and William Simpson, Tovill Upper Mills, Kent, "Improvements in purifying and treating coal gas, sulphuretted containing sulphuretted hydrogen, and other gases hydrogen, and in obtaining sulphur, sulphuric, and other acids in such treatment."-Petition recorded April 16, 1863.

105. John Thomas Stroud, Birmingham, "Certain improvements in fixed and portable lights for domestic and other uses, applicable for burning gas and the mineral oils or spirits now so commonly used."

CORRESPONDENCE.

Colouring Matters from Aniline.

To the Editor of the CHEMICAL NEWS. SIR,-Some time ago I discovered the green and blue colouring matters of Professor Calvert-" Emeraldine, &c." On informing him of these, he at once candidly told me he and others had previously patented the same thing -a parallel case to many inventions.

I have now to announce another source of green colour. ing matter, identical, so far as I have been able to ascertain, with emeraldine. I noticed in the laboratory where experiments are performed with aniline that the vessel containing bleaching powder was soon covered with a green film.

On submitting sheets of paper kept constantly moistened with aniline to the vapours emitted by "chloride of lime" so-called, I obtained a considerable quantity of this colour; also, I obtained it by replacing the powder by a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid. Air is necessary in both cases.

A yellow colour may be obtained from aniline, varying in shade to brown, by dissolving the base in acetic or hydrochloric acid, and passing nitrous fumes cautiously through the solution; the colour precipitates out in an oily layer. The colour is not bright, and I have not succeeded as yet in making either of these colours available as a dye. I am, &c. JOHN S. BLOCKEY. Hyde Park, Leeds, May 31,

276

Miscellaneous-Answers to Correspondents.

MISCELLANEOUS.

National Academy of Sciences of the United States. In the last Session of Congress a Bill was passed incorporating this institution, and on the 22nd of last month a meeting of the corporators named in the Act, was called by the Hon. H. Wilson, who introduced the Bill into the Senate, for the purpose of effecting a temporary organisation of the Academy. Mr. Joseph Henry, of Washington, was elected Chairman, and Mr. Alexis Cas well, of Brown University, Secretary pro tem., and a committee was appointed to prepare and report rules for governing the Academy. The Academy is divided into two classes,-I. The Cass of Mathematics and Physics, comprising the following sections:-1. Mathematics; 2. Physics; 3. Astronomy, Geography, and Geodesy; 4. Mechanics; 5. Chemistry. II. The Class of Natural History, comprising the sections,-1. Mineralogy and Geology; 2. Zool gy; 3. Botany; 4. Anatomy and Phy siology; 5. Ethnology. Members choose to which of the two classes, and to which section of that class, they will belong; but they may al-o be elected honorary members of any section, by the members thereof, and the Academy has the power of transferring members from one section to others. There may be fifty foreign associates who will take no part in the business of the Academy, but will have the privilege of atter ding i's Sessions, reading and communicating papers, and of reiving a copy of the publications of the Academy. The officers are to be el cted for a term of six years. Each class will have a chairman and secretary elected annually. These officers, together with four members, also elected annually, will constitute a council for the transaction of business. The Academy will hold two special meetings in January and August of each year. The scientific meetings are to be open to the public, the business meetings closed. Communications by persons not members of the Academy are to be presented and read by a member, who will be responsible for the general propriety of the paper, but not for the opinions of the author. Propositions for researches, experiments, investigations, or reports, are to originate with the classes to which their subjects are appropriate, and are then to be submitted to the Academy for discussion and approval or rejection, excepting propositions from the United States Government, or any of its branches, which are to be acted upon by the President, who, in such case, will report at once to the Government, if necessary, and to the Academy at the next special meeting. The judgment of the Academy is to be at all times at the disposal of the Government, upon any subject of science or art within its compass, and the President will have the power, in special cases, of ca ling in the aid, upon committees, of experts, or of men of remarkable attainments, not members of the Academy. An annual report is to be presented to both Houses of Congress, and is to he prepared by the President of the Academy and submitted, first to the Council, and then to the Academy at the January meeting, before its presentatation. The officers elected are Alexr. D. Bache, President, James D. Dana, Vice-President; Louis Agassiz, Foreign Secretary; Wolcott Gibbs, Home Secretary; Fairman Rogers, Treasurer; B. Pierce and B. A. Gould, Chairman and Secretary of Class A; B. Silliman and J. S. Newberry, Chairman and Secretary of Class B. After the completion of the organisation, each member present, agreeably to the requirements of the organic law, took the oath of allegiance prescribed by the Senate of the United States for its own members, and in addition thereto took an oath faithfully to discharge the duties of a member of the National Academy of Sciences to the best of his ability. Born in the midst of a great political revolution, the National Academy of Sciences, created by the supreme law of the land, stands pledged to the power which has called it into being, and to the world to discharge its

