ACTION OF MURIATES, &C. ON ALCOHOL* } S5 



i\'hat is said to be abtaincd by passing; oxigenized muriatic acid Solution of a 



Lms throiidi alcohol is nothing but a solution ol more or less peculiar oil lit 

 ^ -^ " alcohol mista- 



of the oily matter in alcohol. The oil may even be separated ken for eiliw, 



from th€! alcohol by the addition of water, and the same com- 

 pound formed again by dissolving this oil in a given quantity 

 of alcohol. 



What is new in this part of Mr. Thenard's labours is not 

 the formation of the oily matter, water, acetous, acid, &c., by 

 the decomposition of oxigenized muriatic acid: for Scheele, 

 in his Chen)ical Essays, speaks of the oily matter; and Ber- 

 thollet, in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1785, speaks not 

 only of this, but of the water, acetous acid, &c., formed in 

 the process: but it is the having proved"^, that oxigenized 

 muriatic acid cannot form ether with alcohol, and having ex- 

 pluified why Scheele and so many other chemists did 

 obtain some. 



Finally, desirous of examining the formation of acetic Acetic ethejv 



ether, Mr. Thenard mixed together 120 gram. [1853 grs.] of 



alcohol as highly rectified as possible, and as much acetic 



acid, of an acidity determined by the quantity of potash the 



jacid requires to saturate it. He distilled the mixture, coho- 



bated it twelve limes, and thus evidently decomposed all the 



alcohol employed, beside 66' \6 gram. [1022 grs.] of acetic 



acid, answering to 32 gram. [509 grs.] of dry acid, or such as 



it exists in acetate of potash well fused. Yet about 120 gr, 



[1853 grs.] only of acetic ether were formed; though no gas 



was evolved, and, when the process was finished, a loss of 7 



gram. [108 grs.] only appeared. Hence Mr. Thenard is led 



^, , . r .1 . /> t . . . .'Water formelt 



to suppose, that part of the oxigen of the acetic acid com- in this procesa, 



bines with part of the hidrogen of the alcohol, while the other 

 principles of the acid, and those of the alcohol, unite to form 

 the ether. Otherwise, if no water were formed, we must ad- 

 mit, in order to account for the appearances, that the best 

 rectified alcohol contains nearly a fifth of its weight of water, 

 which is scarcely probable. 



This 



• Mr.Berthollet even mentioned, that the oxigenlzod muriatic acid 

 and alcohol produced but very little ether ; and we perceive, that hy ii> 

 clined to consider this small quantity of ether as foreign to the mutual 

 action of these two substances. 



