■PROPERTY OF CAMPHORATED WATBR. #7 



after solution, and I found, that the distilled water had 

 taken up sixteen grains per quart, and the carbonic acid 

 only fifteen. As I had been obliged to filter the liquors and Perhaps an er- 

 diy the iilters, I imagined, that the undissolved camphor j, orat i on i n 

 must have lost some of its weight by evaporation, and that drying, 

 the balance did not give me the precise quantity absorbed 

 by the water. Accordingly I sought for a reagent, that 

 should acquaint me with the presence of camphor in wa- 

 ter. 



Potash I found would precipitate camphorated water, Pure potash 

 while neither soda nor ammonia rendered it at all turbid, camphor'from 

 £ut the potash must be pure and caustic. If it contain car- water, but no 

 borne acid it no longer precipitates the camphor : and if, °^ r a,kali 

 after it has been precipitated, the vessel be left exposed to 

 the air, the liquid recovers its transparency by absorbing 

 carbonic acid. 



Here then we have a new method of distinguishing pot- Thisanewust 



ash from soda. Camphorated water is in this respect a more P ot a ?hfrom 



certain test than the nitromuriate of platina, and more easily soda. 



procured. The metallic salt however is more commodious, 



as it precipitates the carbonate of potash, 



When employing caustic potash as a test of camphorated Pure P otasn ift 

 ,.,-/, , , . excess precipi 



water impregnated with carbonic acid, I obtained no preci- tates it if car- 



pitate but by adding a great excess of alkali ; and this pre- bonic acid b *" 



. • vj -iiii i present, 



cipitate did not appear to me more considerable, than that 



obtained in distilled water. I think therefore, that carbonic 



acid does not in any sensible degree promote the solution of 



camphor in water : and it follows at least from these expe* 



riments, that water does not impregnate itself with the 



aroma of the camphor solely, as some chemists have be* 



lieyed, but that it dissolves a sufficient proportion of this 



concrete volatile oil for the purposes of which it is emr 



ployed. 



If the camphor be reduced to a state of extreme division If the camphor 



by trituration with a few drops of alcohol, the water will take alcohol 1 qt/ 



up more than sixteen grains per quart: some chemists have Y il1 ta / e up 



4Jjissohed as far as thirty grains, gai 