CHEMICAL NEWS, June 6, 1863.

duties with fidelity. The members of the Academy named in the Act had before them simply to accept or to decline the trust reposed in them, by no choice of theirs. So far as they have accepted their position, we feel justified in saying it is with a conviction that there were many not named on the list who might most properly have been there, and with the assurance that, so far as any honour may attach to membership, it will be shared much more largely by those who shall hereafter be called by the suffrages of the Academy to fill such vacancies as must occur, than by the corporators who are named in the law. The National Academy of Sciences does not take the place of, or necessarily interfere with, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as many persons seem to have supposed.-From the American Journal of Science and Arts, May, 1863.

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Vol. VI. of the CHEMICAL NEWs, containing a copious Index, is now ready, price 10s. 8d., by post, 118. 2d., handsomely bound in cloth, gold-lettered. The cases for binding may be obtained at our Office, price 1s. 6d. Subscribers may have their copies bound for 2s. 6d. If sent to our Office, or, if accompanied by a cloth case, for Is.

Vois. I.

and II. are out of print. All the others are kept in stock. Vol. VII. commenced on January 3, 1863, and will be complete in 26 numbers.

Chemicus-A scientific bookseller will be best able to give the information required.

J. A., Reading-Sulphide of silver might be recovered by filtering the liquid in which it is suspended.

J. W., Neilston-It is the character of bismuth salts to be precipitated by addition of water to their solutions in acids.

J. M., Huddersfield.-The method of preparing sulphindigotic acid is on Chemistry. described in Gmelin's, Graham's, Fownes's, or almost any other work

THE CHEMICAL NEWS.

VOL. VII. No. 184.-June 13, 1863.

PHOTOGENIC GAS.

A COMPANY has recently been formed for the purpose of introducing M. Mongruel's invention into general use. According to the specification of his patent, this consists in a particular form of apparatus applicable to the saturation of ordinary gas or atmospheric air, with the vapour of a volatile hydrocarbon, so as in the one case to increase the illuminating power, and, in the other, to produce an illuminating gas.

The carburation of gas by such means is no novelty, inasmuch as it was one of the earliest improvements of gas-making suggested by Mr. George Lowe so far back as 1832.

The production of an illuminating gas by saturating atmospheric air with a volatile hydrocarbon vapour is also no novelty, since it is one of the means by which Mr. Mansfield proposed to use the more volatile liquids, obtainable from coal tar, for producing light.

poverished," or in plain English it will be incapable of being volatilised into the air or gas, and of being retained by them during their passage through the pipes to the place where the light is to be produced. This was just the result obtained in naphthalising gas by Mr. Lowe's method; and, in the case of Mr. Mansfield's plan of using benzol, the difficulty was in preventing the hydrocarbon from becoming solid, in consequence of the cooling effect of its evaporation.

Hence it is absolutely necessary to have for this purpose an extremely volatile liquid, and one which is at the same time of uniform volatility, not a mixture of liquids differing in volatility. No statement is made as to the cost at which a liquid so suited for the purpose can be obtained, though there are reasons for the opinion that the volatile oil of the American petroleum will maintain a high price.

It is stated that 1000 cubic feet of gas require nearly a gallon and a-half of the liquid, so that it may be expected that the cost of the gas will be doubled. At the same time it is stated that the illuminating power is increased fourfold.

