266 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



compounds with hydrogen chloride. Heated with potassium 

 hydrate, sylvestrene yields an oil having a strong pelargoni- 

 um odor. 



llemsen and Morse, of the Johns-Hopkins University, Bal- 

 timore, have studied the products of oxidation of bromethyl- 

 toluene and its analogues, with a view to determine the in- 

 fluence which one substituting group exerts upon a second 

 or a third entering the same benzene nucleus, with particu- 

 lar reference to any differences in result due to the use of 

 homologous radicals of the marsh -ojas series. Since bro- 

 methyltoluene yields bromparatoluic acid on oxidation, the 

 effect of the ethyl group is quite distinct from that of the 

 methyl group in the molecule, opening up a new field for 

 investigation. 



Zulkowsky has sought to produce rosolic acid from a mix- 

 ture of cresol and phenol precisely as rosaniline is produced 

 from toluidine and aniline, the corresponding amines. For 

 this purpose two molecules of cresol, one of phenol, and three 

 of sulphuric acid were heated with arsenic acid to 120. 

 The mixture became dark brown and thick, and yielded to 

 water a gummy substance with a metallic lustre, having all 

 the properties of rosolic acid. The relation of this coloring 

 matter to rosaniline is thus rendered quite apparent. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL. 



Livache lias examined in the laboratory of the Conserva- 

 toire des Arts et Metiers, in Paris, the gaseous products 

 which are contained in the tissue of fruits. He finds that in 

 perfectly healthy fruit the gases contained in its pulp con- 

 sist entirely of oxygen and nitrogen in the proportion in 

 which they exist in the air. In case this pulp is broken or 

 torn, an oxidation results, and the oxygen is rapidly trans- 

 formed into carbon dioxide. If the pulp thus mangled be 

 left to itself, a true fermentation sets in, abundance of car- 

 bon dioxide is produced and disengaged, the oxygen disap- 

 pears entirely, leaving the nitrogen unaltered. 



Muntz has made a research upon the formation of alcohol 

 in the cells of growing plants, and finds that when confined 

 in an atmosphere of nitrogen or any gas not containing oxy- 

 gen, the presence of alcohol can be invariably detected, even 

 after only a few hours' exposure, while none appeared in 



