210 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



consistency, again filtered, and then treated with strong alcohol, 

 which separates the calcium-salt of the kryptophanic acid as a dark, 

 flaky mass. This impure calcium-salt is dissolved in water and 

 mixed with <1 neutral solution of acetate of lead ; a dark-colored 

 precipitate is formed and filtered off; the filtrate containing 

 kryptophanate of lead is treated with strong alcohol, which throws 

 down the kryptophanate of lead in white flakes, from which the 

 acid is set free by means of sulphuretted hydrogen. Kryptophanic 

 acid forms an amorphous, gummy mass, transparent and nearly 

 colorless. It forms salts with the alkalies, with the alkaline earths, 

 and with many metals. In the aqueous solution of its earthy 

 salts, a precipitate is produced by mercuric nitrate. The deter- 

 mination of the composition of the free acid, as well as of its 

 salts, leads to the formula C 5 H 9 NO 5 , and the acid would be 

 regarded as dibasic ; in some cases, however, it would be regarded 

 as tetrabasic, and the formula would then be written Ci H 18 N 2 O 10 . 

 Dr. Thudicum before the Chemical Society, March 3, 1870. 



Normal Amylic Alcohol. Lieben and Rossi have succeeded 

 in obtaining synthetically the normal amylic alcohol, which bears 

 the same relation to the alcohol already known which normal 

 butylic alcohol bears to that obtained by fermentation. Normal 

 cyanide of butyl yields normal valeric acid, which greatly resembles 

 the acid already known, but which has an odor more' closely resem- 

 bling that of butyric acid. It boils at 184-185 at 736 m.m. AVhen 

 normal valerate of calcium is mixed with normal formate of calcium, 

 and the mixture is distilled in small portions at a time, valeric 

 aldehyde is obtained by boiling at 102 C. This aldehyde, by the 

 action of nascent hydrogen, yields the normal amylic alcohol. 

 The alcohol much resembles that obtained by fermentation, but 

 has a higher boiling-point, 137 C. under a pressure of 740 in. m. 

 The authors have prepared from it the chloride, bromide, iodide, 

 and acetate of amyl, all of which possess higher boiling-points 

 than the corresponding ordinary amylic ethers. The constitution 

 of the normal alcohol must be expressed by the formula : 



CH< 



CH 2 



CH 2 ,CH 2 ,CH 2 ,CH 3 , 



H 

 H 



CH2 



CH 2 OH. { 



While common amylic alcohol has probably the formula attributed 

 to it by Erlenmeyer. 



H 3 CCH 3 



V 



CH = C 



CH 2 CH(CH 3 ) 2 . 



H 

 H 



CH 2 

 CH 2 OH t 



Comptes Rcndus, LXXI., 369, in Amer. Jour. Sci. L., p. 416. 

 Transformation of the Fatty Acids into the Corresponding Alcohols. 



Saytzejf. The author announces that he 1ms succeeded in 

 transforming the fatty acids into the corresponding alcohols, by 

 treating a mixture of the acid and the chloride with sodium amal- 

 gam. The amalgam, containing 3 per cent, of sodium, is intro- 