One of the advantages claimed for this apparatus is the purification of the gas carburated, but it is not stated how the purification is effected, nor does there appear to be any possibility of the gas being in any way purified by this treatment.

When M. Mongruel's project was first made known in this country, however, the accounts given of it were calculated to lead to the belief that it was an entirely new invention. A certain amount of mystery was thrown around the liquid employed, which was not without its effect in bringing many people to believe that the Altogether the prospectus, though loud in praise of invention was in that. But to any one at all acquainted the illuminating power of the gas, is quite silent with with the subject it was evident that there could not be regard to many important particulars on which the any great secret in this liquid, and that invention was success of this project depends in a far greater and more out of the question with regard to it. There was no essential degree than it does upon the use of M. Mondoubt that the liquid used was a hydrocarbon of sufficient gruel's generator, however ingenious that may be in its volatility to be diffused through the air in such amount construction, and however efficient for saturating gas or as to render it capable of burning with a luminous flame. air with a liquid of sufficient volatility. In one of the Moreover, an abundant source of such a liquid had just testimonials attached to the prospectus, incidental referbefore been discovered in the American petroleum, and ence is made to a carburating liquid so volatile that it precisely this very volatile portion was then still without vapourised at a temperature one degree above the any useful application. There is no longer any doubt freezing point, and there is much reason to think that if about the nature of M. Mongruel's invention. It is such a liquid be requisite this plan of obtaining light simply a particular apparatus devised for the purpose of kind, it might have been expected that some data would would be very costly. Among other particulars of this bringing air or gas into contact with the liquid hydro- have been given as to the degree of volatility necessary carbon to be volatilised; in fact, a special_means of carrying into effect the suggestions of Mr. Lowe and for the liquid used, the cost of it, the cost of the appaMr. Mansfield. ratus, and the degree of security or provision against The advantage claimed for this apparatus of not im-risk of explosion by the production of an explosive poverishing the liquid diffused into the gas or air, will obviously depend solely upon the nature of the liquid itself. If the liquid employed is not uniformly volatile, but if, like the coal tar naphtha used by Mr. Lowe, it consists of a mixture of unequally volatile liquids, the result in M. Mongruel's apparatus will be the same as in Mr. Lowe's, viz., that only a portion of the liquid the more volatile portion-will be volatilised, and the remainder will be, as M. Mongruel expresses it, "im

* CHEMICAL NEWS, February 21, 1863.

mixture of air and hydrocarbon vapour. These are all most important points, of which no mention is made. absence of any satisfactory statements as to these points, It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that, in the on which the success of the company's enterprise is so greatly dependent, no little surprise is felt at the very large sum of 50,000l. proposed to be paid to the inventor of the mere apparatus for effecting a result which, if desirable, might be easily obtained by many other means far less costly, and probably not at all less efficient.

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An Alleged New Metal.

MR. SONSTADT, who has recently obtained a patent for the manufacture of magnesium, considers that the black residue mentioned by MM. Deville and Caron, as being left when impure magnesium is distilled, contains a new metal. He describes the following process for obtaining it :

An intimate mixture of calcined magnesia with oneeighth its weight of amorphous phosphorus, is ignited in a covered porcelain crucible until phosphorus vapour is no longer given off. The grey residue is extracted by hydrochloric acid, and the undissolved portion repeatedly boiled with hydrochloric acid. What then remains is nearly black; it is ignited with dry hydrate of soda, the mass digested in water, and the yellowish insoluble portion, well washed by decantation. This yellow substance, dissolved in acid, gives the following reactions, said to be characteristic of the new metal. The solution gives a blood-red colour with alkaline sulphocyanide, a blue precipitate with ferrocyanide solution, and, after treatment with reducing agents, a blue precipitate with ferrocyanide solution. But, unlike true Prussian blue, the colour of these precipitates is not changed by ammonia, unless they are contaminated with iron.

The oxide, precipitated by an alkali, is said to require much more intense heat for its reduction than iron oxide, and the dark spongy mass obtained, is not magnetic. Mr. Sonstadt has not found any reagent capable of separating the new metal from iron, nor yet any reagent capable of entirely separating it from a magnesian solution, although every trace of iron may be precipitated.

Anomalous Vapour Densities.

M. CAHOURS has long since shown that the vapours of some liquids do not present the characters of permanent gases, except at temperatures much above the respective boiling points. In determining the density of such a vapour at temperatures rising from near the boiling point of the liquid to a temperature at which the density presents no further change, it is easy to perceive that, until that limit is reached, the vapour is not in a definite condition, but the densities at different temperatures, represented graphically, correspond to a curve gradually approximating to the axis of the abscissæ, finally becoming parallel with it, and remaining so until the degree of temperature is reached at which there is a disassociation of the constituents of the molecules.

This anomaly, presented by many different substances, seems to be independent of the nature of the vessel containing the vapour. It may be that, at temperatures near the boiling point of a liquid, a portion of the liquid remains dissolved in the vapour, giving rise to the excessive density, and that, as the proportion of liquid so dissolved decreases with elevation of temperature, it ultimately disappears, and then the vapour conforms to the law obtaining for permanent gases.

It is of interest to inquire what is the effect produced by introducing into the molecule of a substance which gives vapour of anomalous density, other constituents in the place of its normal constituents. For example, acetic acid affords a remarkable instance of anomalous

Register of Facts Relating to Literature, Science, and the Arts, June, 1863, p. 458.

CHEMICAL NEWS,
June 13, 1863.

vapour density. Representing it according to Gerhardt, by the formula—

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be effected in the molecule either of

M. Cahours' ex

substitution may
the hydrogen in the acetyl, or of the hydrogen or
oxygen combined with the radical.
periments have led him to the conclusion that when the
hydrogen combined with the radical, is replaced by sub-
stances capable of giving rise to volatile derivatives,
there are no longer such anomalies in the vapour
densities as exist in the vapour density of acetic acid.
Thus methyl, ethyl, and amyl acetates, and even acetic
anhydride, which differs from the normal acid only in
containing a second equivalent of acetyl, in place of the
hydrogen united with the radical of the normal acid,
all give vapours which conform to the law, and present
the characters of permanent gases at temperatures very
near their respective boiling points.

This is shown clearly by the following table :

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Boiling Temperature of

Density.

Observed. Calculated.

point. estimation.

Degrees.

Degrees.

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2'595 2.585

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98

3087

3'079

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148

4.602

4'558

1137-138 152

3.673

39562

172

3'580

185

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Acetic anhydride

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Je 13, 1868) New Method for Testing the Purity of Alcohols and Ethers.

June

substance having analogous chemical functions, such as methyl, ethyl, &c.

Gay-Lussac's researches on gaseous combination have shown that when two gases combine in equal volumes, the compound gives a gas equal in volume to the joint volume of the constituent gases, while there is always a contraction, greater or less, when the gases combine in unequal volumes. There are but two exceptions to this rule,-chloro-carbonic and chloro-sulphuric acids.

Equal volumes of hydrochloric acid gas and of ammonia combine, and produce a neutral substance whose vapour volume is, according to Mitscherlich and Deville, exactly equal to that of the sum of the volumes of its constituents, that is to say, eight volumes.

The opinion held by Cannizzaro, Kopp, Pebal, Wanklyn, and Robinson, that this difference is due to the disassociation of the constituents of the salt, does not appear to be maintainable since the results obtained by M. Deville, showing that sal ammoniac has more stability than one of its constituents. This is not an isolated fact; the molecule of phosphorus perchloride also corresponds with eight volumes of vapour, and hence M. Cahours has regarded it as consisting of equal volumes of protochloride and of chlorine.

Hydrochloric acid also combines with oil of turpentine, amylene, caproylene, or caprylene in equal volumes producing neutral substances, and it might have been expected that they would correspond with eight volumes of vapour. But this is not the case, and experience has shown that, like most volatile organic substances, their molecules correspond with four volumes of vapour, as will be seen by the following table :

Terebene hydrochlorate.
Amylene
Caproylene
Caprylene

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M. Cahours considers that this difference arises from the circumstance that in the combination of ammonia and

hydrochloric acid both maintain their normal volumes, the saturation of their constituents being complete, while, on the contrary, the carbon in the hydrocarbons is not saturated fully, and hence there is a tendency to the production of substances represented by the formula C2H2X2

X2 representing an elementary substance such as H2Cl2Br2Cy2, or their equivalents HCl, HBr.

In these compounds the chlorine or bromine no longer exists in the state of hydrochloric or hydrobromic acids combined with a substance which neutralises them, nor in the state of chlorine or bromine combined with a radical analogous to metals; but they exist, in some sort, in a latent condition, as is shown by the inactivity of these substances in regard to an alcoholic solution of silver nitrate as compared with the reaction between sal ammoniac and that salt.

The terms hydrochlorate, &c., applied to those compounds appear therefore to be improper, and it would be more consistent to regard them as isomeric with chlorhydramylic ether, &c., and differing from these substances only in a greater tendency to split into the hydracids and hydrocarbons from which they were produced.

Acetic acid combines with ammonia in equal volumes, producing a neutral substance, but M. Cahours has not obtained results indicating its vapour density to correspond with eight volumes, as in the case of sal am

279

moniac. This is not in consequence of the decomposition of the salt into binacetate, for by heating acetate of ammonia to 200° in a flask, the vapours given off were sometimes alkaline and sometimes acid, but the crystalline residue in the flask was neither acid nor alkaline. It disengaged ammonia abundantly when heated with potash, boiled regularly without alteration at 218° to 220°, and presented all the characters of acetamide. The vapour density was 2'10; calculated, 2'06. Ammoniacal salts of oxyacids give the same results, so that there is no possibility of ascertaining the density of their vapours experimentally, or if their molecules are similar to those of the hydracid compounds of

ammonia.

New Methods for Testing the Purity of Alcohols and Ethers, by M. Berthelot.

THOUGH alcohols and ethers have been carefully purified by distillation and desiccation, there has hitherto been in most cases no means of controlling their purity. The following are the results of my researches:

1. I take as a starting point the fact that a compound ether, if pure, is decomposable by an alkali, by saturating an equivalent weight of this alkali. By this means, as I showed about ten years ago, the analysis of ethers and analogous compounds, is founded on an alcalimetric test, based on the use of a standard solution of baryta. 2. By means of the same liquid the smallest quantities of compound ethers may be recognised and estimated in alcohol or in simple ethers, provided these bodies are not alterable by alkalies. Io cubic centimetres of a standard solution of baryta, and a known weight of the body to be tested, are inclosed in a flask. It is then heated for about an hundred hours at 100°; if the alcohol is pure, as is oftenest the case with ordinary alcohol, the standard of the baryta does not change. Amylic alcohol, on the contrary, almost always contains a small quantity of compound ethers, as also does ordinary ether, even after digestion on milk of lime.

Glycol prepared by the ordinary methods, and rectified to a certain point, is particularly impure. I have found in it as much as 22 per cent. of combined acetic acid, corresponding to 40 per cent. of monoacetic glycol. This fact may occasion more than one error, and the knowledge of it will be useful to chemists occupied with

this curious substance.

To recognise the presence, without estimating, of a neutral ether in an alcohol, I heat the alcohol with twice its volume of water, for twenty hours at 150°. Most of the neutral ether changes into acid.

3. The presence of a free acid in an alcohol or an ether is so easily recognised that I need not stop to describe the process. Formic ethers, for instance, are always acid; but they decompose so promptly as to prevent the exact estimation of the free acid. The free acid of other ethers, on the contrary, can be precisely estimated.

4. The presence of a small quantity of water in a neutral ether may be detected by heating this ether to 150° during twenty or thirty hours; the water decomposes an almost equivalent quantity of ether into acid and alcohol. The acid is then estimated by a standard solution of baryta. On submitting acetic ether, carefully purified by the ordinary methods to this test, it will obstinately retain a centième of water, which is with great difficulty eliminated.

5.

The presence of a small quantity of water in alcohol may also be detected by mixing the alcohol with

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